Tech Writer Today Magazine - TechWhirl
Technical writing and technical communications news, articles and resources for technical writers and technical communicators.
Articles covering technical communications strategy.
A highly regarded content development consultant, Joe Gollner, the Content Philosopher, uses his wide-ranging experience and interests to inform his insight into the current challenges and future opportunities presented to technical communications by the content revolution. TechWhirl met with Joe during LavaCon 2011 to discuss the role of technical communications in enterprise content strategy. Read more of this technical writing article »
Technical writers should provide as much documentation as is required for a user to use a product to its fullest potential; and that documentation should be delivered in way that is usable and easily accessible to the user. This seems pretty straightforward, but why is it that so many companies still fail to do this; still fail to take their documentation seriously; still fail to adequately resource technical writing staff? Read more of this technical writing article »
Corey Ganser is enthusiastic about how customer support should be and how his company, MindTouch excels at providing exceptional help service products to popular companies such as HP, PayPal, Toyota, Mozilla, Autodesk, even Microsoft. At LavaCon, Corey shared his insights on how technical communicators must demonstrate to managers that they are a strategic component and valuable asset to the company: in marketing, revenue, documentation, and technical support. Read more of this technical writing article »
Jacquie Samuels sat down with Andrea Ames of IBM for a serious chat about content strategy at Lavacon 2011. Andrea has been in the DITA/content strategy trenches for longer than most of us have known what XML means and if I sound impressed at any point, it’s because I am. She’s not only had the time to think things through but has also implemented some fantastic solutions that most of us would consider something that can’t yet be done. Read more of this technical writing article »
The terminology underpinnings of your content strategy are often a much bigger undertaking and are infinitely vital to your company’s budget and brand. If you’re using the same terms in the same way throughout the user’s experience of content, then you’re maintaining a good relationship with them. If you don’t use the same terms, if you switch words and phrases, users are going to be confused first, and then simply not be able to find content. Read more of this technical writing article »
The key to a great content strategy is to figure out goals first, then develop strategy and tactics. Figure out business goals first. This means identifying the very high level business reasons behind the content, which could include increasing product visibility, avoiding legal exposure, reducing volume of support calls, meeting regulatory requirements, or building the user community and thus loyalty. Read more of this technical writing article »