How to organize reviews A reader asks the following: Do you have any advice on how a rapidly-growing documentation team--i.e., a team that's growing roughly in proportion to our company's burgeoning number of engineers and enterprise software products--should go about managing peer reviews of each other's work? I'm specifically interested in best practices on how to give, track, and manage peer review assignments. For example, is it best ...
I gave a presentation at the STC Berkeley chapter last week. It was a lively group, and people had a lot of insightful things to say. Here are a few comments various participants made. I want to highlight these assertions because I hear them so frequently. Videos are too tedious to watch -- I'd rather have the text that I can go right to. Users only go to help to search for a specific answer, so they want a short topic rather than having...
One of the Girl Scout badges we recently worked on was the Bug badge. This was one of the most fun badges because it involved trapping and observing all kinds of insects. We visited Rancho San Antonio park to make our bug exploration. Here are a few pictures. The kids are running like they're avoiding a mudslide or something, but really kids just like to be active outdoors. A great place to look for bugs is a dry riverbed, under the rocks. I...
Do you ever feel like your life is just like the movie Groundhog Day? In Groundhog Day, Bill Murray has the same experiences over and over again each day. No matter what he does, he wakes up and experiences the exact same people, places, and other events on a repeating day. He interacts differently at times, which creates different (and comical) results, but when he goes to bed at night and wakes up in the morning, the same day repeats. I...
Voiceover techniques 1.1 Finding a Conversational Voice in Video Tutorials 1.2 The Problem with Speaking Conversationally in Video Tutorials 1.3 Finding an acoustic environment (Voiceover) 1.4 Sounding natural (Voi...
Have you ever considered that technical writing is much, much simpler than we make it out to be? I think I learned the most important principles in preschool: Tell a story. Draw a picture. Make a conversation. Play a game. Go on a visit. Of course we have grown-up names for these same activities: story = Corporate narrative picture = Visual communication conversation = Vernacular writing style games = Gamification or engagement techni...
I gave a presentation titled "Why users can't find answers in help" to the Silicon Valley STC chapter yesterday. As promised, here's a recording of the presentation: Audio recording Listen here: Presentation slides Here are links to the slides: PowerPoint (pptx) Zipped PowerPoint (zip) I actually use Illustrator to create the slides and then export the images and import them into PowerPoint. If you just want the Ill...
A reader recently asked, Hi Tom, Do you collect user guides, instruction booklets/leaflets, manuals etc that you think are a good example and use them for ideas and inspiration? Would you say this is a good practice to keep up for a professional technical writer? As an aspiring technical writer, I believe it is useful and really helps me with ideas to convey information. User Manuals of electronic tech gadgets: I always keep, even if I n...
I'm giving a presentation to the STC Silicon Valley chapter on October 21 titled "Why Users Can't Find Answers to Their Questions in Help Content." Here are the details: Date and Time Monday, October 21 6:00–7:00pm: social networking 7:00–8:00pm: my presentation Location Harry's Hofbrau 1909 El Camino Real Redwood City, CA 94063 (650) 366-3733 (There's a side room in this restaurant where we can meet.) Cost Free You don't hav...
From my recent survey on why users can't find answers in help, many users voted on the following reason: The answer is buried in a long page, but the user only spends 2 minutes max on a page scanning. (survey results) The page may be 1,500 words long, but the user spends just a few seconds quickly scanning the page and misses the answer. In an earlier post, I talked about using subheadings as a way to overcome the problem of page leng...
Search engine optimization 1.0 → How to Search Engine Optimize (SEO) Your Help Documentation 1.1 Introduction, frames, iframes, and tech comm tools (search engine optimization) 1.2 Single sourcing and duplicate content (search engine optimization) ...
I'm continuing my series of posts addressing why users can't find information in help and what to do about it. The following reason received a high number of votes: The answer is an isolated task, but the user needs a more connected beginning-to-end workflow. This answer has received 66 votes. So far, the highest number of votes any response received is 78. (By the way, if you haven't taken the survey, you can still do so here at the in...
A reader asks, I find your advice extremely helpful, thanks! Where can I get instruction to learn how to do 10-A tech writing deliverables, Is there a guide or open course university to show you how to write online help, how to guides, quick start tutorials or video tutorials? Thanks, It's not often that someone asks for advice for such all-encompassing instruction in tech comm, so I thought I'd take a stab at actually answering it. Exa...
Software Development Times has an interesting article on about APIs: If you believe a recent report from analysis firm Gartner, in just two years, we'll be overrun by citizen developers (normal, untrained computer users) building 25% of new business applications. A major facilitator for these newbies? Some have posited that cloud-based API mash-ups would be so easy to use, toddlers would soon be selling mobile apps. But now, San Francisc...
One traditional stereotype about technical writers is that they work long hours in isolation, almost like a hermit in a lone cell immersed in deeply technical material, trying to make sense of it all by themselves. We know that stereotype is a recipe for failure. Collaborating and sharing information across departments is essential for creating the right content. But exactly how we are to collaborate across departments isn't as well defin...
