Recently, at my request, one of my user research colleagues did some usability testing on a webhelp file. He did what’s called a “treejack,” which is a method that asks users to identify the place in a navigation system they would go to find a topic. For example, if you were trying to figure out how to schedule a projector on a calendar (to use … more »

The following is a guest post by Carol Barnum, a professor at Southern Polytechnic State University. My university recently purchased a content management system (CMS) as part of a complete redo of our website, long overdue. A content management system is supposed to simplify the process of managing content on the web. Maybe some CMS systems do, but not the one chosen for my university. … more »

This week was the first time I’ve actually seen our usability labs used. We have a new usability research group led by someone with years of experience doing usability engineering for Microsoft. I watched in our observation room as he led a handful of users through 60-90 minute usability tests for an application I documented. What is surprising about usability testing is how much valid … more »

I recently had a project with a small group of users, maybe 35. I joined the project about a month before the scheduled release. I wasn’t sure what kind of help the app needed, or what format. A wiki? Screencasts? Online help? A short PDF? I talked with the lead customer, and he hadn’t given much thought about help. I talked with the project manager, … more »

Typography for Lawyers provides the basics of typography and general style in an easy-to-read way that would be perfectly suited not only for lawyers, but for anybody whose writing needs a little cleaning up (for example, you could send it to the project manager who keeps putting two spaces after each period). Definitely a handy resource to know about. Hat tip: tc.eserver library.

While I was in Missouri at a technical writing conference for teachers and students last weekend, I had an interesting conversation with a lady who happened to drop by from Canada. She had transitioned from tech comm to usability, and she explained an interesting parallel. I had just presented my “Anyone Can Write: Changing Roles for Technical Communicators” presentation to students, and she commented that … more »

The other day I rose early to conduct some user acceptance testing with a new version of our software. As I was going through the new version of the application with a user, he got excited about a new feature we were implementing, which allowed users to collaborate on items. Noting his excitement, and realizing that the new version of the software wouldn’t be released … more »

Most people take time off during the holidays, so if you don’t, you end up mostly sitting alone at work, wondering why you’re not taking time off too. I wanted to follow Penelope Trunk’s advice about pursuing your pet projects while working during the holidays, but instead I was trying to finish a project with an end-of-year deadline. The project I’m working on is critical, … more »

The fourth sin in my ongoing Seven Deadly Sins of Blogging series (being fake, irrelevant, boring, unreadable, irresponsible, unfindable, and inattentive) is being unreadable. Readability is probably the easiest sin to correct, especially if you’re familiar with your stylesheet. Reading Instincts A while ago I moved The Content Wrangler to WordPress and used a Massive News theme as a starting point. I liked the way the Massive News … more »

Lately I’ve been creating context-sensitive help for an online application. As part of my strategy, I’ve been trying to follow Theresa Putkey’s advice in “Usability in Context-Sensitive Help.” In her article, Theresa recommends providing more than just the steps for a specific task in the context-sensitive help window. Instead, she says to show more contextual links, including answers to why, when, and who questions, because … more »

It seems most of the conversations in our industry today revolve around value. If you go to stc.org, the large graphic at the center of the site says “The Value of Technical Communication.” (Given the recent events in the STC, to me the graphic really reads, “The value of the STC organization.”) At any rate, technical writers have been talking about demonstrating value to employers … more »

Content Theory: Sheep and Chaos — MK Anderson. Keith Anderson writes about the need for technical communicators to focus on user needs and the user experience as their starting point. Does DITA fulfill this focus? Not in the eyes of the user. Users want better search and social networking.

Write Articles, Not Blog Postings (Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox). I saw this link from Ivan Walsh. Jakob Nielsen argues that you should write long, in-depth articles on your blog rather than short posts that mostly link to other blogs. If you publish articles, you provide value to your readers and better establish your brand.

With all the talk about latest trends and avoiding extinction as communicators, and integrating web 2.0 and wikis, blogs, podcasts, and other interactive social media into help, it’s a good time to look at how Google — practically the leader of the web — does help. Last week Google released Google Voice, a service that allows you to integrate all your phones into one number … more »

[Audio clip: view full post to listen] Download MP3 Length: 11 min. In this podcast, Caroline Jarret talks about her new book, Forms that Work: Designing Web Forms for Usability, which she co-authored with Gerry Gaffney. Forms she discusses go beyond merely the type of IRS forms you fill out at tax time. Every website usually has some online form to collect information from users, … more »