Instruction-Writing Exercises (for High School)

These guidelines and 14 scaffolded exercises respond to the unmet need for a psychologically solid, work-relevant way to learn technical writing by students who are NOT facile writers already.

Girill, T.R. STC East Bay (2001). Articles>Education>Instructional Design>Documentation

Instructional Design and Software Quality Assurance, Part I  

Describes how instructional design principles can improve documentation.

Nayar, Pawan. Intercom (2001). Articles>Documentation>Instructional Design

Instructional Design: Choosing the Proper Authoring Tool  

Searching for the right tool for your instructional design needs? Learn about your options through capsule reviews of instructional simulation programs and full-service authoring tools.

Holden, Gene. Intercom (2004). Articles>Documentation>Instructional Design

Intentional Learning in an Intentional World: Audience Analysis and Instructional System Design for Successful Learning and Performance    

How do we support successful, lifelong learners and performers and help them competently respond to rapidly changing opportunities in the 21st century. The answer to this question lies in how well we understand audiences differentiated by key learning differences and consider how these differentiations influence winning learning and performance. Historically, cognitive-rich explanations have tended to underplay the dominant impact of affective and conative factors on thinking and learning. Recently, these dimensions have gained considerable importance as contemporary multidisciplinary research has begun to demonstrate how intentions and emotions can influence, guide, and, at times, override our thinking and other cognitive processes. More importantly, research suggests that intentions and emotions are a dominant, powerful influence on learner success.

Martinez, Margaret. Journal of Computer Documentation (2000). Articles>Documentation>Instructional Design>Education

It's Not Enough to Say What it Does

All too often, developers think that documenting their new creations just means writing a detailed technical description of what it does. In a sense, they're explaining things to themselves. But what you really need to do is explain things to someone who's coming across your stuff for the first time.

McManus, Eamonn. Artima (2004). Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design

Keeping Pace with Change

Documentation isn't the most fun part of design and IA, but does it have to be the most painful? Samantha Bailey looks at a tool that may help.

Bailey, Samantha. Boxes and Arrows. Articles>Documentation>Information Design

The Kind of Documentation Users Really Want

Have you ever asked your users what kind of training materials they want, or how they prefer to learn software? This kind of information is critical to figuring out what help deliverables to produce. But really when it comes down to it, there are only so many options — printed manuals, short guides, interactive flash guides, videos, online help, live training, reference cards, context-sensitive help, workbooks and exercises, or, usually the favorite, someone to stand by their computer and answer questions whenever they need help.

Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2008). Articles>Documentation>Usability>User Centered Design

Let's Stop Writing Documentation and Start Working for the Users  

Nearly 20 years ago, the profession of technical communication began to focus on developing task-oriented documentation. Although task-oriented documentation has always been produced, particularly for consumer products, it was not the standard in the computer industry. More often, people writing about computer systems focused on the system rather than on the tasks people needed to perform. Systems-oriented documentation was the norm.

ComTech Services. Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design

Let's Stop Writing Documentation and Start Working for the Users  

Technical communication's long-time focus on task-oriented documentation has left customers with too many tasks and too much information; itï¿Âs time for a new approach. A user-centered approach reflecting a thorough understanding of users and how they engage the product is the surest route to effective documentation and training. To understand what users need, we need to get closer to them by spending time in their workplaces, watching them execute everyday tasks, and listening to them. Through this kind of ethnographic activity, we will become user experts, gaining credibility within our own organizations and our user communities.

Hackos, JoAnn T. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design

Little Machines: Understanding Users Understanding Interfaces    

This paper questions the ubiquitous practice of supplying minimalist information to users, of making that information functional only, of assuming that the Shannon-Weaver communication model should govern online systems, and of ignoring the social implications of such a stance. Help systems that provide fast, temporary solutions without providing any background information lead to the danger of users completing tasks that they do not understand at all. (Word will help us write a legal pleading, even if we have no idea what one is.) As a result, we have help systems that attempt to be invisible and to provide tool instruction but not conceptual instruction. Such a system presents itself as a neutral tool, but it is actually an incomplete environment, denying both the complexity and alternative (and possibly improved) modes of thinking about the subject at hand.

Johnson-Eilola, Johndan. Journal of Computer Documentation (2001). Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design>Usability

Making Help More Human, and Other Discussions

Discusses a number of trends in the technical writing world, particularly the need to make help more human by adopting conversational tones and addressing the angry/frantic state of the user.

Johnson, Tom H. and Heidi Hansen. Tech Writer Voices (2007). Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design>Help

A Millennial Paradigm for Documentation: the Scroll!

Although some zealots have proposed eliminating printed information entirely in favor of online help systems, Adobe Acrobat files, and even e-books, discarding printed books may prove less effective than simply modernizing them. Scrolls are the logical successors to books.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Geoff-Hart.com (2001). Articles>Documentation>Information Design

New Life for Product Documentation

Here are some 'truths' we've all heard: 'Documentation is just a band-aid for poor design.' 'Real users don't read manuals.' 'Super users never read anything.' 'Help doesn't.' But are they really true? I've seen some signs of life in the use of documentation for digital products recently.

