Information Development at Rockwell Software – Part 2: Standards and Tools and Technology   

Rockwell Software is a $60-million company specializing in plant automation software. Our offices in West Allis, Wisconsin, and Mayfield Village, Ohio, provide technical communicators with the opportunity to work closely with development teams to design, test, and release usable, consistent software and information products. While Rockwell Software's information development process is a multi-faceted endeavor, this paper focuses on the following four steps we implement to create our information products: interviewing customers to establish information guidelines, writing Getting Results guides, selecting tools, and programming for technical communicators.

Giordano, Jennifer L., Michael R. Huber, Kimberly B. Ness and Beth A. Williams. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>TC>Case Studies>Ohio

Usability Testing and Editing Online Documentation: Where's the Connection?  

Through the completion of an independently researched and developed academic proposal, this author demonstrated the need for change in academic instruction and the need for working technical communicators to extend their skills by recognizing the connection between usability testing and editing online documentation. In short, the underlying connection between these two processes is that, in order to edit online documentation effectively, the editor must know the basics of usability. This paper discusses the background, the methodology, the results, and the implementation of this research project.

Giordano, Jennifer L. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Documentation>Usability>Testing