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TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION AND NEW TRENDS Denise Kadilak – Information Architect

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• What is a Technical Writer/Communicator?

• How the profession has evolved

• Trends

• Questions?

AGENDA

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• Short answer: a person who writes about technical topics

• Better answer: a person who can explain complicated concepts in clear, easy-to-understand prose

• Best answer: it’s complicated

Alan S. Pringle and Sarah S. O’Keefe Technical Writing 101

WHAT IS A TECHNICAL COMMUNICATOR?

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• Microsoft Word expert- Have you ever tried to create a book in Word- It is not easy!- Heaven forbid you want an index or comprehensive table of contents

WHAT A TECHNICAL COMMUNICATOR USED TO BE

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• Tools catering to our specific needs- FrameMaker expert (book)

• Chapters• Index markers• Conditions• Templates

- RoboHelp expert (html help)- Acrobat expert (pdf)

THEN WE EVOLVED

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• Even more tools catering to our specific needs- FrameMaker

• Structured and unstructured options • Basically still linier content

- Flare • Structured• Topic-based

- Some sort or CMS tool• This mess needs to be managed somewhere

- Captivate• We do videos now!

- InDesign• Because the graphic designer in us wants pixel-perfect control

- Dreamweaver• Because now we’re part-time web designers

AND WE CONTINUE TO EVOLVE

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• To the point that figuring out exactly what we are is complicated….

AND WE CONTINUE TO EVOLVE

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• Technologically savvy

• Talented writer

• Well organized

• Charming

• Research oriented

SO LET’S START BY LOOKING AT SKILLS SETS

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2011

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Interesting observations:

Note: There was no 2010 survey, so “last survey” means 2009

• Expertise with authoring tools and writing procedures are neck-and-neck as most valued skills (tools expertise gained a point since the last survey)

• HTML skills still rule but did drop 10 rating points since last survey

• CSS skills also still rule with no drop since last survey

• DITA skills improved from 17% to 23% (kind of surprised by this one)

• PDFs will never die (two point increase in importance rating over last survey)

• Wikis gained five rating points over last survey

• Multimedia tutorials gained seven rating point over last survey

• Forums gained 10 ratings points over last survey

SKILLS SET

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• Help Authoring tools

• File conversion tools- Convert word-processing files to other formats

TOOLS SET – A MUST

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• Graphics tool- Screen capturing - Drawing- Editing

• HTML editor

TOOLS SET – A MUST

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• Project management tools (Microsoft Project)- Track schedules- Who is working on what

• Content or Source Management tools (Subversion)- Versioning- Manages several writers working on the same content- Track content history

TOOLS SET – NICE TO HAVE

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WE ARE BRANCHING TO OTHER AREAS

• Articles to help users better understand complex conceptual information

• Blogs to share new features, cool tips, and other information end users may find helpful

• Discussion groups and forums

• Video both writing the scripts and recording

• Web design

• Marketing Overview (walkthroughs)

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WE HAVE OUR EYES ON SOME INTERESTING TRENDS

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TRENDS TO WATCH

• Content Management- Always important, now even more so- Topic-based authoring on the increase- Demand for content-specific help growing

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TRENDS TO WATCH

• Content Curation- Create content streams focused on specific user needs:

• Administrators• Researchers

- Finding, collecting, presenting and displaying digital content around predefined sets of criteria and subject matter,

- As the lines blur between traditional documentation, customer feedback and marketing and promotion, technical communicators have the opportunity to be active players in their employers content curation activities as part of overall communications strategy.

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TRENDS TO WATCH

• Integrated technical communication (ITC)- Rather than focusing on the activities involved in the communication

creation, ITC focuses on increasing the users’ understanding and experience. 

- Stresses integration rather than the processes, tools and functions themselves. 

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TRENDS TO WATCH

• Increased focus on collaboration- Marketing and customer support- Huge demand for content- New technologies- Accelerated product development lifecycles- Geographically dispersed development teams

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TRENDS TO WATCH

• HTML 5 to take over the world (as soon as IE catches up)- Will be the new standard for HTML- Major benefits are improvements in the following areas:

• Drawing• Animation• Video• Audio• Search• Offline application cache

Want to learn more?

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TRENDS TO WATCH

• Cloud-based tools- Author-it broke ground- But it does not look like Adobe will be very far behind- Remove dependence on in-house IT

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TRENDS TO WATCH

• Help Authoring Tool Advances- Actual development on a cloud- Generating mobile output- Generating e-reader output

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TRENDS TO WATCH

• Focus on mobile- Demand is high- Tools are starting to accommodate- We will have to change how we write- We will have to redesign – tri-pane needs to go

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TRENDS TO WATCH

• Customer push for more multimedia communication- Users never liked reading- An increasing preference for:

• Video• Diagrams• Walkthroughs

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TRENDS TO WATCH

• Social Media- Increased role in direct customer contact/input- If you provide social facilities for customer feedback through official channels

you increase the likelihood that customers will go to the official source for information

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TRENDS TO WATCH

• Increased reliance on analytics- Page view stats- Traffic patterns- View frequency

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TRENDS TO WATCH

• DITA- Darwin Information Typing Architecture- Emphasis on content re-use- Enforces consistency- DITA a component within a larger learning strategy

• Great reuse• Does nothing to improve users’ learning

- Not the solution for learning- It could be a solution for authoring efficiency- Implementation has slowed (complex)- But it is a standard and will be around for awhile