Keith Soltys recently highlighted Joel Spolsky's thought-provoking post, The Duct Tape Programmer. Joel praises the practical programmer who puts aside snobbish practices and simply goes for the quickest way to finish and ship a product. In his post, Joel sounds a bit like Holden Caulfield from the Catcher in the Rye. He writes, Here is why I like duct tape programmers. Sometimes, you're on a team, and you're busy banging out the code, an...
Smashing Magazine recently posted 10 Useful Usability Guidelines and Findings. The 10 guidelines are as follows: 1. Form Labels Work Best Above The Field 2. Users Focus On Faces 3. Quality Of Design Is An Indicator Of Credibility 4. Most Users Do Not Scroll 5. Blue Is The Best Color For Links 6. The Ideal Search Box Is 27-Characters Wide 7. White Space Improves Comprehension 8. Effective User Testing Doesn't Have To Be Extensive 9. Inform...
If you're thinking about submitting a proposal to present at the next STC Summit in Dallas, Texas, the deadline is October 5. See the proposal site for details. Presenting is a good idea for a number of reasons. Presenting either gives you a discount or free registration to the conference. It gives you something to focus on during the long winter months. And if you're passionate about your topic, you raise the quality of the STC Summit. I...
Rahel Bailie has started a new SIG focused on content strategy. SIGs are special interest groups sponsored by the STC, involving other STC members also interested in sharing about the same topic. Rahel writes, We welcome the participation of any STC members who are engaged in content strategy, want to develop the skills to become a content strategist, or simply want to know more about content strategy. Rahel is trying to bring content str...
The 2008 Salary Database released by the STC this month provides an impressive amount of salary and industry information in easy-to-read, attractive charts and graphics. It's kind of mind blowing how informative and professional this report is. The depth and quantity of location-specific information available is especially useful to job seekers, employees or consultants negotiating salaries, or technical writers looking to relocate. The s...
The lead article in the Sep/Oct 2009 issue of the Intercom is Saul Caroliner's "Addessing Implicit Age Discrimination in Your Job Search Activities." This is a well-written article of special interest to older technical communicators looking for jobs. Some of Saul's advice includes omitting an extra degree or two if you seem to have too many omitting experience that makes you too qualified for the position listing the current software y...
Listen here: Dealing with information overload can be a huge stressor in life. Not only trying to keep up with the constant deluge of information that comes at you daily, but also managing that information in an organized way -- so that you can find and implement it -- can put your sanity in question. In this podcast, I talk with Ricardo Amigo, a translator in Costa Rica, about different ways to manage information overlo...
How to get a job in technical writing 1.0 → Introduction to getting a job in technical writing (TW Job) 1.1 Learn the basics of technical writing (TW Job) 1.2 Get real experience doing technical writing (TW Job) 1.3 Learn some tools (TW...
I listened to a good discussion about writing from a group of Mormon writers on episode 7 of Everything Creative, an LDS sponsored podcast. Some parts of this podcast are a little lame -- I hadn't heard of any of the writers, and parts of it are churchy. But the advice is on target. Here are few notes: The things that get in the way of writing are also what provide substance in your writing. A writer explains how one of her friends moved...
Seven deadly sins of blogging 1.0 → Being fake (Sins of blogging) 1.1 Being irrelevant (Sins of blogging) 1.2 Being boring (Sins of blogging) 1.3 Being unreadable (Sins of blogging) ...
Have you ever told a project manager that the instructions he plans on releasing with an application -- instructions written by an intern who is here for a three-month stint -- are complete junk and that it would be an embarrassment to the organization to give them to users? When you tell a project manager that, surprise, you win yourself a new documentation project. That's all right, because Joomla, the topic of the instructions, is some...
I love it when leaders bare their thoughts in introspective ways on a blog. Hughes has really been grappling with the STC situation and how to handle it. I'm not so interested in possible solutions to the STC problem as I am intrigued by Hughes' use of blogging as a heuristic for thinking. One result is that he gets us on his side, whereas leaders who don't share this same introspective searching don't seem to tap into our support and und...
It seems like everyone is moving to WordPress lately. A few months ago, David Farbey moved his blog to WordPress. Scriptorium recently converted their site and blog to WordPress. One die-hard Movable Type interaction designer at my work is moving to WordPress. And now The Content Wrangler has moved to WordPress. I actually helped Scott transition his site from Expression Engine to WordPress. Converting the site was not necessarily easy, b...
Although many people put blogs and wikis in the same social media category, blogs and wikis are actually quite different. Blogs are individually authored mini-magazines or journals where one author (or sometimes a small authoring group) crank out article after article (or entry after entry) usually with a common theme. After each article is published, the article is considered done and the author moves on to newer pastures, always hunting...
Techcrunch says the New York Times' ethics policy of distance and objectivity contradicts their acceptance of David Pogue as an Apple fan boy. Journalists must maintain more distance and objectivity. This criticism reminds me of the case of Chez Pazienza, a CNN blogger fired for expressing views on his blog that contrasted with CNN's more conservative outlook. This is perhaps a subtle danger of blogging: holding views on your personal blo...
