---
title: "Why Usability is Praised and Tech Comm is Ignored"
date: 2010-04-26
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# Why Usability is Praised and Tech Comm is Ignored

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 many have the same assumption about usability: anyone can do usability. However, whereas tech comm is generally under-appreciated or ignored, usability is on a higher level of appreciation. Why the difference?

Here's what my friend explained: project members *see* the usability deliverables, but they don't see the tech comm deliverables. When the usability experts create wireframes or prototypes, the whole team meticulously reviews the designs. But when a technical communicator creates a 200 page user manual, a smooth-looking online help, some video tutorials and other deliverables, almost no one sees them except the person assigned to review them. As a result, people see and appreciate the usability specialist / interaction designer's work, but they continue to undervalue the technical communicator's work.