Should you ever lie or bend the truth in user documentation?

An interesting thread on Twitter from Scott Berkun:

I'm increasingly fascinated by this idea. Has anyone seen a designer or organization do something like this? https://t.co/68fgmUaMyG

— Scott Berkun (@berkun) October 3, 2019

There are Technical Authors who write “start here”, where there could be more than one place to do it. This is for good reasons – to avoid overchoice, and to give users the fastest path to the solution.

Topics chosen for tutorials can be focused on something that provides a reward quickly. For example: getting a “Hello World” response from an application or API. That approach can encourage users to spend more time with the product.

And the signs on the tube sometimes lie for good reasons:

Although, the newer tube maps actually address the “walking is faster” issue:

Apart from that – no, it’s best to be honest and tell the truth.