Podcast: What Is the Technical Writer's Role in Interface Design? Interview with Bogo Vatovec
Listen here:
In this podcast, I interview Bogo Vatovec, an expert in change management, user experience, and knowledge engineering, about the technical writer's role in interface design. Specifically, we cover the following in the podcast:
- What the technical writer's role should be in the company
- Why the technical writer's skills are often "accepted but not respected"
- Why a technical writer needs to do more than just what he or she is told
- What the technical writer's role is in relation to design and usability
- The importance of spinning your criticisms of prototypes in positive ways
- How early the technical writer should get involved with a project
- The semantics and implications of names ("technical writer" versus "information designer")
- How the role of an information designer differs from the role of a technical writer
- Why changing the name from "writer" to some other title isn't enough
- Why writing skills are a declining value
- What happens when writers do more
Sponsored
Bogo is a senior member of the STC and a regular presenter at conferences worldwide. For example, at the last STC Summit, Bogo participated in a panel on career trends.
For more information on Bogo Vatovec, see his site at bovacon.com.
About 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, agent skills, tech comm careers, and more. Check out my AI courses for more on the latest in AI and tech comm. If you're looking for info about documenting APIs, see my API documentation course.
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Finally, I want to note a couple of things. I usually write the first drafts of my posts myself and then use AI to improve accuracy, clarity, and detail in places, so my writing is a mix of human and AI. (Hopefully that's not too off-putting.) Also, the opinions I express on my blog are my own perspectives, not those of my employer.