Diátaxis

Made by Daniel Procida

Foundations

Diátaxis is based on the principle that documentation must serve the needs of its users. Knowing how to do that means understanding what the needs of users are.¹

• Documentation writers are practitioners in the domain of a skill².
• A skill's domain is defined by a craft
  • A craft is the use of a tool or product, or an entire discipline or profession
• Action
  • Practical knowledge, knowing how
• Cognition
  • Theoretical, knowing that
• The relationship of a practitioner with their practice is that it is something that needs to be both acquired, and applied.

need	addressed in	the user	the documentation
learning	tutorials	acquires their craft	informs action
goals	how-to guides	applies their craft	informs action
information	reference	applies their craft	informs cognition
understanding	explanation	acquires their craft	informs cognition

Map of Territory of Craft:

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1. Bhatti, Jared. Docs for Developers: An Engineer’s Field Guide to Technical Writing. Berkeley, CA: Apress L. P, 2021. ↩

2. “Foundations - Diátaxis.” Accessed November 27, 2024. https://www.diataxis.fr/foundations/. ↩