Detailsdifferent

Detailsdifferent is an informal term used to describe a measure of how the level of detail differs between two descriptions, representations, or data items. It captures the extent to which one item conveys more, fewer, or different kinds of detail compared with another. The concept is used in fields such as technical writing, information design, and natural language processing to assess granularity and comparability without requiring semantic alignment.

Measurement methods vary. A common approach treats each item as a vector of detail features (for example, steps, qualifiers, examples, or specifications) and computes a distance or divergence between vectors. Techniques include weighted Jaccard similarity, cosine similarity of feature vectors, or information-theoretic measures such as KL divergence on detail distributions. The resulting detailsdifferent score aims to reflect the practical impact of detail variation on understanding or use.

Applications include monitoring revisions of manuals or product specifications to ensure critical steps and constraints are preserved; evaluating consumer-facing texts for consistent depth of guidance; and comparing annotated datasets where differences in labeling detail can affect model training. In user experience research, detailsdifferent can help quantify changes in documentation depth across versions or locales.

Origin and usage: the term is not widely standardized and may appear in niche discussions or early-stage research. Variants include details-different or detail-difference, and definitions may differ by domain.

See also granularity, level of detail, detail density, information density, text comparison.