I don't usually watch soccer, but I do get drawn into the World Cup. And this year, I'm finding that there are a surprising number of similarities between the World Cup and technical writing. Yes!!! So let's get started with the top 10 ways that technical writing is just like the soccer at the World Cup.
The following is a guest post from Una Cogavin, a certified MadCap Advanced Developer and Flare consultant. In this post, Cogavin reviews Flare 2018 and Central and explains the features she finds most useful in these tools.
This week I chatted with Bob Watson, an assistant professor of tech comm at Mercer University, about how to evaluate the user experience of documentation. The idea of doing a podcast came up during a comment thread on a previous post about reconstructing the absent user. We had a long exchange in the comment threads and thought it would be good to have a podcast about the topic.
I updated and reworked the topics in the Non-Reference Content section in my API doc course. This section includes the following topics: API overview, Getting started, Authentication and authorization, Status and error codes, Rate limiting and thresholds, Code samples and tutorials, SDKs and sample apps, Quick reference guides, API best practices, and Glossary. These sections are important in API documentation but tend to be overlooked as most discussions around API documentation focus on endpoint documentation only.
I added another article in my Simplifying Complexity series. This one is called Hiding complexity through JavaScript show/hide elements. The basic principle is to look for ways to reduce complexity by hiding less-used information on the screen through JavaScript techniques, such as show/hide elements, expand/collapse toggles, and more.
I have a new article in my series on Simplifying Complexity. This article talks about why reconstructing the absent users is essential to creating good documentation.
I finally realized why I write so much: because not writing tends to be deflating.
Stoplight provides a platform with visual modeling tools to create an OpenAPI document for your API -- without requiring you to know the OpenAPI spec details or code the spec line by line. This API specification document can act as a single source of truth that empowers the whole API lifecycle, from UX prototyping to testing, development, documentation, sales, and more.
You might have noticed a new search box on my site. My new search integrates Algolia's search service, replacing the Google Custom Search Engine I previously had. While Google Custom Search Engine was good, it draws people away from my site and more into the general web. There are tradeoffs to both Google Custom Search and Algolia.
I updated the sample weather API in my API course to use a more robust and stable weather API from OpenWeatherMap. Any time you incorporate free or open-source projects, you run the risk that the code won't be supported in the long term.
To find high-paying jobs in tech comm, many technical writers move to urban technology hubs because companies want their workers on site. Living in an urban tech hub usually involves high costs of living and the sacrifice of a more rural, suburban lifestyle. It's unclear why the digital revolution doesn't motivate more companies to welcome remote workers.
Most of my readers are technical writers, so I rarely post about basketball. But given the current NBA playoffs, I'd like to briefly explain my latest pickup basketball strategy and how it can help you win not only on the court, but on documentation projects too.
In case you haven't been following previous posts, I have a microsite called Simplifying Complexity where I'm exploring various approaches for making complex information more usable and consumable. This microsite contains longer, more in-depth articles following a specific theme. My latest addition to the site is a new article called 'Reducing complexity by shaping information into familiar schemas, especially story'.
In this guest post, Jayna Locke explains what brought her to the MadWorld Conference the first time and what keeps her returning. She describes the main reasons for attending, tips for getting the most out of the conference, best practices, and more. The MadWorld Conference takes place June 3-6, 2018 in San Diego, California.
I published a new article on Simplifying Complexity called Reduction, layering, and distillation as a strategy for simplicity. It's all about how reduction and distillation of information helps reduce complexity for users.
