#25123
Calculating RoI Using Industry Metrics 
Why prove our value; how value is measured; who decides what to measure.
Bailie, Rahel Anne. STC Region 7 Proceedings (2002). Articles>Management
#31642
Comics for Consumer Communication: Reaching Users with Word and Image
The rising popularity of the comic as an internal communication device for designers has increased our ability to engage our stakeholders as we build interfaces. Yet, social service agencies looking to provide services to hard-to-reach groups like immigrants, cultural minorities, and the poor have taken pride in innovative outreach methods. In situations where traditional printed matter is a barrier, graphical methods can be used very effectively to communicate with audiences. From guerilla theatre to testimonials, posters to graphic instructions, users have benefited from alternative communication methods, particularly in situations where education or cultural barriers make it difficult for people to access services important to their well-being and safety. In some cases, the comic book format has been used as a way to help people get access to critical legal help. This case study from my time as a Publication Manager at the Legal Services Society (LSS) of British Columbia (BC) could inspire the use of comics outside the development process.
Bailie, Rahel Anne. Boxes and Arrows (2008). Articles>Document Design>Technical Illustration>User Centered Design
#28585
Global Online Card Sort for World Usability Day 2006
World Usability Day has come and gone for 2006, and the results of the global online card sort are in. About five hundred people in 19 or 20 countries participated in the exercise. Find out what's next.
Bailie, Rahel Anne. Usability Interface (2007). Articles>Usability>Methods>Card Sorting
#18998
Happiness is A Good Fit: Personality Typing Tools for Career Management
Members of our profession have tended to manage their careers by choosing either technical or management paths, then following them. Increasingly, technical communicators are factoring their personality types into the equation. This paper examines how standardized personality typing tools used by career planners are applied to help team members to find a good job fit, build a highfunctioning team, salvage interpersonal conflicts in the workplace, and make a suitable career change.
Bailie, Rahel Anne, Liz Babcock, Conni E. Evans and Emma C. Hamer. STC Proceedings (2002). Careers>Management>TC
#23684
Interesting Times, Interesting Measures
We've been living in 'interesting' times, as the saying goes, and many of us feel that we've had about as much interest as we can tolerate, thank you very much. Chapter meeting attendance has been down and the popularity of technical presentations has decreased, while the popularity of career cafes and career management days has increased. In any conversation between three technical communicators, at least one is unemployed, about to be unemployed, or thinking about a career change.
Bailie, Rahel Anne. MetroVoice (2003). Careers>TC>Planning
#28949
Making The Move To Content Management: Five Stages Of Career Transition
Moving to content management is as large a paradigm shift as moving to the Web was during the 1990s. It's hard to remember how frustrated we were in dealing with non-linear text, the constraints of HTML, and writing in a less formal style. If the 90s was the decade of the Web, technical communication 2.0, this is the decade of content management. It's techcomm 3.0, and we're entering the field with an improved feature set. Soon we'll reflect on this time of change and say, 'I could never go back.'
Bailie, Rahel Anne. Rockley Bulletin (2006). Articles>Content Management
#20948
This presentation looks at some of the common pitfalls that first-time technical communication managers encounter, and discusses how this affects the effectiveness of both managers and their teams, and hopes to spark a debate about alternative management styles.
Bailie, Rahel Anne. Hamer Associates (2001). Presentations>Management>Collaboration
#15179
Reaching Global Audiences: Doing More with Less
Discusses several low-budget techniques for preparing material for a global market.
Bailie, Rahel Anne and Jerome Ryckborst. Intercom (2002). Articles>Writing>International
#23680
Resumes. We know we need one. Most of use have one. But are we using our resumes to showcase what we can do, and to put our skills and talents in the best light? We can agree that a resume contains information about our work histories. It is often used by potential employers to pick a short list of candidates to interview for a job. In other words, it is often used by potential employers to screen out most of the candidates they decide aren’t qualified enough to make the short list. So how do you use a resume to your advantage?
Bailie, Rahel Anne. Intentional Design Inc. (2003). Careers>Resumes
#24030
The only way to effect true transformation in the workplace is to enlist the outliers in your organization to your cause. Find the weirdos and the freaks, offer support for the projects they're secretly pursuing, then get them to help you with your own revolutionary change ideas.
Bailie, Rahel Anne. Intentional Design Inc. (2004). Articles>TC>Collaboration
#28560
Top Ten Mistakes in Content Management Implementation
Implementing and working with a CMS can be a challenge. The author provides some common reasons why CM implementations fail so you can try to avoid such mistakes.
Bailie, Rahel Anne. Intercom (2007). Articles>Content Management>Project Management
#20140
Using a Résumé to Showcase Your Talents
Demonstrates how technical communicators can create achievement-based résumés that emphasize past accomplishments and future potential.
Bailie, Rahel Anne. Intercom (2003). Careers>Resumes>TC
#23678
What Color Is Your Future Job: Commodity Writer or Strategic Communicator? 
Commodity writing is the type of technical communication characterized as the creation of formulaic documentation on demand, and is closely tied to writing code. Companies are increasingly comfortable outsourcing both of these tasks. Those are the jobs being sent offshore, as evidenced by the surge in job openings on STC job boards in the Asia-Pacific countries.
