getting your message across (adobe tcs 3 launch event, london, march 2011)

© 2010 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.

David Farbey | @dfarb | [email protected]

Getting Your Message Across Survey Results

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Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Adobe confidential. 2

Designed to accompany

Adobe TCS3

Launch event in London

Devised for Adobe by

David Farbey

Getting Your Message Across Survey

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Survey ran for 8 days

Promoted on Twitter,

LinkedIn, and selected email

lists

Attracted 158 respondents

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Results data compared with

previous surveys on similar

topics

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What size of organisation

and department do you work

in?

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Getting Your Message Across Survey February 2011

How many people work in your organisation?

Response (percentage)

Responses(158 respondents)

Less than 50 people 25% 39

51 - 100 people 17% 27

101 - 500 people 20% 31

501 - 2,000 people13%

21

More than 2,000 people

25% 40

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ISTC Survey January 2011

How many technical communicators do you work with in your organisation?

Responsepercentage

Responses (215 respondents)

Just 1 38.1% 82

2 – 5 36.3% 78

6 - 10 9.8% 21

11 - 15 5.1% 11

16 or more 10.7% 23

This page copyright ISTC http://www.istc.org.uk 2011 Used by permission

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How many people work in technical communications in your company?



Just 1 person 31% 49

2 – 4 people 22% 34

5 – 10 people 14% 22

11 – 25 people 12% 19

26 – 50 people 7% 11

More than 50 people 15% 23

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What tools do you use?

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In the last six months which of the following tools or methods have you used for your work?



Microsoft Office 2007 61% 97


Open Office Suite 13% 21

Adobe Technical Communications Suite 25% 40

Adobe FrameMaker 44% 70

Adobe RoboHelp 27% 42

Adobe Captivate 11% 17

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In the last six months which of the following tools or methods have you used for your work? (continued)



Madcap Flare and related products 10% 16

AuthorIT and related products 7% 11

Arbortext 4% 7

XMetal 4% 7

Other XML based editing tool 9% 15

Docbook 4% 7

DITA Open Toolkit 6% 9

Other tools not listed here 46% 73

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In the next six months which of the following tools or methods do you expect to use for your work?





Open Office Suite 9% 14

Adobe Technical Communications Suite 29% 46

Adobe FrameMaker 39% 62

Adobe RoboHelp 26% 41

Adobe Captivate 16% 26

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In the next six months which of the following tools or methods do you expect to use for your work? (continued)



Madcap Flare and related products 15% 23

AuthorIT and related products 6% 9

Arbortext 4% 6

XMetal 7% 11

Other XML based editing tool 16% 20

Docbook 6% 9

DITA Open Toolkit 11% 17

Other tools not listed here 45% 71

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What delivery methods you

use?

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Do you consider that you use single-sourcing in your work?



Yes 62% 98

No 34% 53

Not sure 4% 7

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How important is web-based delivery for your work?



Very important 58% 92

Somewhat important 21% 33

Not very important 11% 17

Not important but used occasionally 6% 9

Not used at all 4% 6

Not sure 1% 1

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How important is cloud-based delivery for your work?








Not sure 15% 23

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How important is delivery to mobile devices for your work?








Not sure 4% 7

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What type of documents do

you work on?

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What type of work do you do? Responsepercentage


Documentation – paper based 72.2% 156

Documentation – online inc. PDF 82.4% 178

Marketing 16.7% 36

Online help – HTML help 37.0% 80

Online help - Webhelp 30.6% 66

Training material - printed 46.3% 100

Training material - online 33.3% 72


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In the last six months, which of the following types of document have you worked on?



Printed manuals 62% 98

Online documentation (such as PDFs) 83% 131

Online help (including embedded help) 61% 97

Training material 47% 74

Marketing material 36% 57

Other 27% 43

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Comparison over time – document types

1999 2003 2008 2009 2011 (ISTC)

2011 (Message)

Respondents 75 305 247 235 216 158

Printed documents 95.0% 87.4%

66.3% 69.0% 72.2% 62.0%

Online documents 83.0% 89.8%

70.2% 65.5% 82.4% 83.0%

Online help 76.0% 63.3%

54.1% 64.8% 67.6% 61.0%

Sources: various surveys by David Farbey, and 2011 ISTC Survey

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Are technical writers getting

older?

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Job Satisfaction in Technical Communications Survey 2003

How long have you worked in technical communications?



Up to 3 years 13.8% 42

4 – 6 years 24.3% 74

7 – 9 years 18.7% 57

10 – 12 years 10.2% 31

13 – 15 years 7.2% 22

16 – 19 years 8.5% 26

20 or more years 13.8% 42

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How may years have you worked as a technical communicator

Responsepercentage


Less than 1 year 2.8% 6

1 – 2 years 1.8% 4

3 – 5 years 6.9% 15

5 – 7 years 5.5% 12

7 – 9 years 6.4% 14

9 – 10 years 5.0% 11

10 – 14 years 18.3% 40

15 – 19 years 19.3% 42

20 years or more 33.9% 74


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Less than 1 year 1% 2

2 – 4 years 12% 19

5 – 10 years 15% 23

11 – 20 years 42% 66

More than 20 years 30% 48

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Comparison over time - experience


2003 2011(ISTC)

2011(Message)

Respondents 305 216 158

Less than 10 years 46.8% 28.4% 28%

More than 10 years (cumulative) 39.7% 70.5% 72%

More than 20 years 13.8% 33.9% 30%

Sources: various surveys by David Farbey, and 2011 ISTC Survey

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Thank you

David Farbey

@dfarb

[email protected]

getting your message across (adobe tcs 3 launch event, london, march 2011)

Technology