Communication in Cross-Functional Teams: An Introduction to This Special Issue    

The importance of teams has grown during the past decades as increasing numbers of organizations have turned to collaborative models of work. The emphasis on 'cross-functional' reflects the growing complexity of today's work, where no single individual or job function possesses sufficient knowledge or skill for developing or maintaining innovative products and services. One of the biggest challenges of teams is developing patterns of effective communication. As with all processes and practices in the workplace, communication within cross-functional teams must be examined, discussed, and taught explicitly for such teams to succeed. The articles in this issue provide insights into the communication challenges facing individuals working in teams in today's workplace. In addition, the issue discusses a variety of tools and techniques for improving communication and efficiency within teams and the quality of work produced.

Smart, Karl L. and Carol M. Barnum, eds. Technical Communication Online (2000). Articles>Communication>Collaboration

Disciplinary Boundaries: Where (and How) Should Usability Testing Be Taught?    

With the rapid rise of interest in usability testing, especially with the demise of a daily increasing number of dotcom companies (and the headlines resulting from the 'butterfly ballot'), the question arises as to where (and how) a course in usability testing should be taught. When I first started teaching a graduate course in technical and professional communication, I created it to focus on documentation issues and to educate future technical communicators about the role they could play in testing and inadvocating usability testing for their products. The argument went something like this: who better than the technical communicators--the user advocates–to initiate usability testing within organizations. What better place to start than with the documentation?

Barnum, Carol M. CPTSC Proceedings (2001). Articles>Education>Usability

Education in Technical Communication: Past, Present, India's Future?  

A discussion of the past and present of TC, with particular focus on the TC industry in the Indian subcontinent.

Barnum, Carol M. STC India. Articles>Education>Regional>India

English Professors as Technical Writers: Experience is The Best Teacher

The future of the English curriculum is being argued and discussed in academic settings across the country. Students, more and more, seek courses of study that will lead directly to jobs. The buzzword is 'relevance.' The bottom line is 'big bucks.'

Barnum, Carol M. ADE Bulletin (1983). Articles>Education>Writing>Technical Writing

Focus Groups: Planning the Education of Technical Communicators During the Next Ten Years  

These focus groups continue the dialogue begun in focus groups organized by Ken Rainey and Katherine Staples, Education and Research PIC, at the 1993 annual conference in Dallas. Participants discussed the topic of how partnerships among the Society, business and industry, and colleges and universitates could strengthen academic programs in technical communication, empower the profession, and promote research.

Barnum, Carol M., Saul A. Carliner, JoAnn T. Hackos, Rita Reaves, Stuart A. Selber and Sherry G. Southard. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Education>Industry and Academy>STC

Index Versus Full-text Search: A Usability Study of User Preference and Performance    

This article reports on the results of testing two versions of an information product, Usability Testing and Research: one version, an Adobe Acrobat Reader e-book with an index with the locators hyperlinked to the page reference for each entry; the other version, the same e-book without an index, but with the full-text search capabilities provided by Acrobat Reader. We first summarize the current literature regarding human indexing and information retrieval by machine (search engines). We then describe the methodology for testing, the testing results, our conclusions, and implications for future research.

Barnum, Carol M., Earvin Henderson, Al Hood and Rodney Jordan. Technical Communication Online (2004). Design>Web Design>Usability>Search

Lessons Learned from Usability Testing of the Documentation  

This presentation and demonstration will first establish the principles behind usability testing of the documentation, then show examples of lessons learned from testing both print and online documentation. Video clips of actual tests will be used to make some compelling points. The session will be especially useful to those who are interested in usability testing but haven't done it yet.

Barnum, Carol M. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Documentation>Usability>Testing

Look Before You Leap: Marketing Communication Strategies for Practitioners and Educators  

Too often, the emphasis in marketing communication is the tactic—the specific promotional piece clients—or your bosses—think they need. But what should drive marketing communication are the intended audience and the ultimate goals of the effort. Part of the marketing communication practitioner’s job is to assist clients, whether they are internal or external, to step back and decide “what for,” “to whom,” and “when,” before plunging into “how” to implement marketing communication. Part of the marketing communication educator’s job is to make sure students learn that the marcom process determines the marcom product. As a result, the tactic in many cases presents itself.

