Tech Writer This Week – February 28, 2013 – TechWhirl
TechWhirl’s Weekly Roundup of the best technical communication, content, user experience, and technical writing posts on the web.
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Happy last day of February, in which we look forward to better weather, and enjoying all the great commentary we can pull together for Tech Writer This Week. We open with Angel Candelario (angelcandelario1.wordpress.com), who shares a quote from Edmond Weiss, who said, “Updating manuals is like [INSERT YOUR GUESS HERE].” Read Angel’s post to find the answer. Elsewhere in Technical Communication, Marcia Weedon (writingassist.com) discusses how to write a good standard operating procedure. Lisa Hoover (mindtouch.com) talks about otherwise wonderful products (including Garmin and TiVo) that are accompanied by muddy and chaotic documentation. And big changes have arrived for Aaron Davis and Scott Nesbitt of DMN Communications (dmncommunications.com), another blog I follow.
Seems as though everyone is curating content now, and this week’s posts are a great mix of Content Strategy and Curation. To help us get started, Alyssa (curationsoft.com) shares five content curation strategies. Colum McAndrew (cmcandrew.com) follows up with a reminder that simplicity is the best strategy. Angus Ewardson (netmagazine.com) wonders if content curation shouldn’t involve something more than simply “getting content from clients?” And Val Swisher (contentrules.com) reminds us that everything should start with remembering the content consumer.
In User Experience, Andrew Wright (nform.com) discusses applying UX when using Agile methodology. The UX Magazine Staff (uxmag.com) wants your thoughts on the best issues that UX Magazine can be used to address. And Rian van der Merwe (uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com) clues us in on how to sell your UX design to clients.
This week in Career and Life, Paul Davidson (usatoday.com) tells us that job hunts have gone mobile, but that employers aren’t following. In a double-shot from TechSupportAlert.com, Vic Laurie discusses “ransomware” and how to deal with it, while Rob Schifreen explains how to check the security of our stored passwords.
Technical Communication
About Updating Manuals"Updating a manual is like changing tires on a moving car" 1 Edmond H. Weiss was born in Philadelphia in 1942. He is the author of six bo…
Well Written SOPs and Continuous Improvement | Writing Assistance, Inc.By Marcia Weeden The well-written SOP provides the baseline against which thoughtful and effective improvements can be planned and implem…
How I Met Your Product Documentation (And Why We Broke Up) | MindTouchOnce upon a time, I was in the market for a special relationship with a product that would change my life. Together, we would rule the wo…
New paths and new horizons | Communications from DMNYou’ve probably noticed that things have been a bit … well, quiet in this space for a while. Almost a year, in fact. It’s hard to belie…
Content Strategy & Content Curation
5 Ways Of Curating Content For Your Website or BlogOne of the hottest topics among marketers these days is content curation. However, it is strange though that only few people understand w…
Keeping things simple can be a good content strategyKeeping things simple can be a good content strategy The mantra for all Technical Communicators is, "Know your audience". Similarly getti…
Perfect your online content | Feature | .net magazineThis article first appeared in issue 233 of .net magazine – the world’s best-selling magazine for web designers and developers. I recentl…
Wherefore the User in Our Content? | Content Rules, Inc.Wherefore the User in Our Content? Rapunzel, Rapunzel let down your golden hair! Rapunzel is a well-known Grimm’s fairy tale that feature…
User Experience
When to apply UX effort in agileOver the past two years, I’ve been the user experience designer on a number of projects with teams that are adopting agile as their chose…
We Need to Talk | UX MagazineAt the beginning of the year, we announced an effort we’ve undertaken to help address the central, unsolved problems central to employmen…
How To Sell Your UX Design Solution To Clients | Smashing UX DesignHow do you convince clients to trust you with their valuable and much-loved product? In my experience, the best way to sell work to clien…
Career and Life
Employers’ old tech hurts hiring as job hunts go mobileHighly valued employees are turning to their phones to hunt for jobs, but employers’ outdated tech is throwing a wrench in the process. A…
What Ransomware is and How to Deal with ItA number of people I know have had their PCs infected with the form of malware that is being called "ransomware". Here is what ransomware…
Check The Security Of Your Stored PasswordsHave you ever stopped to think just how convenient it is that your web browser stores all your passwords for you, to make it quicker for …
