Xavier

In this first week of December 2012, Gordon McLean (www.onemanwrites.co.uk) has stopped explaining what Technical Communicators do and has gone into stealth mode. Marcia Johnston (howtowriteeverything.com) asks why organizing information is so hard. In a double-shot from Tom Johnson (idratherbewriting.com), we have a thought-provoking essay about Mark Baker’s memes “Every Page Is Page One” and “Include It All, Filter It Afterward”. Tom also discusses ways that a tech writer can avoid the “congratulations” cliche when writing a user’s guide. And Jack Mathis (soholaunch.com) shares three technical writing tips for people used to writing sales copy.

Wandering into Content Strategy and Curation, we find Jeff Newman (hopemediagroup.com) explaining the content curation craze. Clinton Forry (content-ment.com) relates a whiskey-fueled tale of content strategy. And David Farbey (farbey.co.uk) posits that content strategy is actually an umbrella discipline housing information architects, user experience designers, and technical communicators.

Crossing the road to User Experience, we observe Drew Turney (theage.com.au) expounding on why UX is the new leader of the pack. Matthew Magain (uxmastery.com) gives career advice on becoming a UX generalist or specialist. And Dmitry Fadeyev (usabilitypost.com) tells us, “Just don’t make it annoying” when you’re working on a new UI.

We finish up in Career and Life, where Clare Dodd (badlanguage.net) shares ten writing mistakes that make you look unprofessional. Danielle Villegas (AKA the techcommgeekmom) shares advice on how to clean up your online presence and make a great first impression. And Jesus Diaz (gizmodo.com) says the best Gmail secret is hiding in plain sight.

Technical Communication

Stealth Mode | one man writesI don’t know about you but I’m getting fed up trying to make everyone realise the value of what we do. Technical Communicators of the wor…

Organizing Hard So Information Is Why?How come information is so hard to organize? For admirable answers to this perennial question, see Val Swisher’s and Mark Baker’s recent …

What Does "Every Page Is Page One" and "Include It All, Filter It Afterward" Mean?One of the more memorable presentations I attended at Lavacon in Portland was Mark Baker’s "Include It All, Filter It Afterward" presenta…

Five Ways to Avoid the "Congratulations" Cliche as You Start a User’s GuideIt seems that the manual for almost every product I buy starts off by congratulating me for having purchased the product. I recently boug…

3 Helpful Tips for Better Technical WritingYou’re probably more interested in sales copy rather than technical copy. But sometimes writing instructional content for your site is ne…

Content Strategy & Curation

The Content Curation Craze – What’s It All About?Content curation is all the rage right now and it has quickly become one of those Internet buzzwords. Many of the Web’s top bloggers are …

Content-ment: An Intoxicating Tale of Content StrategyAn effective content strategy bridges the critical gap between online and offline worlds, and the gaps between departments. When a conten…

An umbrella discipline? | David Farbey’s Marginal NotesThis could be the set up for a joke: an information architect, a user experience designer, and a technical communicator sit down together…

User Experience

User experience the new king”Over invest in one thing people really notice,” says Pinterest chief executive Ben Silbermann. Companies are constantly urged to keep …

Should You Become A UX Generalist Or A UX Specialist? | UX MasteryUser Experience (UX) is an umbrella term. But how should you position yourself within that umbrella? Do you consider yourself to be a gen…

Just Don’t Make It Annoying · UsabilityPostI find that whenever I’m designing a user interface, the one safe rule to follow is simply this: just don’t make it annoying. This might …

Career and Life

Ten writing mistakes that make you look unprofessionalIt doesn’t matter what industry you work in, or what your job title is – you probably write copy for customers and colleagues. It can be …

How to Clean Up Your Online Presence and Make a Great First ImpressionSee on Scoop.it – M-learning, E-Learning, and Technical Communications Odds are someone is searching the web for you right now, or at lea…

The Best Secret Gmail Feature Is Hiding In Plain SightThere’s a Google Mail feature you have to use. Seriously. You must. Because copying an entire chain of messages after your reply doesn’t …