Adding Value as a Professional Technical Communicator    

Value added means generating greater return on investment than the cost of the initial investment.

Redish, Janice C. 'Ginny'. Technical Communication Online (1995). Articles>TC>Assessment

Applying Research to Practice: Helping Users Find What They Need  

Have you wondered why some documents succeed when others don’t? Have you been curious about the research behind the guidelines that you use? Are you ready for some new challenges and new ways of thinking about organizing documents for your audiences? Come participate in this demonstration/workshop on applying research to practice. We’ll concentrate on issues about how to help users find what they need in documents, interfaces, and just in time training materials.

Redish, Janice C. 'Ginny'. STC Proceedings (1997). Presentations>Usability>Help

Comparing Assessment Techniques  

In just the last few years, we have begun to see research studies comparing usability testing to other techniques for assessing usability. In general, usability testing has found more of the most serious usability problems and fewer of the least serious problems than other methods. Heuristic evaluation--having people evaluate the interface either from their own expertise or from a set of guidelines--has achieved mixed results. Although usability testing seems expensive compared to other methods, it may be less expensive when considered on the basis of 'cost per problem that needs to be fixed.'

Redish, Janice C. 'Ginny'. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Usability>Testing>Assessment

Involving Users Throughout The Information Development Process  

Testing documents for usability is critical, but we don’t always get to do it. Even when we do, too often, it’s too little, too late. What we really want are documents that we are fine-tuning in usability testing because they already meet users’ needs, match our users’ mental models, and fit with the way that our users work.

Redish, Janice C. 'Ginny'. STC Proceedings (1994). Presentations>User Centered Design>Usability

Lessons Learned from Usability Testing Web Pages  

This session brings you actual case studies and specific advice based on 'lessons learned' from usability tests of Web sites.

Redish, Janice C. 'Ginny', Janet R. Borggren, Meghan R. Ede and Laurie A. Roshak. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Web Design>Usability

Media of the Future: Web? Paper?  

Will the long-predicted demise of paper ever come true? Discusses the effects of the Web on documentation.

Redish, Janice C. 'Ginny'. Intercom (2005). Articles>Documentation>Online

Observing Users Who Listen to Web Sites

In this article we focus on the first of these goals and give you some of the fascinating findings about how vision-impaired users work with web sites.

Redish, Janice C. 'Ginny' and Mary Frances Theofanos. Usability Interface (2003). Design>Usability>Methods

Readability Formulas Have Even More Limitations Than Klare Discusses    

A literature review reveals many technical weaknesses of readability formulas (when compared to direct usability testing with typical readers): they were developed for children's school books, not adult technical documentation;they ignore between-reader differences and the effects of content, layout, and retrieval aids on text usefulness; they emphasize countable features at the expense of more subtle contributors to text comprehension.

Redish, Janice C. 'Ginny'. Journal of Computer Documentation (2000). Articles>Writing>Assessment>Formulas

Six Tips to Ensure a Successful Usability Test

Success in usability testing is learning what you need to know. That includes finding out both what is working well and what is not working well. Focusing on formative tests—with an eye toward identifying problems and bringing the issues to the team—is the secret to successful usability testing.

Redish, Janice C. 'Ginny'. Usability Interface (2005). Articles>Usability>Testing

STC Transformation Project: Focus on Communities

I’m talking with you today because I was part of a three-person team that took the lead on thinking about communities for the STC Transformation Project. The two other members of that team were Fred Sampson and Whitney Quesenbery. Fred, Whitney, and I based our work on the goals and principles that the STC Board established for the Transformation Project. As we worked on the concepts for communities, we thought about how to apply these principles to meet the goals.

Redish, Janice C. 'Ginny'. STC East Bay (2004). Articles>TC>Community Building>STC

Structuring Your Documents for Maximum Reuse  

A major topic among information development managers these days is single sourcing--writing information once and using it many times. Structured documents are critical for single sourcing. So, let's explore: what we mean by structuring documents; why structuring is useful; some of the concerns that writers have about structuring documents.

Redish, Janice C. 'Ginny'. Center for Information-Development Management (2005). Articles>Content Management>Information Design>XML

Understanding Users' Work: Doing Task Analysis Before Design  

Are you interested in a gaining a better understanding of tasks and task analysis? Are you looking for practical hints on doing workflow analysis, job analysis, or procedural analysis? Are you used to writing about tasks based on product features, when you know the product would be better if the team had done task analysis first? If so, come participate in this demonstration/workshop in which we'll explore how to understand users' work by doing task analysis before designing the product.

Redish, Janice C. 'Ginny'. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>User Centered Design>Methods

What Is Information Design?    

This commentary provides two definitions of information design: the overall process and the presentation of information on page and on screen. It then recounts the history of information design in both these senses, and attempts to predict the future importance of both meanings of information design, in terms of design for the Web and single-sourcing.

Redish, Janice C. 'Ginny'. Technical Communication Online (2000). Design>Information Design

Writing for the Web: Letting Go of the Words  

Explains that users who seek technical information from the Web want to find what they need and understand what they find as quickly as possible. Offers guidelines for writing Web content that supports these goals.

Redish, Janice C. 'Ginny'. Intercom (2004). Design>Web Design>Writing

Writing as an Asynchronous Conversation

Conversation is a theme that flows through all the work we do as technical communicators. Every use of your web site is a conversation started by a busy site visitor.

Redish, Janice C. 'Ginny'. STC Proceedings (2008). Presentations>Web Design>Writing>User Centered Design

Ginny Redish — Letting Go of the Words

Anticipate the reader’s questions and then construct your writing as a response. This type of writing focuses you on your audience and gets you thinking about the specific questions, concerns, issues, and other problems your users might have. Each sentence you write should somehow answers those questions — you construct the conversation.

Redish, Janice C. 'Ginny' and Tom H. Johnson. I'd Rather Be Writing (2009). Articles>Interviews>Writing>Podcasts

Content! Content! Content!  

People don’t come to the web to linger over the words. Most uses of the web are for gathering information or doing tasks, not for the pleasure of reading. If your busy web users lose interest or don’t find the information relevant, they’ll stop reading. If they can’t find what they need quickly enough, they’ll leave your site and go elsewhere.

Redish, Janice C. 'Ginny'. Redish.net (2007). Articles>Web Design>Writing

Breaking Up Large Documents for the Web - Part 1

To present content on the web in the amount that most people want: think “topic,” not “book”; break large documents into topics and subtopics.

Redish, Janice C. 'Ginny'. User Interface Engineering (2009). Articles>Web Design>Information Design

Breaking Up Large Documents for the Web - Part 2

One page or separate pages? When faced with that decision, ask yourself these questions: How much do people want in one visit? How connected is the information? Am I overloading my site visitors? How long is the web page? What’s the download time? Will people want to print? How much will they want to print?

Redish, Janice C. 'Ginny'. User Interface Engineering (2009). Articles>Web Design>Information Design>Writing