Year in Review -- "You" Chosen as Most Important Person
In one of the more interesting articles that Scott Abel has written this year, he gives his year in review.
Here's an excerpt:
Throughout 2006, nothing was more evident than the increasing acknowledgement of the user as the focal point of all we do. Even Time Magazine made the user - more specifically, YOU - its Person of the Year for 2006. Sure, we've always touted the user as key -- know thy audience is the first rule of any technical communication program - but until this year in particular, we were never really challenged to practice what we preached. We could skip steps like usability testing, persona development, and content modeling (who would notice?) in order to make a tight deadline. We'd rationalize our reality by saying, "We'll do our best to make sure the next version is better," provided we were given the information, tools, and time we needed to do better. Fat chance.
Isn't it interesting that Time chose the user as the person of the year?
About Tom Johnson
I'm a technical writer / API doc specialist based in the Seattle area. In this blog, I write about topics related to technical writing and communication — such as software documentation, API documentation, visual communication, information architecture, writing techniques, plain language, tech comm careers, and more. Check out my API documentation if you're looking for more info about that. If you're a technical writer and want to keep on top of the latest trends in the field, be sure to subscribe to email updates below. You can also learn more about me or contact me. Finally, note that the opinions I express on my blog are my own points of view, not that of my employer.