Teich, Thea, Carol M. Barnum, Sandra Harner and Tom Zimmerman. STC Proceedings (2001). Articles>Communication>TC

Media Selection Chart

Guidelines to choose the best media for presenting your course Web site content.

Barnum, Carol M. and Saul Carliner. University of Minnesota (1993). Design>Multimedia>Assessment

Report of the STC Education Task Force: Considering the Current and Future Role of STC in its Mission to Educate its Members  

To date, STC has not been very aggressive or innovative in terms of electronic delivery of educational content to our members or others in the profession. Aside from telephone seminars/Webinars and the online availability of articles from Intercom and the journal, the Society has largely ignored the methods that its members, their companies, and other professional organizations are using to deliver content to stakeholders. Because only a fraction of the membership attends the annual conference and regional/chapter conferences, and because the Society is attempting to reach out to members of the profession outside North America, it is imperative that STC pursue other means of offering educational opportunities. By truly leveraging the power of the Web and other emerging technologies, STC can address a worldwide audience and provide significant educational offerings to members and prospective members alike.

Barnum, Carol M., Saul Carliner, David Dayton, Lynn Harris, George F. Hayhoe, Bill Horton, Kathryn Northcut, Makarand Pandit, Janice C. 'Ginny' Redish and Alison Reynolds. STC (2006). Articles>Education>Reports>STC

Shaping Knowledge through Usability Testing Shaping Knowledge through Usability Testing  

Usability testing can make a difference in the product and and the documentation. Seeing is believing.

Barnum, Carol M. IEEE PCS (2003). Presentations>Usability>Methods>Testing

So You Want to Write a Book?  

Prospective authors, especially those writing books on technical communications, need an honest view of the publishing process. This panel dispels romantic myths about what is involved in writing and publishing a book so that potential authors hae a greater chance of getting successfully and profitably published.

Barnum, Carol M., JoAnn T. Hackos, William K. Horton III and Terri Hudson. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Publishing

Usability Is in Your Future  

Barnum discusses the importance of usability testing and suggests ways that managers of technical communication departments can convince their organizations to invest in usability.

Barnum, Carol M. Intercom (2003). Careers>Usability>Management

What’s in a Number?

Whereas 7 (plus or minus 2) is the mantra for structured writing and other methods for organizing information, 5 (plus or minus 2) is the mantra for the number of participants needed in a usability test. Recent articles have looked at what Miller, who introduced the research on short-term memory, really meant regarding the 7 + or – 2 number (Doumont 2002; Kolbach 2002), and a similar re-examination is now a much-discussed topic regarding the viability of applying the number 5 to web usability testing. Two widely-publicized usability studies of Web users, one directed by Rolf Molich and the other by Jared Spool, are fueling the discussion. At the most recent meetings of CHI and UPA, panels addressed this specific topic, and the first question directed to Jakob Nielsen at the CHI session entitled 'Ask Jakob' was, How many users does it take? Knowing something about the research studies and the issues raised gives you the ammunition to decide where you stand. So, here’s a brief overview of what the controversy is based on, and, if you want to learn more, you can read the whole story in the original sources.

Barnum, Carol M. Usability Interface (2003). Articles>Usability>Theory>Cognitive Psychology

What's on Your Reading List?  

Three technical communication gurus answer the question, 'What is the last work-related book that you read, and how are you applying it to your job?'

Barnum, Carol M., John V. Hedtke and William Horton. Intercom (2002). Resources>Bibliographies>TC

Why Technical Communicators Make Good Usability Advocates

Usability is rapidly becoming an important skill for technical communicators and a growing interest for those seeking to expand their role as technical communicators into other areas of product development. The STC usability SIG now has over 2000 members, and the conference sessions at STC regional and annual conferences increasingly focus on usability. This year, a new 'stem' was created at the annual conference, which combined Information Design and Usability, because they just naturally belong together. It worked so well that it will be continued in future conferences.

Barnum, Carol M. Indus (2002). Careers>Usability>TC

Show and Tell: Building Usability into E-Learning

Most major producers of e-learning are not doing substantial usability testing. In fact, we don’t seem to even have a way to talk about usability in the context of e-learning.

Barnum, Carol M. STC Proceedings (2008). Presentations>Education>Online>Usability