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

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

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

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

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

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

Making Your Team Work  

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

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

Showcase Your Talents

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. MetroVoice (2003). Careers>Resumes

Think Weird and Prosper

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. STC Puget Sound (2004). Articles>TC>Collaboration

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

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

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

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

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