Steve Smith on HTML5 and CSS3

Specifications are moving in the direction of how we have been using the web for the past five years or more, e.g. video, audio and user generated content. Developers have started to fall into habits (some good, some bad), and so the specs are trying to make those habits easier and more standardized. The structural tags, web forms, and advanced CSS are all letting us do the same things we’ve been doing for years, just in an easier, more standardized way.

Whitaker, Keir. Carsonified (2009). Articles>Interviews>Standards>HTML5

Personas and Goal-Directed Design: An Interview with Kim Goodwin

We use personas because they are powerful design, measurement, and communication tools. We use them in design to help us avoid the elastic user problem--where "the user" is a total novice one minute and a technophile the next--as well as self-referential design, because designers are seldom representative of a product's target audience. Personas also help cut through assumptions that certain tasks are necessary; if a task doesn't directly help accomplish a goal, we can try to eliminate it.

Klee, Matthew. User Interface Engineering (2001). Articles>Interviews>User Centered Design>Personas

Janet Swisher on FLOSS Manuals, Open Source, and Book Sprints 

Janet Swisher, who’s worked in technical communication since 1999, is an Information Developer for a medium-sized software company. Her specialist areas include online help, tutorials, API documentation and programmer guides. My “techie” cred is that she “can read code well enough to avoid asking obvious questions, and write code well enough to be dangerous.”

Walsh, Ivan. I Heart Tech Docs (2009). Articles>Interviews>Technical Writing>Open Source

The Scoop on Content Strategy: An Interview with Kristina Halvorson 

As a participant in the Content Strategy Consortium at the IA Summit 2009, I have enjoyed watching content strategy grow into a user experience discipline. The most recent and significant sign of content strategy’s rise is the release of Content Strategy for the Web by Kristina Halvorson. Kristina is a renowned content strategist, co-curator of the Content Strategy Consortium, and president of Brain Traffic. I was honored to chat recently with Kristina about her new book.

Jones, Colleen. UXmatters (2009). Articles>Interviews>Content Strategy>Content Management

Interview with Patrick Lambe: “Real Value Comes from Building Relationships” 

An enormous amount of knowledge resides within international organizations. But how can the knowledge management (KM) team unlock this information and make it available to a large number of employees around the globe? How much knowledge should actually be shared and what kind of experience should not be passed on because it might hinder innovation and creative thinking? In an interview with tcworld KM expert Patrick Lambe answered these and many other questions.

Melville, Corinna. TC World (2009). Articles>Interviews>Knowledge Management>Organizational Communication

Interview with Robert Gibson: "Communicate Consistent Messages" 

Being active in 190 countries around the world, mergers and acquistions are part of the business routine for the engineering conglemerate Siemens AG. A smooth integration process is vital for business success. Supporting this integration process is one of the tasks of Robert Gibson, senior consultant for training and projects at the Siemens headquarters in Munich, Germany. tcworld spoke to him about the challenge of integrating new corporate and national cultures.

Melville, Corinna. TC World (2008). Articles>Interviews>Business Communication>Workplace

Interview with Thomas Kaeslin: "Show Willingness to Adapt to Local Customs" 

Thomas Kaeslin is Vice President and Director of ABB’s Robotics Division in Japan. Having lived and worked in Japan for ten years – with no fixed plans of returning to his home country Switzerland – he is well-integrated and holds rich experiences in the Japanese day-to-day business life.

Melville, Corinna. TC World (2008). Articles>Interviews>Regional>Japan