2011 archives
What I Learned About Tech Comm During 2011 | Dec 28, 2011
The Urge to Correct: Frustrations with Language Translation and Misuse | Dec 27, 2011
Using Tags to Increase Findability | Dec 26, 2011
What Tools Do Technical Writers Use | Dec 19, 2011
Kanban and Limiting the Scope of Work | Dec 18, 2011
Matrix Foretells Future of Learning | Dec 15, 2011
What I Like About Grandpa | Dec 14, 2011
Grandpa Reading Runaway Bunny | Dec 14, 2011
Buffalo on Antelope Island | Dec 14, 2011
Hanging Out at Home | Dec 14, 2011
Sitting Around at Home | Dec 14, 2011
Kids Singing | Dec 14, 2011
Misleading Documentation Metrics | Dec 14, 2011
Writing My Last Chapter | Dec 13, 2011
Counting Calories | Dec 11, 2011
How Avery Got Earrings | Dec 11, 2011
Grandma Nana Comes to Visit | Dec 11, 2011
We Moved Downstairs | Dec 11, 2011
King Size Bed Fits Four | Dec 11, 2011
Some Thoughts on Technical Writing in the Cloud | Dec 9, 2011
Slides from STC Webinar on Organizing Content (Findability) | Dec 5, 2011
My STC Webinar on Organizing Content -- This Thursday at 4pm EST | Nov 30, 2011
Regret Over a Missed Career in Astronomy | Nov 27, 2011
Discovering Antelope Island | Nov 27, 2011
Reading Mistborn | Nov 27, 2011
Cooking Tamales | Nov 27, 2011
Wiki Culture, Reader/Writer Distinctions, and Divergence from Structured Authoring | Nov 19, 2011
Should Technical Writing Be Taught in High School? (Collaborative Post) | Nov 19, 2011
Why I Returned to Wikis for Help Authoring | Nov 14, 2011
Messages from My Tech Comm Sponsors -- November 2011 | Nov 11, 2011
Survey about Technical Writers and Blogging Activities | Nov 11, 2011
Senior Technical Writer Job Opening at the LDS Church | Nov 8, 2011
Moving Towards the "Dark Side": From Technical Writing to Content Marketing | Nov 7, 2011
Managing 60 + Volunteer Writers | Nov 6, 2011
Using Treejack as a Method for Evaluating Your Help's Navigation | Nov 2, 2011
The Importance of a Personal Face -- On Halloween | Nov 1, 2011
Blog Versus Web Log: Back to Origins | Oct 31, 2011
Adding Captions to Youtube Videos | Oct 24, 2011
Building Trust in a Corporate Blog | Oct 21, 2011
The Conference Proposal I Didn't Submit | Oct 19, 2011
Customizing the "No Results Found" Page with Helpful Wayfinding Tips | Oct 17, 2011
Appearing on The Forge Show from TechSmith Today at 2pm EST | Oct 13, 2011
Visual Storytelling Guides: A New Deliverable in Technical Communication? | Oct 12, 2011
Visually Appealing Documents Combine Text with Images | Oct 10, 2011
Why Rubrics Fail as a Means of Measuring Documentation Quality | Oct 5, 2011
What I've Learned from Lunchtime Creative Writing Workshops | Sep 30, 2011
How I Took Back My E-mail Inbox | Sep 29, 2011
Recordings of Fathers Blessings | Sep 27, 2011
The Proximity Problem for Technical Writers | Sep 23, 2011
Book Review: The Hunger Games, and a Possible Parallel for Technical Writers | Sep 21, 2011
Should You Get a Graduate Degree in Technical Writing? | Sep 19, 2011
Collaborative Post: Why Is the "Technical" More Important Than the "Writing" | Sep 18, 2011
What Does It Mean to Know How to Write? | Sep 9, 2011
My Review of the New Testament | Sep 8, 2011
Three Solutions to the Corporate Blogging Paradox | Sep 2, 2011
Book Review: The Lonely Polygamist, by Brady Udall | Aug 31, 2011
Interview with Kevin Cuddihy, Editor of the STC Notebook Blog | Aug 23, 2011
Stewart Falls: One Last Outing Before Summer Ends | Aug 21, 2011
How Swimming Has Changed | Aug 19, 2011
Blown Away by Author-it Aspect | Aug 18, 2011
Storm Returns Home | Aug 18, 2011
The Big Hill | Aug 17, 2011
Book Review: A Practical Guide to Designing with Data, by Brian Suda | Aug 16, 2011
Windy Night and a Stray Cat | Aug 14, 2011
Messages from Sponsors -- August 2011 | Aug 12, 2011
My Problem with Fiction, and How I Tried to Resolve It | Aug 11, 2011
Sidewalk Chalk at Thanksgiving Point Gardens | Aug 9, 2011
Familiarity Affects Preferences for Text or Video | Aug 8, 2011
Guest Post: CMS UX Woes. It Shouldn't Be This Hard. | Aug 4, 2011
Book Review: Developing User Assistance for Mobile Apps, by Joe Welinske | Aug 2, 2011
Swimming at the Lehi Legacy Center | Jul 31, 2011
Thanksgiving Point Gardens Outing | Jul 26, 2011
Thinking More About Family | Jul 25, 2011
Our Spring View Farms Trail Adventure | Jul 24, 2011
Up and Down Directions | Jul 24, 2011
A Few Notes from Usability Testing: Video Tutorials Get Watched, Text Gets Skipped | Jul 22, 2011
Google Plus as a Professional Communication Tool | Jul 18, 2011
Collaborative Post: Giving Guidance to a Masters Student about Technical Writing Careers | Jul 14, 2011
Building on Past Successes for Future Directions | Jul 13, 2011
Groupon's Copywriting Style | Jul 10, 2011
On Content Strategy and Identity | Jul 1, 2011
"One Day I'm Going to Figure Out the Solution to Help..." | Jun 28, 2011
I want to be a spy .... | Jun 26, 2011
