Tech Writer This Week for May 3, 2012
TechWhirl’s Weekly Roundup of the best technical communications and technical writing posts on the web.
Storified by · Thu, May 03 2012 09:40:17
This week’s roundup takes us from the art of the question in technical communications, to the strategy in content strategy, design approaches in user experience, to tech writer specifics, and cool tools to check into.
According to Tom Johnson (idratherbewriting.com), asking questions is more important than finding answers. Tom also asserts that “the technical writer’s job is anything but boring.” Find out why. The British entertainment group Monty Python demonstrates the proper way to build bullet lists and Ugur Akinci (technicalcommunicationcenter.com) fills us in on how to use the right-angle bracket (>) in procedural writing. Moving into content strategy, Mashable provides five tips for great content curation, and Randy Kohl asks what *your* content strategy is.
In User Experience, Catalina Naranjo-Bock (uxmag.com) dives into the processes around co-designing with users, and Braden Kowitz (designstaff.org) discusses the advantages story-centered design over screen-centered design.Tech writers discuss error messages and writing for mobile platforms in open LinkedIn threads. We wrap up with Top Five lists of uninstallers, tools for recording audio notes, and desktop tools to help get stuff done.
Technical Communications
Asking questions is more important than finding answers — why? | I …Asking questions is more important than finding answers — why? April 27th, 2012 | Posted in blog No Comments ». This week, as I was rid…
Let Monty Python help you build #techcomm lists correctly « Kai's …2 hours ago … Monty Python offers a most entertaining reminder about the safest way to introduce bullet lists in their sketch The Spa…
How to Use Right Chevron (>) Correctly in Procedural Writing …11 hours ago … Ugur Akinci. RIGHT CHEVRON (>) is used in technical documents to denote a SERIES of SEQUENTIAL ACTIONS.If you;re wr…
Content Strategy
5 Tips for Great Content Curation13 hours ago … If you're a curator looking for some boundaries in what feels like the Wild West, here are five best practices to …
Content Strategy Ain't Just For Large … – Business 2 Community1 day ago … In a recent podcast on OpenView labs, I discussed how content strategy can drive real results for businesses of all sizes…
Content: What's Your Strategy? | Ecommerce Solutions Blog | Gorilla2 days ago … As Content Strategist at Gorilla, I spend a lot of time thinking about … separate what's essential from what's…
User Experience
Creativity-based Research: The Process of Co-Designing with Users | UX MagazineThe practice of allows users to become an active part of the creative development of a product by interacting directly with design and re…
Story-centered design: hacking your brain to think like a userWhen I first started designing interactive products, it was a struggle. Small projects were fine. But when the interactions got more comp…
Tech Talk
What makes a good error message? Are there any industry-standard best practice guidelines available?I review error messages and other UI text that analysts and developers have created for our applications. I would like to improve the qua…
Is writing for mobile the next big thing? My blog: http://lnkd.in/iMDKkGJoin LinkedIn for free to participate in the conversation. When you join, you can comment and post your own discussions. With all the new…
Career and Life
Five uninstallers that really work | TechRepublic22 hours ago … Remove all traces of unwanted programs with the help of these uninstaller tools.
Five handy apps for recording audio notes | TechRepublic2 days ago … Takeaway: Audio notes offer a versatile and convenient alternative to their typed or handwritten counterparts. Here are …
Five Best Distraction-Free Writing Tools for your Desktop …Five Best Distraction-Free Writing Tools for your Desktop. Leave a Comment Posted by Gurpreet Singh on April 24, 2012. As a person who …
