Every so often I let my blog sponsors post a message to my readers. Below are brief messages from ScreenSteps, Adobe, 3vdia, Congility, Madcap Software, and MindTouch. Read this as if you were browsing a hall of interesting vendors during a tech comm conference. ScreenSteps Desktop - Clearer Documentation in Less Time ScreenSteps Desktop is the simplest and fastest way to create clearer software documentation in less time. By integrati...
Download MP3 Length: 40 min. I recently spoke with Noz Urbina, consultant from Mekon Ltd, about his upcoming conference, Congility, and about content strategy. Based in Valencia, Spain, Noz is one of the industry's thought leaders on XML, DITA, component content management, and content strategy. This year he and Mekon are running a conference called Congility (formerly X-Pubs), held in Gatwick UK, May 25-26. Noz says that Congility is a...
I received the following question from a reader. If you would like to respond, please add your response in the comments below. I'm a college senior graduating this May with my degree in Technical Communication. Do you have any tips for an aspiring content strategist? What skills or knowledge set would I need to have to pursue a career in content strategy? I know that as technical communicators, we already possess a lot of the soft skill...
The Elements of Content Strategy (A Book Apart, 2011), by Erin Kissane, provides the most brief yet thorough treatment of content strategy that you're going to find. In about 75 pages, she lays out the principles of content strategy, traces its origins, and then outlines her methodology for doing content strategy. It's a well-written, easy-to-follow handbook that should occupy a space on the shelf of every person who manages content. The ...
Search Patterns: Design for Discovery (2010, O’Reilly), by Peter Morville and Jeffrey Callender, explores search in depth, from every possible angle. Search Patterns is a must-read for anyone interested in search and findability. It should be particularly applicable to technical communicators, who rely on search as a key method for users to locate information. The book is foundational and, though brief, highlights ten search patter...
Content Talks is a new podcast from Brain Traffic Hey podcast listeners, check out Content Talks, a new podcast by Brain Traffic on content strategy. The first episode features Kristina Halverson interviewing Ann Rockley about content strategy issues. It's a great interview, and Ann sounds lively and engaged. Kristina steers Ann towards detailed stories and experiences as they make their way through a host of content issues. Kristina says...
After I wrote my post exploring alternative classification schemes, I was flipping through a hymnbook and noticed there are seven different methods of classification for the hymns: Authors and Composers Titles, Tunes, and Meters Tune Names Meters Scriptures Topics First Lines and Titles [gallery] How cool is that. Some of those classifications are obviously geared towards organists. And these classifications are tucked away in the back...
At the upcoming STC Summit in Sacramento, I'm presenting a session titled Organizing Help Content: Breaking Out of Topic-Based Hierarchies. The title is a bit wordy. It's basically information architecture applied to help content. Or even simpler, making help content findable. In this post, I'll give you a sneak peak at what this presentation is all about. One of the biggest challenges technical writers face is enabling users to find the ...
A Practical Guide to Information Architecture Download MP3 Length: 40 min. Donna Spencer is the author of A Practical Guide to Information Architecture as well as two other books (on card sorting and writing for the web). She's an experienced information architect, based in Australia, who gives regular workshops on information architecture at conferences such as the IA Summit and also runs the UX Australia conference. In this podcast we...
My colleague Ben Minson wrote a post about why tripane help is a relic of the book-paradigm documentation age, and how it can limit us from taking advantage of other web technologies. See Why I Don't Like Tri-pane Help. As a quick definition, tripane help is the standard webhelp HTML output that has several frames -- the table of contents pane on the left, the main topic area in the middle, and a pane across the top. For example, here's a...
Visual Composing: Document Design for Print and Digital Media Download MP3 Length: 45 min. Recently Jo Mackiewicz (Auburn University) and Kathryn Riley (Illinois Institute of Technology) published Visual Composing: Document Design for Print and Digital Media with Pearson. This book covers the visual side of document design, including all the design decisions from the font you use to the colors you choose to the tables, column widths, ima...
I was talking to a colleague today about wikis when he mentioned Google, and how Google has such a brilliantly simple solution that allows users to find content. With Google, there's a search box. The users type keywords they want information about, and most of the time Google returns brilliantly relevant results. While some credit is certainly due to Google's Pagerank algorithm, what enables findability in Google is that there's so much ...
So many different ways to go. It's been a couple of weeks since I posted about my team's search for an enterprise authoring strategy. So far, we're just as split as ever about the problem. It seems that you can go four separate routes: DITA, HAT, Web, or Wiki. Here are some of the paths and difficulties we're encountering. DITA DITA has traction as a new standard format for help authoring, but the DITA Open Toolkit output isn't attractive...
Download MP3 Length: 25 min. Alan Houser I recently interviewed Alan Houser, candidate for STC vice president, in a podcast about his perspectives and plans for the STC. Both Alan and Vici Koster-Lenhardt are running for this position. I asked each of them the following five questions: What's one of the greatest challenge STC members face right now. Any solutions? What would you like to see differently in the STC? Local chapters struggl...
Download MP3 Length: 15 min. Victoria Koster-Lenhardt In this podcast, I talk with Victoria Koster-Lenhardt, candidate for STC vice president, about her perspectives and plans for the STC. Both Alan and Victoria Koster-Lenhardt are running for STC vice president. I asked Victoria following five questions: What's one of the greatest challenge STC members face right now. Any solutions? What would you like to see differently in the STC? Lo...