The Most Important Stories ... Aren't the Ones I'm Writing | Jun 25, 2011
The Value of Content | Jun 24, 2011
On Prayer | Jun 22, 2011
Why Is Corporate Blogging So Hard? | Jun 21, 2011
On telling real stories | Jun 21, 2011
Presentations Versus Conversations | Jun 17, 2011
Technical Writing in China | Jun 15, 2011
MindTouch Webinar — Organizing Help Content: The Problem of Findability | Jun 9, 2011
Diverging Directions for Tech Comm: Social Media or Structured Authoring | Jun 9, 2011
Does Translation Mean You Should Omit Illustrations? | Jun 7, 2011
Message from Sponsors -- June 3, 2011 | Jun 3, 2011
Join the LDSTech Blog Project and Write Articles for Your Portfolio | Jun 2, 2011
Making Up Stories | May 30, 2011
The Moment | May 30, 2011
Where Topic-Based Authoring Fails: End-to-End Scenarios | May 25, 2011
What Does It Mean to Be Innovative? | May 24, 2011
Moving from Google Reader to Twitter Hashtags | May 21, 2011
Podcast: Organizing Help Content: Breaking Out of Topic-based Hierarchies | May 18, 2011
Every Page Is Page One | May 16, 2011
WordPress Workshop Outline for the STC Summit | May 15, 2011
Examples of Help Systems that Provide Users with Multiple Entry Points? | May 13, 2011
Will We Still Know Us, Tomorrow? | May 10, 2011
Mooer's Law and Findability | May 9, 2011
Avoiding Burnout as a Technical Writer [Collaborative Post] | May 6, 2011
Messages from Sponsors -- May 4, 2011 | May 4, 2011
Collaborative Posts Q&A | May 4, 2011
A Paradox of Navigation Metaphors for the Web | May 2, 2011
The Butterfly Paths | May 2, 2011
Saratoga Hot Springs | May 1, 2011
Content Strategy for Content Agility | Apr 30, 2011
Predicting Tech Comm's Future for Mobile | Apr 29, 2011
Cedar Fort cemetery | Apr 28, 2011
Introducing Technical Writing World, a New Social Network for Technical Writers | Apr 28, 2011
Topic Chunking and The Broken Alarm Clock | Apr 27, 2011
The Importance of Chunking for Sorting | Apr 18, 2011
Guest Post: To each their own | Apr 16, 2011
Book Review: Everything is Miscellaneous, by David Weinberger | Apr 15, 2011
Book Review: Letting Go of the Words, by Ginny Redish | Apr 8, 2011
Getting Others to Work for You -- The First Step Toward Scalability | Apr 7, 2011
Messages from My Sponsors -- April 6, 2011 | Apr 6, 2011
Podcast: Content Strategy and Agility, with Noz Urbina | Apr 5, 2011
How to Become a Content Strategist [Collaborative Post] | Apr 1, 2011
Book Review: Elements of Content Strategy, by Erin Kissane | Mar 29, 2011
Book Review: Search Patterns, by Peter Morville and Jeffrey Callender | Mar 28, 2011
New Content Strategy Podcast and Other Good Resources | Mar 25, 2011
Seven Methods of Classification in a Hymnbook | Mar 24, 2011
Organizing Help Content: Breaking Out of Topic-Based Hierarchies | Mar 21, 2011
Podcast: A Practical Guide to Information Architecture, with Donna Spencer | Mar 18, 2011
Arguments for and Against Tripane Help | Mar 17, 2011
Podcast -- Visual Composing: Document Design for Print and Digital Media, with Jo Mackiewicz | Mar 14, 2011
The Real Source of Findability | Mar 10, 2011
Update on the Search for Enterprise Authoring | Mar 8, 2011
Podcast with Alan Houser -- Candidate for STC Vice President | Mar 7, 2011
Podcast with Victoria Koster-Lenhardt -- Candidate for STC Vice President | Mar 7, 2011
Lots of Conferences Taking Place | Mar 4, 2011
Trends in Search Engine Optimization -- Shifting from Search to Social? | Feb 28, 2011
Post-Publishing Word Count Can Be Three Times as Long | Feb 25, 2011
I am perhaps finishing my basement, someday | Feb 23, 2011
WordPress Tips: Alternatives to Akismet, Design Software, and Dummy Content | Feb 22, 2011
The Enterprise Help Authoring Problem | Feb 16, 2011
"Powerful as a consumer, lame as an employee" | Feb 15, 2011
Formalizing My Help Strategy | Feb 8, 2011
The Problem of Free and the Long Tail of Content Production | Feb 7, 2011
From DITA to VITA: Tracing Origins and Projecting the Future | Feb 2, 2011
Making Help Content Enjoyable to Read -- Impossible Quest? | Jan 25, 2011
Free Ticket to Intelligent Content 2011 Conference | Jan 24, 2011
Less Text, Please: Contemporary Reading Behaviors and Short Formats | Jan 21, 2011
Minimalistic Callouts Heighten Visual Appeal | Jan 17, 2011
WordPress Tip: Add a Calendar to Your WordPress Site | Jan 14, 2011
Findability and The Information Paradox | Jan 12, 2011
*Don't know how you do it all*: Some Thoughts on Productivity | Jan 11, 2011
Structured Authoring Survey from Scriptorium | Jan 10, 2011
Are Certificate Programs Helpful for Transitioning into Technical Writing? [Collaborative Post] | Jan 6, 2011
My Review of the Old Testament (really) | Jan 5, 2011
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, 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.
If you're a technical writer and want to keep on top of the latest trends in the tech comm, 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.