Writing Instruction Cheat Sheets - a Form of Responsive Technical Writing?

As a senior Technical Writer managing the documentation suite of an Enterprise Wealth Management Platform, writing and maintaining User Manuals and Quick Reference Guides are my routine chores. Recently I came across a requirement of a different kind- to write Cheat Sheets for training sessions and initial UAT (User Acceptance Training) support. 

The job was a welcome diversion but threw a fair amount of creative challenge to my writing and presentational ability. I felt that this is a deliverable where Technical Writing shakes hand with Instructional Design (though I haven't been into Instructional Design in my career, I can make out what it entails from my general awareness). 

Let me share the challenges that I faced.

• The Cheat Sheets shouldn't be more than three pages each. Otherwise, it will be unable to retain the user's engagement.
• Our software is huge and contain umpteen fields. A multitude of steps are involved so that a task can be accomplished fully. To cut short on the number of words, I had to prune the number of steps and field descriptions to a great extent. It was really difficult to choose the bare minimum steps that will enable a user the accomplish the task in a plain-vanilla manner without any desired add-ons. I had to forego additional explanations too.
• Making the Cheat Sheets look professional and presentable was another challenge. Our existing documents  already look good from the look-and-feel angle; I had to make each cheat sheet look at par.

Here is how I overcame the challenge.

• I removed the header and moved the content up (in MS Word). I crafted a decent banner and placed it at the top. Our corporate logo was aesthetically snuggled beside the banner. This took care of the look-and-feel department to a considerable extent.  
• I decreased the font-size to 10 pts with the intention of accommodating more content per page. 
• The screenshots were cut into strips so that they took less space. Additionally, I kept the number of screenshots lower by dedicating one screenshots to two or three steps. Vector shapes such as boxes and arrows were drawn generously on specific areas of the screenshot to draw users' attention. 
• The content was rephrased multiple times to cut down on verbiage.

The whole project, comprising of a bundle of cheat sheets, is a welcome experience. I enjoyed the creative challenge involved and at the same time witnessed (to my relief) how my writing style can get adaptive to changing requirements. Responsive Web Design is a widely known term in the web design world. Analogically,  I was exposed to Responsive Technical Writing in course of the project.