---
title: "Rethinking the Importance of Screenshots, Diagrams, and Other Visuals"
date: 2007-08-10
description: "$( document ).ready(function() { // Handler for .ready() called. $("
canonical_url: https://idratherbewriting.com/2007/08/10/rethinking-the-importance-of-screenshots/
---
# Rethinking the Importance of Screenshots, Diagrams, and Other Visuals
However, after watching user behavior, I have changed my mind. I now think screenshots are important to include even when interface elements aren't necessarily hidden. I'm not saying each step needs a screenshot, but we should be more generous than stingy with screenshots, graphics, diagrams, and other visual elements.

Kim Nathans left a really persuasive comment on a [previous post](https://idratherbewriting.com/2007/01/27/10-pet-peeves-of-technical-writing/#comment-38500). She writes,

I thought I was doing great with my screen shots, only providing them when their use would save me several dozen words. My boss was happy that we could cut down on maintenance costs because the screen shots are so quickly outdated by the addition of new features.

But then I got my first actual feedback from a new employee (Director of Development) and he was disappointed that I didn't include a pictorial storyboard of the process flow. It turns out that he didn't so much read any of my documentation as just glance at it. I started thinking about how many of the consumers of this documentation will be like him, and was depressed to realize that there will probably be a lot more like him than like me (a compulsive reader who will read every word in front of her face).

I've been googling (too much today) and have found that there are two sides to the “Screen Shot or Not” issue.

Tech writers (and their bosses) think that less is more.

Users think that more is more.