http://tc.eserver.org/authors/Carliner,_Saul A bibliography of works by Carliner, Saul in the field of technical communication. en-us Copyright (c) 2005-08 by the EServer. All rights reserved. tclib-editorial@eserver.org (TC Library Editorial Board) webmaster@eserver.org (Geoffrey Sauer) http://tc.eserver.org/images/newlogo.gif http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Carliner,_Saul http://tc.eserver.org/35427.html http://tc.eserver.org/35427.html Branding encompasses everything you do. If you participate in your STC chapter, for example, how does that promote your brand? If you write for a SIG or chapter newsletter or website, or some similar outlet--or give a presentation to one of those groups--how do these activities promote your brand? http://tc.eserver.org/31982.html http://tc.eserver.org/31982.html Wondering how you can assess the effectiveness and productivity of your work? Admittedly, it’s not easy and there are no simple approaches. But it can be done. As you develop a program, consider these issues, which arose from a review of literature on the metrics used to assess the productivity and effectiveness of software engineering, training, marketing communications, and technical communication. http://tc.eserver.org/30351.html http://tc.eserver.org/30351.html The emergence of the web has accelerated the convergence of marketing communications, training, and technical communication. Marketing communicators are increasingly producing users' guides, trainers are producing wizards and marketing materials. Technical communicators are producing tutorials and pre-sales literature. http://tc.eserver.org/30214.html http://tc.eserver.org/30214.html Successful meetings are the end result of a∆ careful planning process. To successfully organize an educational meeting for a community or professional organization, you need to follow a series of steps. http://tc.eserver.org/29922.html http://tc.eserver.org/29922.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/24542.html http://tc.eserver.org/24542.html This article explores the design choices for 'Network Earth,' a museum exhibit that introduced the general public to computer networks and related issues. The exhibit was one of three studied in a larger research project to develop a grounded model of design for learning in museums. Network Earth was developed by a team that had neither formal training nor academic credentials usually associated with museum exhibits. Although the design process and some of the general goals were similar to those at other sites studied and in the literature, certain practices differed. The team excluded historical objects, let donors influence content, and used different terminology. These differences appear to be cultural. With a limited affiliation with the occupational culture of museum exhibit design, the Network Earth team made choices that were more consistent with the culture of high technology, the subject of the museum and the industry that provided most of its financial support. http://tc.eserver.org/24475.html http://tc.eserver.org/24475.html The 1995 E and R PIC Focus Group on Technical Communication Research will continue the dialogue begun at STC annual conferences in 1993 and 1994. The 1993 Focus Group discussed partnerships between the Society, industry, and the academy, while the 1994 one discussed planning initiatives for technical communication education. http://tc.eserver.org/24024.html http://tc.eserver.org/24024.html Although technical communicators are a diverse group, and our beliefs and practices span a spectrum, we share certain common beliefs and practices about our field. http://tc.eserver.org/23287.html http://tc.eserver.org/23287.html As the work of professional technical communicators has broadened in scope, so has the challenge of integrating this broader range of concerns into everyday practice.Within the academic world, the response has usually been separate courses.  Many undergraduate and master's programs in technical communication sport courses in usability testing, visual communication, project management, and technical writing and editing. http://tc.eserver.org/22170.html http://tc.eserver.org/22170.html Finds that user's guides, reference manuals, and help account for most products, and about half are print. Reports that no widely used method or metric of assessing effectiveness exists http://tc.eserver.org/20969.html http://tc.eserver.org/20969.html When she learned that I would be teaching a course in her department, the department secretary made a mailbox for me and made sure that I received a copy of every memo and announcement distributed to the rest of the faculty. Other part-time faculty appreciated this service, so it became a part of the secretary's standard operating procedures. But I never received the mail because the mailbox was in Crookston, Minnesota and I taught the course by instructional television (ITV) from St. Paul, Minnesota, approximately 350 miles away. http://tc.eserver.org/20972.html http://tc.eserver.org/20972.html An overview of the various genres of information about online learning products. http://tc.eserver.org/20971.html http://tc.eserver.org/20971.html prompting them only when they must make a decision. A wizard involves a structured series of dialogues that applies users’ responses to produce a result, such as installing software or writing a business letter. It is different from a tutorial and other online information in that it helps users accomplish a task, not teaches them how to do it. A wizard is a performance support tool; that is, it supports users as they perform a task. Because the system performs some of the work, it can seemingly bring a user to a higher performance level in less time than conventional training methods. But the cost can be a dumbing down of