Ambient Findability: Talking with Peter Morville

Can we reasonably judge authority? How can we make good decisions in the information age? How do we know enough to ask the right questions? Peter Morville takes a moment to talk with us about these and other potential answers, his most recent book, the death of data, and our fascination with the future.

Danzico, Liz. Boxes and Arrows (2005). Articles>Interviews>Information Design

Analyzing Your Users and Needs Before Creating the Help Deliverables; Interview with Nicky Bleiel

In this podcast, Nicky Bleiel says we should talk to as many users as we can — conducting on-site visits, sending surveys, gathering information from Marketing, Support, and other departments — so we can have a better understanding of our users’ needs and the formats and mediums that will work best for them. After completing this audience and needs analysis, we can then go out and create the deliverables that will best serve our users.

Bleiel, Nicky and Tom H. Johnson. Tech Writer Voices (2008). Articles>Interviews>Documentation>User Centered Design

Ann Rockley on the Rockley Group Blog and a New CMS Report

Ann Rockley shares information about an upcoming report on component content management systems her group will be releasing this summer. She also says the Rockley Group is launching a blog to provide quicker information to users in a more interactive way. She talks about the growing presence companies have in the blogosphere, and why they chose WordPress as their blogging tool.

Rockley, Ann and Tom H. Johnson. Tech Writer Voices (2007). Articles>Interviews>Content Management>Podcasts

Avi Parush

Few usability professionals are as well-rounded as Avi Parush. Avi has worked in industry and academia, testing and design, the Old World and the New, with web applications and airplane cockpits, in operating rooms and on the bridges of ships.

Anderson, Clifford. Usability Professionals Association (2008). Articles>Interviews>Web Design>Usability

Ben Shneiderman

Dr. Shneiderman muses on mulidisciplinarianism and reminds us that no computer is smarter than a wooden pencil.

Adlin, Tamara and Ben Shneiderman. UX Pioneers (2007). Articles>Interviews>User Experience

Brenda Laurel

Want to see what passionate thinking looks like? Peek inside a brain filled with theatre, invention, games for girls, and design-as-activism.

Adlin, Tamara and Brenda Laurel. UX Pioneers (2007). Articles>Interviews>User Experience

Building Online Communities: Interview with Svi Ben-Elya about Elephant.org.il

In this podcast, I talk with Svi Ben-Elya about Elephant.org.il. Elephant is an online community he and others created to empower technical communicators in Israel (originally in the city of Yokneam) with relevant salary information to make them more market savvy when they negotiate jobs.

Ben-Elya, Svi and Tom H. Johnson. Tech Writer Voices (2007). Articles>Interviews>Community Building>Social Networking

Chris Thompson on Searching for a Content Management System

Thompson talks about his search for the right content management system. He talks about the importance of content reuse across an entire system and having a workflow for editing, reviews, and translation. He discusses AuthorIT as a possible CMS solution. He also gives tips for talking with CMS vendors without being suckered in.

Thompson, Chris and Tom H. Johnson. Tech Writer Voices (2007). Articles>Interviews>Content Management>Podcasts

Cliff Nass

Cliff Nass revels in being weird, thinking 'wildly,' and taking 'big fliers.' But he's also fascinated by what makes everything the same. If we were all as open to oddness as he is, the world would be a much more interesting place.

Adlin, Tamara and Cliff Nass. UX Pioneers (2007). Articles>Interviews>User Experience

The Data Artist

Tufte shares Orwell's impatience with doublethink and humbuggery, his insight that bad thinking and bad expression travel in a pair, and his awareness that they are usually deployed in the service of some brand of propaganda.

Rosenberg, Scott. Salon (1997). Articles>Interviews>Visual Rhetoric>Charts and Graphs

Death to Lorem Ipsum and Other Adventures in Content

Kristina agreed to push the thinking further with a discussion about content, UX teams, and how the relationships can be strengthened to create experiences and projects that really sing. The resulting conversation start with content basics and closes with a bold challenge.

Halvorson, Kristina and Kate Rutter. Adaptive Path (2008). Articles>Interviews>Content Management

Design Critique: On Plain Language

An interview with Whitney Quesenbery about minimalism and plain language in user experience design.

Quesenbery, Whitney. Design Critique (2007). Articles>Interviews>Minimalism>Podcasts

Does Having a Blog Make You a Writer?  

For the techno-savvy TechRepublic member, writing in some form or fashion is an almost daily occurrence. But how effective is your communication? In this interview, author Barry Rosenberg shares his thoughts about the current state of technical writing skills.

