Learning from Games: Seven Principles of Effective Design    

Why do players of computer games seem to approach those applications without fear, eagerly exploring and learning as they go, while users of business applications will go out of their way to keep from using the tools? Why do business applications require volumes of documentation when the most complex games come with a brief tutorial and a strategy guide for exploration? Why can games teach pilots to fly multi-million-dollar jets better than books and classroom training? These questions have led us to ask another question: Why can’t business applications be more like games? In this article, we attempt to lay the ground work for future research by defining seven design principles found in games that we believe contribute to the creation of more usable applications.

Houser, Rob and Scott Deloach. Technical Communication Online (1998). Articles>Usability>Information Design>Games

Rob Houser on Creating Nontraditional E-Learning

Rob explains how you can use Captivate to create nontraditional e-learning materials, such as on-the-job training, sales and marketing training, or even bird-watching training. You aren't just limited to technical how-to information in screen demos.

Houser, Rob. Tech Writer Voices (2007). Articles>Interviews>Education>Online

Should We Be Writing Strategy Guides?  

Argues that printed strategy guides are a necessary, performance-enhancing supplement to the online documentation for computer software. He defines strategy guides as documentation that gives users the minimum amount of information needed to carry out simple tasks.

Houser, Rob. Intercom (2000). Articles>Writing

Strategies for Using Information Types in HTML Help  

Information types are a new feature of HTML Help, but they are not a new concept to technical communication. Information types are simply categories of information that can be assigned to a discrete piece of information so the information can be displayed or hidden, based on the category selected by the user. The goal of this paper is to get help authors thinking about ways that they can use information types to help their users filter, sort, and understand the structure of the information presented to them through online help.

Houser, Rob. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Documentation>HTML>Help

What Does It Mean To Be a Technical Communicator?  

The author presents a description of his job that he gives to people who ask what he does. The article is reprinted from the May 1998 issue of CommLink Online, the online newsletter of STC's Atlanta chapter.

Houser, Rob. Intercom (2000). Careers>TC

Why We Should Archive, Share, and Analyze Information About Users    

In this article, I argue that technical communicators should be creating a database of information about users. Over the past 20 years, our field has described many methods for gathering information about users, especially about how they interact with our products in their workplace to solve problems. This information about users is often applied to improving the design of a specific product; however, the information gathered is not usually saved or reused later. Through archiving, organizing, and exploring information about users, designers can become more user-centered, create better designs, train new designers, ensure access to usability information, make the most of company resources, plan future usability investigations, and build more advanced theories about users.

Houser, Rob. Technical Communication Online (2001). Articles>Human Computer Interaction>Usability