tasks. Users perform tasks without understanding them and aren’t aware of the underlying decisions. As a result, users may not be able to perform tasks if the system is down. You should use a wizard to build performance only when people can perform a task without knowing all of the steps. http://tc.eserver.org/20970.html http://tc.eserver.org/20970.html One of the challenges of starting an e-learning are the constraints. If you don’t uncover them before you begin a project and choose software, the issues can come back to haunt you. Following are questions you can ask to determine the constraints you'll need to address when implementing e-learning in your organization. You might need to ask additional questions, but these should give you a good start. http://tc.eserver.org/20967.html http://tc.eserver.org/20967.html 4This white paper introduces training and performance improvement professionals to knowledge management. Specifically, it: describes what knowledge management is and how it is used within organizations in general, and within training and performance improvement groups in particular; identifies the technology needed for a knowledge management system; identifies the work activities needed to effectively place information in a knowledge management system; suggests ways that training and performance improvement professionals might be affected by knowledge management efforts within their organizations. http://tc.eserver.org/20974.html http://tc.eserver.org/20974.html Most authoring tools have features that can help you improve your productivity. You might be able to benefit from some of these suggestions now; keep the others in mind for future projects. http://tc.eserver.org/20966.html http://tc.eserver.org/20966.html How do you develop effective online learning? This interactive half-day workshop introduces you to 18 techniques, including the must-ask questions of a needs analysis, the must-consider issues for writing objectives, different learning models you can incorporate into courses, ways to keep learners' attention, and tips for designing screens and writing for online presentation. http://tc.eserver.org/20973.html http://tc.eserver.org/20973.html You have written a user’s manual for Microsoft Word for Windows. Now you have been asked to write a user’s manual for Microsoft Word for the Macintosh. The two word processors are essentially the same; the primary differences emerge from the differences between Windows and Macintosh systems. You feel that you should be able to prepare the second manual in next to no time, because you can essentially use the information you wrote for the Word for Windows manual again, with some technical changes. This is an example of re-using information and it is a common task among technical communicators. As the demand for information grows faster than the availability of people to develop that information, technical communicators are showing increasing interest in reusing information. http://tc.eserver.org/20975.html http://tc.eserver.org/20975.html A comprehensive collection of links to e-learning resources online. http://tc.eserver.org/20976.html http://tc.eserver.org/20976.html A comprehensive collection of links to e-learning resources online for workplace training. http://tc.eserver.org/20968.html http://tc.eserver.org/20968.html So you’ve heard about this e-learning thing. Can it work in your organization? Before you make an assessment, consider these issues. http://tc.eserver.org/20848.html http://tc.eserver.org/20848.html Explores some tactical issues in structuring and presenting content. http://tc.eserver.org/20847.html http://tc.eserver.org/20847.html Suggests lessons from bricks-and-mortar retailers that can be applied to web design. http://tc.eserver.org/20849.html http://tc.eserver.org/20849.html While many scour the web for new ideas on web design, others are looking elsewhere. http://tc.eserver.org/19700.html http://tc.eserver.org/19700.html Although technical reviews of many draft user’s guides, references, and help systems occur through the black box (that is, the author sends out the material, and reviewers send it back marked up, without the two ever seeing one another), many technical communicators find that a personal meeting ultimately saves time and improves communication in the process of developing a technical communication product. http://tc.eserver.org/19685.html http://tc.eserver.org/19685.html For most organizations, Reader’s Comment Forms serve primarily as Reader’s Complaint Forms. Most of these forms typically ask readers to identify errors in the text, citing location of the error, describing the error, and suggesting a change. What a waste! http://tc.eserver.org/18832.html http://tc.eserver.org/18832.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/18651.html http://tc.eserver.org/18651.html A postmortem is a meeting of all members of the project team at the end of the project to identify what went well and should be repeated on future projects; and what did not go well and how to avoid these situations on future projects. In addition, the postmortem should provide time for the members of the project team to thank one another for their contributions. Often during the course of a project, team members become so comfortable working with one another that they do not thank each other for their contributions or acknowledge exceptional work. As a result, team members might not realize that their colleagues appreciate their contributions. The postmortem provides a formal opportunity for team members to offer one another such recognition. http://tc.eserver.org/15152.html http://tc.eserver.org/15152.html Identifies several ways older technical communicators can protect themselves from age discrimination when searching for a new job. http://tc.eserver.org/15199.html