Using AI to design landing pages (prompt engineering series)

We constantly hear that AI will free us up to work on more complex, strategic tasks. One of those tasks is building a landing page for docs. Why is this task difficult? Landing pages require familiarity with the entire doc set, not just one part of it. You have to make decisions about message priority and information hierarchy. You'll need to identify the product story and main features. Most significantly, you'll need familiarity with visual style guides, including approved colors, styles, graphic assets, and tools. In this tutorial, I'll try to break down some strategies and techniques for approaching landing pages. We'll use AI, but not with quick one-and-done prompts. Read more »

Why designing landing pages is hard

We frequently hear about AI freeing up bandwidth so we can focus on more complex, strategic tasks. For me, one of those tasks has been to work on a landing page for one of our products. It's something I've been meaning to get to for months. I'm not sure why I don't naturally gravitate toward designing landing pages. If you already have comprehensive documentation, creating the landing page should be simple: gather section overviews and arrange them logically in an appealing layout. Still, landing pages can be challenging, not just in designing the content and flow, but in tackling the visual and graphical elements of the page. This post includes my rambling thoughts on landing pages and why they're challenging for technical writers. Read more »

Unpacking the issues from AI — thoughts on Alan Porter's post Am I the AI Luddite? and Fabrizio Benedetti's How I'm using AI as a technical writer

As Lavacon wrapped up last week, I've seen a few posts from attendees sharing their thoughts, including Alan Porter's Am I the AI Luddite? and Fabrizio Benedetti's How I'm using AI as a technical writer. Alan's post echoed some other sentiments I've heard from others in the industry expressing ambivalence about using AI. In fact, many of my colleagues share this ambivalence, unsure which scenarios warrant AI's use or whether it truly helps. Having been an AI proponent for more than a year now, I remain as convinced as ever about AI's usefulness in tech comm. But let me concede a few things. Read more »

To establish value, focus more on high priority projects: Reading Michael Lynch's post on why he quit Google to work for himself

Although this post by Michael Lynch titled Why I Quit Google to Work for Myself was published in 2018, it trended on Hacker News last week. It caught my attention because I recently underwent a similar promotion process, though with a positive outcome. Lynch, an engineer, highlights a couple of points relevant to technical writers: writing documentation doesn't support an engineer's demonstration of technical complexity, and the projects you work on might matter more than the quality of your output. Read more »

Sadik-Khan's Streetfight: Handbook for an Urban Revolution, plus a visual account of Seattle's downtown biking and pedestrian infrastructure

Janette Sadik-Khan served as the Transportation Commissioner in New York City under Mayor Michael Bloomberg from 2007 to 2013. During this time, she undertook one of the largest attempts to incorporate pedestrian- and bicyclist-centric changes to the city's roads and transportation system, rather than maintaining a car-dominant approach. Her book, Streetfight: Handbook for an Urban Revolution, authored by both Sadik-Khan and Seth Solomonow, recounts their strategies, attempts, and outcomes across many different projects and initiatives. Read more »

From engineer interviews to written draft, with chain of thought reasoning

In this prompt engineering series, I've often focused on a specific technique one at a time, but in this tutorial, I'll show how multiple techniques can work together successfully. Techniques such as the following: the interview and transcript as a way to gather information, proceeding through chain of thought reasoning steps, switching between editorial and writer hats, and more. Read more »

New API course on mastering documentation by Mark Wentowski on Docsgeek

Mark Wentowski has a six-week course on 'Mastering API documentation' that blends theory and practice, includes tools and workflows, hands-on assignments, projects, and more. You can learn more about it here: Mastering API documentation. Read more »

Symposium on Usability and Design in France in April 2025

The University of Strasbourg, in collaboration with Louisiana Tech University, is holding a Symposium on Usability and Design in France April 24-25, 2025. The focus is on 'Addressing Access and Accessibility Through Usability and Design: Ideas and Approaches for Web Communication, Technical Communication and Localization.' Read more »