Kaelin, Mark. TechRepublic (2005). Articles>Interviews>Technical Writing>Blogging

Embracing Wikis

In this podcast, Stewart talks about the following: the advantages of using a wiki for your technical documentation; why lack of advanced styles in wikis isn’t a major problem; the relentless focus on simplicity with wikis; choosing the right wiki among dozens of wiki engines.

Mader, Stewart and Tom H. Johnson. Tech Writer Voices (2008). Articles>Interviews>Wikis

Geoff Sauer on tc.eserver.org, the Largest Tech Comm Index Online

Geoff Sauer is one of the founders of tc.eserver.org--the largest online index for all works related to technical communication. The library indexes works by technical communicators in dozens of categories, and allows users to add new works, rank them, and get RSS feeds of specific titles. There are over 25,000 RSS feeds generated on the site and 15,000 visitors each day.

Sauer, Geoffrey and Tom H. Johnson. Tech Writer Voices (2007). Articles>Interviews>TC>Podcasts

George Saunders: Taking Technical Writing into the World of Fiction  

For George Saunders, recipient of a MacArthur Grant and former technical writer, years working on reports and proposals proved to be excellent training for creative writing.

Moran, Tom. Intercom (2007). Articles>Interviews>Writing>Technical Writing

Ginny Redish

Ginny Redish has been in love with language since she was twelve. And today? It's only logical--she creates conversations between people and computers.

Adlin, Tamara and Janice C. 'Ginny' Redish. UX Pioneers (2007). Articles>Interviews>User Experience

Goal-Directed Design: An Interview with Kim Goodwin

Kim Goodwin is the General Manager and Vice President of Design at Cooper. The great folks at Cooper created an interaction design methodology known as Goal-Directed Design. Their methodology identifies the goals and behaviors of users and directly translates them into the design. UIE's Christine Perfetti recently had the chance to talk with Kim about her work and we've included an excerpt of their conversation below.

Perfetti, Christine. User Interface Engineering (2007). Articles>Interviews>Web Design

Harry Miller on Multimedia Documentation

Miller, a technical editor at Microsoft interested in multimedia documentation, talks about why multimedia documentation is a growing trend and how writers can get started. He discusses Microsoft's Channel 9 and the human element with instructional screen demos.

Miller, Harry and Tom H. Johnson. Tech Writer Voices (2007). Articles>Interviews>Documentation>Multimedia

How to Create a Site Where Users Can Actually Find Information: Interview with Thom Haller

Thom Haller, information architect and director of the Center for Plain Language, talks about how to create a site where users can actually find the information they're looking for.

Haller, Thom and Tom H. Johnson. Tech Writer Voices (2007). Articles>Interviews>Web Design>Minimalism

How to Create User-Centered Documentation, Interview with Joe Sokohl

In this podcast, Joe Sokohl explains how to create user-centered documentation by contacting, observing, and interviewing users to gather information about what types of information they use and the help deliverables they actually want.

Sokohl, Joe and Tom H. Johnson. Tech Writer Voices (2008). Articles>Interviews>Documentation>User Centered Design

How XML Enables Information Sharing and Reuse — Interview with Joe Gollner

XML, a way of tagging and structuring your content, can help solve a number of problems, including storing, mining, reusing, and sharing content. XML helps enable the interoperability of information between systems, allowing you to export and import your content from one application to another. XML is behind much of the collaboration and information sharing Web 2.0 technologies, such as RSS (really simple syndication) and blogs. By storing content in XML, technical writers can ensure greater flexibility among technologies for authoring and publishing their content.

Gollner, Joe and Tom H. Johnson. Tech Writer Voices (2008). Articles>Interviews>Content Management>XML

IDEA 2008: An Interview with Bill DeRouchey

Bill DeRouchey is fascinated with buttons and the history of interface design. He talks to us as he prepares for IDEA 2008, October 7-8. In Chicago, Bill hopes to help attendees expand their sources of inspiration to include just about anything in their everyday lives.

Unger, Russ. Boxes and Arrows (2008). Articles>Interviews>User Interface>User Experience

Interactions 08 in the Garden of Good and Evil

An interview with Dan Saffer, 2008 Conference Chair and IxDA Director. Dan discusses the context of the organization, how the conference emerged and formed, what the conference will be like, and how one might get a flavor even if attendance is not an option.

Baum, Chris. Boxes and Arrows (2008). Articles>Interviews>Interaction Design>User Experience

InterMOO: Joseph Unger  

A discussion with a systems support specialist, documented from InterMOO.

Wick, Corey and Douglas Eyman. Kairos (1996). Articles>Interviews