Time to round out the series on how we can accommodate different learning styles in technical communication. Today’s thoughts are on the tactile, or kinesthetic, style, which involves learning by touching or doing.

I think this is the way I learn best. I learn pretty well if I can see something done, but I learn better if I have a chance to do it myself. Muscle memory plays into this at least partially.

Part of my job has become giving training, and in an instance where the users are local and I can train in person, I gave them time in the sessions to try out the functionality that I had gone over. It went over really well. We used a test environment so that they were not affecting live data.

However, when you don’t have anything to do with live training, how can you give tactile learners a chance?

Provide Tutorials

Clearly, one option, if you’re producing electronic documentation, is to provide practices. This goes a step beyond demos, which is a “sit back and watch” affair, to letting the user take the controls. Because of my preference to learn by doing, I have chosen the option to try the “do it yourself” tutorial option in some modules provided by my organization. The thing I didn’t like was that the tutorials were so tightly controlled that if I didn’t draw a box or click my mouse in exactly the right pixel, it didn’t work. It could get annoying.

On the other hand, don’t we have to tightly control the environment so that the user learns what we intend? Especially when it’s a tutorial about software, not a live production system. We have to keep the tutorial focused so that the user can’t wander off.

Distribute Hard Copies

Perhaps satisfying tactile learners is a good argument for print materials. Tactile learners get along better when they have something in their hands. They can take notes or do other things in the manual, but the main thing is for them to be involved through their hands.

The Most Difficult Converts

Tactile learners may be the hardest people to win over to using documentation. Of the three learning types, this type is the most likely to try to learn by just giving it a shot. They may not see any value in the instructions because they have come to trust their ability to learn by experimenting. But providing documentation that they can get their hands on and that provides tutorials will help them understand the product with a lower possibility of error.

Related entries (auto-generated):

The Auditory Learning Style in Tech Writing

The Visual Learning Style in Tech Writing

Taking a More User-Led Approach to Learning

Captivate Training Simulations Perfect for a Scripted Presentation

Some Notes for You USU Tech Writing Students