Bailie, Rahel Anne. MetroVoice (2003). Careers>Writing>Outsourcing>Technical Writing
#31729
The Why and How of Content Convergence and Integration
Content producers are about to live through interesting times, to adapt the popular saying, with the dawning of The Age of Content. Industry is discovering content as a commodity; the rules are changing, and fast. What have traditionally been seen as the lowliest form of commercial content within an enterprise, technical manuals, are starting to take their place alongside the other valued corporate assets.
Bailie, Rahel Anne. Writing Assistance (2007). Articles>Content Management>Documentation>Technical Writing
#31896
Why Content Management Projects Fail: Interview with Rahel Bailie
Many content management projects fail because organizations are either too focused on tools before properly researching their needs and processes, or because they underestimate the difficulty of migrating and restructuring their content to fit the new content management system. In this podcast, Rahel Bailie explains these pitfalls and what companies can do to avoid them, as well as how companies can climb out of problems they’re currently in. Rahel also talks about how technical communicators can influence business executives and other key stakeholders to make better decisions about content management.
Bailie, Rahel Anne. Tech Writer Voices (2008). Articles>Interviews>Content Management>Project Management
#25162
You Talking to Me?: Usability for Global Audiences on a Shoestring Budget
For inexpensive usability, plan for content adaptation, presentation, access and feedback.
Bailie, Rahel Anne. STC Region 7 Proceedings (2003). Articles>Usability>Technical Writing>Localization
#32176
Topic-Based Writing to the Rescue: Project Considerations for Managers
The purpose of this case study is neither to simply rehash the project nor to provide a pressure-cooker story that others can use as a comparative benchmark. This article looks at the decision points within the project and provides an analysis from a real-life, practical approach that other technical communication managers can use when called upon to engage in a rescue project of their own.
Bailie, Rahel Anne. TechCom Manager (2008). Articles>Documentation>Project Management>Case Studies
#32182
The Why and How of Content Convergence and Integration
Content producers are about to live through interesting times, to adapt the popular saying, with the dawning of The Age of Content. Industry is discovering content as a commodity; the rules are changing, and fast.
Bailie, Rahel Anne. TechCom Manager (2008). Articles>Content Management
#32201
Content Management -- A Career Path for Tech Comm Managers
If you are a technical communications manager, chances are you are working for an organization that has existed for far too many years to be considered a start-up. And if your organization is relatively mature, then at this stage, the organization is also swimming, if not already drowning, in information.
Bailie, Rahel Anne. TechCom Manager (2006). Articles>Content Management>Management
#32614
In the column, A View from Here, Bailie discusses the commitment to usability of cookbook author Margaret Dickenson, who entertained around the world as the wife of a Canadian ambassador. Dickenson, a home economist and culinary professional, did not let that get in the way of connecting with her audience, and made her cookbook more usable—without using industry jargon.
Bailie, Rahel Anne. UPA User Experience Magazine (2006). Articles>Usability
#32632
An overview of barriers to global communication and how to address them.
Bailie, Rahel Anne. Intentional Design Inc. (2005). Resources>Writing>Localization>Technical Writing
#32665
Contextual Narrative: Rethinking Communication In Our Professions
The rich contextual narrative contained in a story makes it a far more effective way of learning than by reading any procedure, best practice, or most other knowledge transfer media. What makes stories so compelling? While we have been taught that people process information, they actually learn by processing patterns. The patterns held in stories hold far more contextual meaning than we intentionally convey, and stay longer with those being told the stories. Will we ever wean customers from calling the help desk? Should we start our manuals with "once upon a time ...?" Is the answer to usability to create a giant template for all Web applications? Which patterns work, and why don't my patterns ever seem to be ones that stick?
Bailie, Rahel Anne. SlideShare (2007). Presentations>Communication>Rhetoric
#33707
Anticipating the Impact of Content Convergence 
The nature of content has been undergoing a profound shift in the past several years, beginning with single-sourcing efforts and continues as the need for portable content increases. The portability of content is not a manufactured need, but an extension of the trend to create, manage and deliver content in more efficient ways. In turn, this shift affects content development and delivery, particularly localization, which feels the impact of source-language changes exponentially.
Bailie, Rahel Anne. Multilingual (2009). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing>Localization
#34046
User Experience Designer or ...? What You Call Yourself Matters
Using a self-designation with a certain amount of specificity sacrifices practicality to accuracy. Individuals who have been hired as a single-function specialist may have the luxury of presenting as a “usability engineer” or “information architect”. For the independent consultant, this strategy can have definite negative consequences.
Bailie, Rahel Anne. Intentional Design Inc. (2009). Careers>Usability>User Experience>Information Design
#34411
The Many Faces of Content Management: A Primer
None of the technologies mentioned so far support the production of content for purposes of producing technical documentation. Such a system is a specific type of content management that has specialized functions for technical communicators doing multi-channel publishing, yet it hasn't spun off its own specific acronym.
Bailie, Rahel Anne. STC San Diego (2006). Articles>Content Management>Documentation>Technical Writing