Quesenbery, Whitney. UXmatters (2006). Articles>Documentation>User Interface>User Centered Design

Non-Fatal Errors: Creating Usable, Effective Error Messages

It's often easy to identify what kinds of error messages don't help users, but it can be tricky to avoid them, and even more of a challenge to create the opposite: error messages that give users a clear indication of the problem, offer information to help them fix it, and provide tips on how to avoid the same situation in the future. This paper details the steps involved in creating understandable, helpful error messages, and suggests ways of communicating the value of good error messages to managers and executives.

Wilska, Emily. WritersUA (2004). Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design>Online

On My Little Planet...

Nobody reads user manuals for pleasure. And yet we all make our living from them, and hope that what we produce is at least useful, if not actually enjoyable

Bardez, Jean-Paul. TC-FORUM (2000). Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design

Online Documentation in Reference-Based Instruction: A Practical Model for Integrating Help Systems Into Product Training    

Companies can improve customer satisfaction while reducing training time and product support costs by integrating online documentation with product training. Online documentation can be designed to be not only the reference at the point of use but also the primary instructional medium used during training. This use of the online documentation during training increases user acceptance of it and helps develop the required skills for its use. This expanded role for online documentation provides new opportunities for technical communicators to add value to their roles within their companies. This article defines reference-based instruction and outlines its benefits. It describes how reference-based instruction can be incorporated into an instructional system design (ISD) and provides specific examples of learning objectives and student exercises. It lists guidelines for how to structure usability tests for Help systems, and finally, it advises how technical communicators can use reference-based instruction to ex

Hughes, Michael A. Technical Communication Online (1997). Articles>Documentation>Instructional Design>Education

Online-Dokumentation aus Anwendersicht  

Benutzerinstruktion muß sein. In Form von Online-Documentation ist sie unmittelbarer Teil des Programms.

von Obert, Alexander. Techwriter.de (1998). Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design>Help

Peaks and Pitfalls of Implementing a New Documentation Strategy  

In 1993, Compaq Computer Corporation ventured into a totally different market--the consumer market. Once known primarily as a company that manufactured high quality, expensive business computers through its elaborate dealer network, Compaq was faced with selling its units to consumers through retail outlets. As a result, the PC Marketing Communications department concluded that its current documentation set was not giving the students; retirees; homemakers; and small business owners, who work out of their home offices, the kind of information they needed to be productive. This led the department to the challenge of creating a new documentation set that would meet the needs of these new customers.

Clifton, Deborah, Deborah R. Crockett, Diana Jaques and Sharon B. Jones. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design

Photo-Tracing

One of the most effective methods of creating a technical illustration is the photo-tracing technique.

ITEDO Software (2001). Articles>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration>Documentation

A Process for Creating Interactive Instructions  

In an undertaking such as the metamorphosis from printed instructions to on-line instructions, it is important to have a process in place. Relying on the process used by the User Interface Design Department at Thomson Consumer Electronics has helped my department remain focused and on schedule with the project. This paper briefly outlines the Consumer Information Design Department’s process for creating an interactive instruction manual prototype, and might serve as a guideline for others who may also be making the leap from paper to interactivity.

Lesandrini, Jay. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Documentation>Interaction Design

Question and Answer Method of Generating Manuals  

Several Texas Instruments writing groups are using a new manual publication method that emphasizes more customer interaction early in the manual development process. This emphasis brings project teams and customers together to accurately define their expectations for the documentation. Writers chunk information as they create the manuals, which allows reviewers to look at the small pieces one at a time and to focus only on those chunks containing information pertinent to their particular expertise. This method defines manual parameters early in the process, which simplifies usability testing.

Lang, Darice. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Documentation>Information Design

Reader-Centered Documentation Provides the Necessary Context    

A features-based approach to documentation is appropriate for reference manuals, where the goal is to provide information on something the reader already knows. This article explores how to meet the needs of the reader when providing documentation for user manuals.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Intercom (2007). Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design

Restructuring Online Documentation for the World Wide Web  

Technical communicators around the world are turning to the World Wide Web us their primary delivery agent for on-line documentation. The transition from older forms of on-line documentation to HTML-based documents pre - sents new challenges in every phase of the documentation process: document creation, layout, access, and especially hypermedia capability The constant development of new web tools presents an even greater challenge for an organization seeking to stay abreast of technology with an ever decreasing budget. This panel will outline the basic steps in migrating to the web while focusing on one organization’s solution to meeting the challenges of restructuring its on-line documentation for web migration.

Goode, Christina M., Jennifer Campbell and David Hale. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Documentation>Web Design>Online

Rethinking User-Centered Information Development  

Often in the computer industry there is a tendency to provide information about the features of a system. However, customers usually purchase the system based on knowledge of its features, when they receive the product they need information on how to accomplish tasks. Developing task-oriented information requires a shift in perspective from what the computer technology can do, to what your customers want to do with the technology. The resulting information must be usercentered rather than feature-driven. These types of customer requirements demand afresh development approach.

Stertzbach, Lori A. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design>Usability

Screenshots with the Mouse Pointer

How to produce screenshots which include the mouse-pointer.

Springer, Hans. TC-FORUM (1999). Articles>Graphic Design>Documentation>Screen Captures