---
title: "Organizing for Learnability [Organizing Content #25]"
date: 2010-09-01
description: "Findability / organizing content   1.0 New Series: Organizing Content [Organizing Content 1]   1.2 Introducing Project..."
canonical_url: https://idratherbewriting.com/2010/09/01/organizing-for-learnability-organizing-content-25/
---
# Organizing for Learnability [Organizing Content #25]
At first glance, learn.wordpress.com looks plain and somewhat un-instructive, put together by someone who is straining for offbeat graphics and simplicity.

![Learn.wordpress.com: The new online quick start guide for WordPress](https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/idbwmedia.com/images/learnwordpress.png)

However, if you read the content, the site accomplishes two things that a lot of help material fails to do:

- The help proceeds in a sequential, screen-by-screen way, rather than overwhelming the user with too much content at once. This helps lead the reader along in a staircase-like fashion rather than requiring the user to scale a steep wall all at once.

- The help combines strategy with technical procedures. For example, the entire second step, [Get Focused](http://learn.wordpress.com/get-focused/), discusses strategy rather than technical how-to steps. We often forget to incorporate strategy in our help material, getting lost in the 1-2-3 of the steps. But really, figuring out your blog's focus is probably the single most difficult aspect of starting a successful blog.

My happiness engineer also said that someone at WordPress is writing handbooks about various WordPress topics. I assume the content on learn.wordpress.com would fit well into a handbook format.

Both of these principles address how to organize content, which is part of my ongoing series.

### Screen-by-Screen Tutorial Organization

A [University of Wisconsin guideline on web development](https://academictech.doit.wisc.edu/ORFI/wds/Modules/organizing.htm) classifies sites that provide tutorials as "training sites" and recommends a screen-by-screen chunking of the information:

> Training sites are meant to guide a user through some sort of process. The user experience is carefully controlled through a series of linear links. Due to the linear organization, which requires a user to digest information in a steady stream, information is brief on each page. Links to other pages and sites are limited and only used to supplement the material being presented. Training sites follow a: step1 - step 2 - step 3, structure.
> [![Training sites have this screen-by-screen structure](https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/idbwmedia.com/images/training.gif)](https://academictech.doit.wisc.edu/ORFI/wds/Modules/organizing.htm) Training sites have this screen-by-screen structure

The author gives two examples: [PowerPoint in the Classroom](http://www.actden.com/pp/) and [HTML Code Tutorial](http://www.htmlcodetutorial.com/).

Not all tutorial sites chunk information up into small bites on each screen. A few years ago I tried to write a quick reference guide to WordPress and ended up sticking it all in [one long view on the same wiki page.](http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Quick_Start_Guide) Arranging all the information on one page is not an appealing format. Its length is uninviting, and there are no visuals to break up the endless text readers have to scroll through.

I'm not the only one guilty of creating tutorials that require users to scroll and scroll and scroll. Here's one on [jQuery from Authentic Society](http://www.authenticsociety.com/blog/jQueryPluginTutorial_Beginner). And here's a [tutorial on WordPress from Webmonkey](http://www.webmonkey.com/2010/02/get_started_with_wordpress/).

In comparing the screen-by-screen organization versus the all-in-one-screen organization, which do you prefer? Here are my observations:

- The screen-by-screen organization is less intimidating. I'm able to consume it one bite at a time.

- The screen-by-screen organization includes its own navigation structure, usually a table of contents in a sidebar along with navigation arrows at the end of each screen. This navigation structure is usually separate from the overall site's navigation.

- The screen-by-screen organization prompts me to move one step at a time, rather than scrolling quickly past paragraphs and paragraphs of content.