http://tc.eserver.org/15199.html Suggests ways that technical communication managers can confront the challenges facing their departments in 2002. http://tc.eserver.org/14656.html http://tc.eserver.org/14656.html Carliner discusses the emerging discipline of intellectual capital, which attempts to develop accounting techniques for quantifying the 'brainpower' of corporations. The new service-oriented economy, Carliner argues, renders traditional accounting methods inadequate for determining the value of intangibles such as policies and procedures, the knowledge of a staff, and relationships with customers. http://tc.eserver.org/14611.html http://tc.eserver.org/14611.html This article is one of two cover stories detailing trends in technical communication for 2000. Saul Carliner outlines trends in business, technology, writing and design, and the profession of technical communication, and examines their impact on technical communication jobs and organizations in general. http://tc.eserver.org/14606.html http://tc.eserver.org/14606.html Carliner predicts that 2003 will again be a difficult year for employment in technical communication, but also identifies possibilities for increased employment of technical communicators in several industries. http://tc.eserver.org/14596.html http://tc.eserver.org/14596.html As you develop the communication product, your client and the team of people working with you will be interested in the progress of your work. To inform them, regularly publish a progress report. The progress report offers many benfits. It anticipates your client’s need for information about an in-progress project, makes the team aware of changes to the original plans and situations that could cause problems before those situations become problems, and maintains the common vision for the project that you painstakingly created when you developed plans of the information design. Most likely, you will publish the the report weekly or bi-weekly. Let your client determine the exact frequency; when your client approves your information designs, ask how frequently the client would prefer a progress report. http://tc.eserver.org/14225.html http://tc.eserver.org/14225.html Introduces the breadth of decision-making required in EPSS design. Explores choices and challenges facing designers in the design process, performance cycle, technology constraints, use of storytelling techniques, evaluation, and success factors. http://tc.eserver.org/13389.html http://tc.eserver.org/13389.html Introduces you to the theory and practice of engineering expert knowledge into system designs (also referred to as intelligent communication and software). To overcome the limitations of human processing capabilities, the technology industry must increasingly move from a model of providing support, training and documentation in forms external to the system, to a model where this information is seamlessly integrated in the larger system design. Early examples of knowledge-based subsystems include wizards, agents and expert system support. In this course, you gain an understanding of the very nature of expert knowledge, its value to the expert, and the way in which the expert constructs this knowledge. You also learn to develop strategies for collecting and organizing knowledge from experts, and ways to integrate expert knowledge in system designs. http://tc.eserver.org/13057.html http://tc.eserver.org/13057.html Upper-level decision makers seem to thrive on 'what if?' Here's how it works: Line workers, managers, and independent consultants enthusiastically propose a project, and executives shred it apart with 'what ifs?' and 'have you considereds?' In reality, such questions indicate that a project proposal is incomplete. The people who prepared it may have assumed an overly optimistic or pessimistic result, overlooked relevant alternatives, or may not have considered relevant component costs. And when it comes to technology projects--such as online learning development -- executives may kick 'what if' into high gear. Though the benefits of such projects seem self-evident to the converted, the possibility of a high price tag and organizational disruption sobers many executives considering the online plunge. http://tc.eserver.org/13054.html http://tc.eserver.org/13054.html Instructional designers increasingly find technical communicators in their territory, as technical communicators find instructional designers. Is this increasing contact merely a coincidence, or does it portend an evolutionary merger of the two fields? http://tc.eserver.org/13055.html http://tc.eserver.org/13055.html Some of the questions most commonly asked by professionals in a given field are 'where is the field headed?' and 'how will that affect me?' In this article, I give one person's view of where the fields of technical communication, training, and marketing communications are headed and how that might affect people working in those fields. http://tc.eserver.org/10450.html http://tc.eserver.org/10450.html The more you know about the field, the more effectively you can find employment, market your services, develop your skills, develop perspective, and perform meaningful work. http://tc.eserver.org/10427.html http://tc.eserver.org/10427.html As the responsibilities of and demand for technical communicators have grown, demand for a new set of skills called information design has emerged. Information design is preparing communication products so that they achieve performance objectives established for them. Although some technical communicators now call themselves information designers, the field originally emerged from architects, graphic designers, and library scientists, and related work by instructional designers. Information designers prepare blueprints for communication products. To do so