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A Few Conversations at Doc Train — User Personas, Data Conversion, and Simplified Technical English

by Tom Johnson on May 1, 2007
categories: podcasts

Listen here:

While I was at Doc Train, I recorded a few brief podcasts with several people. Unfortunately I had some microphone issues so the sound quality isn't good. But you can still hear them. I talked with experts on user personas, data conversion, and simplified technical English.

I talked with Joan LaSalle of Lasselle-Ramsay about user personas, ethnographies, and user-centered design.

I also talked with Don Bridges of Data Conversion Laboratory, about how he converts large amounts of data into XML and other formats.

Download Bridges MP3 (6 min.)

I also talked with Berry Braster of TedoPres about controlled English and the importance of simplicity and clarity.

Download Braster MP3 (7 min.)

You may have to point your ears to make out all the voices in these recordings, particularly in the last one, where staff was actually taking down our conference room. All of these people were super interesting, and I will have to do a full-length podcast with them at some future time. This was also my first attempt to record people live at a conference. It's quite fun to do this, but I might need to invest in an expensive Edirol recorder to get the sound quality I want.

About Tom Johnson

Tom Johnson

I'm an API technical writer based in the Seattle area. On this blog, I write about topics related to technical writing and communication — such as software documentation, API documentation, AI, information architecture, content strategy, writing processes, plain language, tech comm careers, and more. Check out my API documentation course if you're looking for more info about documenting APIs. Or see my posts on AI and AI course section for more on the latest in AI and tech comm.

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