Screenshots, images, and charts

Some people are visual learners, and others aren’t, or not as much as others. Images are a controversial topic among documentarians, with equal likes and dislikes.

On the positive side, images have the following, they:

• Can explain a concept more simply and succinctly than words
• Give a reader a confirmation that what they see as a result is the expected result
• Help people whose first language isn’t English (or whatever the primary language is) understand what they are reading
• Help show flows, paths, dependencies, or structures that would be complicated with words

On the negative side, images have the following disadvantages, they:

• Are harder than text to keep up to date
• Aren’t as accessible as text unless accompanied by good alt text (which is rare)
• Increase page weight unless optimized, which, again, is rare
• If you use any form of version control for managing your documentation (more...