Building on Past Successes for Future Directions

Tom Johnson — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 06:56:39 +0000

The many directions one can go

I have a lot of flexibility and freedom in my job. That’s part of the appeal. The other day I was reflecting on the best route to take, the most fruitful path I should follow.

There are quite a few directions I could go. I could become meticulously detailed about style, knowing the ins and outs of every handbook (and being able to compare them with wit and perspective). I could become a tools guru in skinning online help, branding it with the right look and feel for our department. I could become a content producer, immersing myself in the product to write longer, more comprehensive topics.

Or I could become a SME project leader, organizing the writing efforts of a dozen or more subject matter experts (SMEs). I could become a manager, leading and inspiring my team. I could become a champion for usability, inserting myself into the design process and working towards better interfaces. I could become a content management specialist, managing the content for an entire team. I could become a community leader, or a single source champion, a taxonomist, a metadata specialist, a content strategist, a failing fiction writer, and many other things as well.

After reflecting on directions, I decided to focus on past successes. By successes, I mean those things from which I constantly hear praising feedback from customers. My main successes in tech comm have been with the following:

Quick reference guides
Screencasts

My longer documentation is fine, but no one ever writes in to say how much they enjoyed the user manual. In contrast, quick reference guides win users over every time, and screencasts actually show them how to use the product. People are always submitting feedback about how helpful the video tutorials were.

Outside of work, my two main successes have been as follows:

Blogging
Podcasting

Writing is my core strength, especially the blog format. And podcasts — well, I seem to go in spurts with them. I don’t think I’m a particularly good podcaster — I just happen to be one of the few people recording podcasts in tech comm. Regardless, I love the conversations and connections I make in my podcasts. That professional interaction is rewarding.

Of all the above, I think screencasts hold the most promising future. I plan to move more fully in this direction for several reasons:

I prefer to learn software by video (for example, by watching the videos at lynda.com). Text makes sense for a lot of things, but when people are learning software from ground zero (rather than searching for a specific question), visual learners prefer video more than text.
Videos are something others cannot usually do. Everyone seems to think they can write, but few can actually record a screencast. This ensures that I’m putting effort into a skill that can’t easily be replaced or outsourced.
Video has a lot of room for growth. I can learn so much about audio and video themselves. I want to learn After Effects so that I can better demonstrate concepts. This would be a powerful skill.

My screencasting prowess is only mediocre at best. Eventually I’d like to get good enough to create videos such as the WordPress release videos, or Mailchimp’s tutorials. I think there’s a high demand for people who can create this type of content.

That said, I’m also fascinated by findability, and there’s still so much here I haven’t explored. Even though it’s not my strength, perhaps I’ll add it as a key area of focus.

That’s me: quick reference guides, screencasts, blogging, podcasting, and findability. I guess that narrows it down enough. What’s your specialization?

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photo from Flickr

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Interactive Google Map of Where I Work

Tom Johnson — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 02:21:29 +0000

I recently helped added some map functionality to a blog focused on Bellingham real estate to give users a better sense of the various neighborhood locations in their area. I used the Google XML maps plugin because it seemed to work best, and ever since then I’ve been playing with Google maps.

Mapping technology has come a long way in the last several years. You can now embed a rich Google map directly into your blog or site, draw boundaries on the map, add landmarkers, and so on — all without almost any technical knowledge. Here’s a map of the area I work in downtown Salt Lake City. Click on each of the squares to read a little blurb about that area.

Where I work

I don’t use maps much in my job as a technical writer, but maps are commonly used in just about everything else. Every time you have a meeting (for example, an STC meeting), you can embed a Google map on the website. If you have a garage sale, embed a map to your house. Planning a barbecue? Embed a map to the park or area you’re having it. I biked a long trail this weekend that I’m eager to add to Google maps. I also have a friend who geomaps trails all the time.

Google maps are fun to play with. To create your own boundaries, go to http://maps.google.com, sign in, and click My Maps. Then click Create a New Map and draw the appropriate boundaries with the available tools.

To embed your custom Google map on your blog, install the Google XML maps plugin, configure the settings, and then just add a link to your custom map (on your custom map, click the link button in the upper-right to get the link to the map). The plugin automatically converts the link into an embedded map.

The ease of inline maps with WordPress is quite cool. I can imagine a ton of situations where the map can make it easy for people to understand directions and locations — much more than the antiquated way of providing an address and letting people unfold a giant paper map.

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Building on Past Successes for Future Directions

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Interactive Google Map of Where I Work

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