Current Trends in Technical Communications

Many technical writers are developing usability skills and leveraging them to help improve the product interface. Help is being delivered within the interface itself. Drop-down lists of topics related to an interface component, hint text below a GUI field, and other such embedded user assistance models allow users to get help without leaving the application interface.

Haiss, Craig. HelpScribe (2008). Articles>Documentation>TC

What's Your Technical Writing Personality Type?

Because personality has a strong influence on technical writing skills, it may help to take a look at how psychologists categorize personality types.

Haiss, Craig. HelpScribe (2009). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing

How Help Search Should Work

Every help authoring tool seems to have a different approach to presenting search results. Offerings range from ranked results to alphabetical lists, with additional features thrown in such as the inclusion of chunks of topic text with highlighted search keywords. Each method of presenting search results offers different benefits to users. Since help tools offer mixed approaches, I feel perfectly comfortable throwing my own opinions into the mix.

Haiss, Craig. HelpScribe (2009). Articles>Documentation>Search>Help

How Color Defines Purpose in User Assistance Content

Of all the visual cues in your help interface, color is one of the strongest. Users will recognize and react to the color of each element in your help window before reading a single word of text. Color allows users to determine the purpose of each element on the computer screen. When designing the visual aspect of your help content (via CSS and so on), as well as the help interface itself, be sure to use the same color for objects that share a purpose.

Haiss, Craig. HelpScribe (2009). Articles>Documentation>Technical Writing>Color

Why FAQs are the Tech Writer’s Secret Weapon

Most questions have been asked before. This isn’t a profound statement; most of us would consider it obvious. Just ask anyone on your Product Support team. Chances are the majority of calls they receive are fielded with canned answers. Why? Because we all seem to ask the same questions. By providing answers to those questions, you can help the majority of your users get back on track quickly.

Haiss, Craig. DMN Communications (2009). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>FAQ