Tech Writer This Week – February 14, 2013 – TechWhirl
TechWhirl’s Weekly Roundup of the best technical communication, content, user experience, and technical writing posts on the web.
Storified by · Wed, Feb 13 2013 17:50:02
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The Valentine’s Day technical communicator has arrived with a armload of tech comm opinion and commentary for hearty (pardon the pun) readers of Tech Writer This Week. First up in Technical Communication, Thomas Purcell (technicalcommunicationcenter.com) discusses the top five attributes of a successful technical writer. Then Amy Hellenga (shoap.com) lists the three basic elements of technical communication. Angel Candelario (angelcandelario1.wordpress.com) interviews Bureeda Bruner, a tech writer with a personal story to tell about perseverance and beating the odds. And Ben Minson (beyond-help.net) wonders if specializing in software documentation closes doors.
In Content Strategy, Val Swisher (contentrules.com) talks about the tornado that global content strategy has become. Lisa Hoover (mindtouch.com) discusses what content strategists can learn from an Oreo cookie. And Darcy Hastings tells us what to expect when you call in a content strategist.
Over in User Experience, we have Anastasios Karafillis (uxmag.com) discussing common difficulties faced by technical writers, and how to overcome them to improve the user experience with manuals. Vitamintalent.com offers a diagram to help explain UX to other designers. And James Torio (uxmag.com) describes cohort analysis and why it’s a valuable UX tool.
In the Career and Life grab bag, Julio Vazquez (sdicorp.com) reminds us why details matter. Kai Weber (kaiweber.wordpress.com) thinks Mark Baker (everypageispageone.com) might have something with his EPPO (Every Page is Page One) strategy. And Shevonne Polastre (chicwriter.com) shares her secrets for making deadlines during tough times, such as while mourning the death of a loved one.
Technical Communication
5 Top Attributes of a Successful Technical Writer | Technical Communication CenterBy Thomas J Purcell Over the years, I have come to believe the following about being a successful technical writer: 1) The ability to dis…
The Three Basic Elements of Technical Communication | Shoap Technical ServicesWhen clients tell me that they can write their own user manuals because, after all, they say, they already know how to write, I’m reminde…
Interview with Bureeda Bruner, a technical writer who beat the oddsInterview by Angel Candelario These days, the main difference between a permanent employee and a contract employee is that the contractor…
Does Specializing in Software Documentation Close Doors or Open Them? | Beyond HelpFor more than seven years, I’ve accumulated my technical writing experience in the software development industry. As a result, I’ve devel…
Content Strategy
The Global Content Strategy Tornado | Content Rules, Inc.The Global Content Strategy Tornado We’ve come to the end of our ten-part series "Ten Golden Rules of Global Content Strategy." In the ti…
What an Oreo can Teach You About Content Strategy | MindTouchThere’s already so much to read about the importance of developing good content strategy that writing another post about it seems like wa…
What to Expect From a Content Strategy Process | BIO Digital MarketingStrategic planning is the corner stone of any major marketing campaign, whether it is launching a new website, interactive Facebook app, …
User Experience
Improving User Experience in Manuals | UX MagazineUser manuals play a crucial role in user experience-not just with the manual itself, but also with the product. Unfortunately, manuals ar…
How to Explain UX to Other Designers : Vitamin TWay back in 2006, Dan Saffer drew a Venn diagram called The Disciplines of User Experience Design for his book Designing for Interaction …
Using Cohort Analysis to Optimize Customer Experience | UX MagazineIn our last article, we explained the importance of creating value stream maps to capture the customer journey and determine which activi…
Career and Life
Details do make a difference > Systems Documentation, Inc. > SDI Blog | Technical Writing & Technical Communication Trends
EPPO redux or: Mark Baker is on to somethingPosted on by Kai "For users, Every Page is Page One," says Mark Baker. Users can land anywhere in your documentation and start consuming …
Making Deadlines During a Tough TimesLosing a loved one is one of the toughest experience that you will endure. When I lost my sister, I stopped functioning for awhile. I cou…