effectively, they need skills in information design and development, the technology they are communicating, the technology of communication, the industries they are communicating to, and business skills. They must also be comfortable with a variety of media and genres. Moving to information design creates a new career ladder for technical communicators. http://tc.eserver.org/10417.html http://tc.eserver.org/10417.html This article first explores limitations of the prevailing concept of document design. Next, it offers a definition of information design—a framework meant to broaden the popular perspective on design in our field. The article then describes in detail the three types of design activities involved in technical communication: physical design, cognitive design, and affective design. Last, this article suggests the strengths and limitations of this framework. Appendixes describe implications of this framework to the teaching of technical communication to majors in the field, to the practice of technical communication in industry, and to research in the field. http://tc.eserver.org/10356.html http://tc.eserver.org/10356.html Little has been written for technical communicators on how to identify the business goals of the projects we work on, or how to write those goals in observable, measurable terms. When we prepare goals in observable, measurable terms, we call these goals objectives. This article is intended to fill that gap. It first describes the challenges of setting business objectives for a project, next describes the three ways that a performance improvement program can contribute to the business performance of an organization, and then explains how to write a business objective. Finally, this article describes the benefits of writing business objectives. http://tc.eserver.org/10329.html http://tc.eserver.org/10329.html This article attempts to provide a framework that can be used to assess the effectiveness and value of technical communication products, and suggest how we can use it to help our clients perceive the value of those products. The framework is adapted from a similar framework initially developed by Kirkpatrick for trainers. First, the article presents the Kirkpatrick model and identifies the limitations in using it to assess the quality and value of technical communication products. Next, an adapted model for assessing the quality and value of technical communication products is presented. Last, the article addresses a series of issues related to collecting data about quality and value, such as when to collect the data, how to ensure its credibility, and how to report it to others. This framework may help us develop a widely used and accepted methodology for assessing the quality and effectiveness of technical communication products. http://tc.eserver.org/10301.html http://tc.eserver.org/10301.html Although we tell ourselves that technical communication is important to the bottom line of organizations and all of the business literature reinforces our convictions that information is strategic to business success, few of us feel 'strategic' to the organizations we work for. http://tc.eserver.org/10262.html http://tc.eserver.org/10262.html Perhaps these concerns sound familiar: visitors complain that they cannot find information of interest. One observes, 'I know there's information about that type of robotics here, but darned if I can find it;' visitors enter the site but don't stay particularly long. Some might even express an interest in the subject; let's say it's modern art. But they leave almost as quickly as they enter without paying much attention to the artwork that the designers painstakingly displayed; other visitors spend hours at the site but never seem to notice particular sections. For example, a visitor might be thoroughly familiar with the content on radios but oblivious to the section on industrial hardware. These observations could describe visitors to Web sites. Actually, these observations describe museum visitors. The connections between the two are discussed in this article. http://tc.eserver.org/10062.html http://tc.eserver.org/10062.html This 1998 book introduces online learning, and provides an overview of the key issues to consider when working with online learning. Specifically, it: describes what online learning is and identifies its major uses; identifies the four major types; provides an overview of the technology needed; and lists the project issues--that is, management and learning issues--that need to be addressed when developing materials for online learning. http://tc.eserver.org/10045.html http://tc.eserver.org/10045.html This course introduces visual thinking, visual expression, and the practice of graphic design. First, it teaches general princples of graphic design. Then it teaches about the components of graphic design: typography, page and screen design, picture and symbols, and corporate identity. http://tc.eserver.org/10044.html http://tc.eserver.org/10044.html Although graphic design and document design are important aspects of it, information design has a much broader focus than just the appearance of information. Its ultimate focus is on the effectiveness of that information. http://tc.eserver.org/10046.html http://tc.eserver.org/10046.html The resources at this website assist you in managing the projects, people, and business of information design and development. http://tc.eserver.org/10047.html http://tc.eserver.org/10047.html This site describes what online learning is and identifies its major uses; identifies the four major types of online learning; provides an overview of the technology needed to make online learning happen; lists the project issues--that is, management and learning issues--that need to be addressed when developing materials for online learning.