#31477
Talking to the Media—When It’s the Last Thing You Want To Do
During difficult times, reporters are about as welcome as a root canal. Of course, you don’t have to talk to them. Instead, you can employ what I call “Option Two—Freedom from the Press.” I coined the term when I observed a beet-red CEO of a large corporation (after a particularly difficult press conference) mumble, “In this country there is freedom of the press, and it’s too bad we don’t have freedom from the press.” If you choose to employ Option Two, however, you should be prepared to deal with the consequences.
Rockower, Gerald L. Communication World Bulletin (2004). Articles>Communication>Interviews
#28793
Ten Lessons Learned as a Technical Communicator: Interview with Rahul Prabhakar
Rahul Prabhakar talks with us today about ten lessons he has learned as a technical communicator. Rahul is an Indian technical writer living in South Korea working for Samsung.
Prabhakar, Rahul and Tom H. Johnson. Tech Writer Voices (2007). Articles>Interviews>TC>Podcasts
#31631
Do usability engineers make good managers? It depends. It's a profession that highly values its practitioners, is famous for its consultants and gurus, and also attracts its share of introverts.
Anderson, Clifford. Usability Professionals Association (2008). Articles>Interviews>Usability
#31203
The usability of voting systems is something almost all usability practitioners can get excited about. It's interesting, it's important, it's in the news, it's challenging. Sharon Laskowski has been lucky to be in on this effort from the very beginning. Her team at NIST (the National Institute of Standards and Technology) was tasked with doing major research and coming up with standards for these systems through the Help America Vote Act, passed by the US Congress in 2002.
Anderson, Clifford. Usability Professionals Association (2008). Articles>Interviews>Usability
#29326
Susan Dray was one of the first women in the field of usability. Since then, she's started her own company, published and spoken extensively, done important work with a number of professional organizations, and carved a niche for herself in field work and international usability. Through it all, though, her philosophy has remained the same: 'If the user can't use it, it doesn't work.'
Anderson, Clifford. Usability Professionals Association (2007). Articles>Interviews>Usability>History
#30255
Top Ten Worst Things SMEs Say or Do
In this podcast, I interview Brenda Huettner about strategies for overcoming the top 10 Worst Things Subject Matter Experts Say or Do.
Huettner, Brenda P. Tech Writer Voices (2007). Articles>Interviews>Collaboration>SMEs
#31733
Understanding the Need for Content Quality Management
An interview with Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler that's both a bit controversial and inspiring that looks at how good content quality management can be a great benefit for tech pubs departments.
Wieland, Diane. Writing Assistance (2006). Articles>Interviews>Content Management>Assessment
#30756
Vendor View: An Interview with Greg Simidian 
Interview with Greg Simidian, Managing Director of company information vendor Perfect Information. Discusses the company itself and how it has changed over the years, concentrating particularly on its customer relations. Considers relations between vendors and intermediaries generally, covering contract negotiation and the impact of end users, and also considering recruitment and skills issues for the information industry. Speculates on the future of the industry, considering social networking in particular. Reflects on Greg Simidian's previous career, considering the benefits of working for both mainstream and niche information providers.
Simidian, Greg. Business Information Review (2007). Articles>Interviews>Databases>Case Studies
#29919
This podcast features Char James-Tanney's June 2007 presentation to the Suncoast Florida STC chapter on virtual ways of communicating.
James-Tanny, Char and Tom H. Johnson. Tech Writer Voices (2007). Articles>Interviews>Information Design>Podcasts
#31002
What Is Your Mental Model? An Interview With Indi Young
Rosenfeld Media has just released Indi Young's Mental Models: Aligning Design Strategy With Human Behavior. Boxes and Arrows sits down with Indi to talk about the origins and evolution of the mental model.
Baum, Chris. Boxes and Arrows (2008). Articles>Interviews>User Centered Design
#26285
Dr Norman has changed the way a generation of designers in understanding people and technologies. His philosophy of usability and emotion has been widely used in designing products for people's everyday life in the west and is now also starting to have an impact upon Chinese design practices. What is Dr Norman's view on Chinese design and usability industry then? Christina Li, on behalf of the uiGarden editorial team, brings us the experience of questioning Don Norman.
Li, Christina. uiGarden (2005). Articles>Interviews>Design
#29503
A solo usability consultant who focuses on user research and strategy, Whitney thinks and writes about the role of storytelling in user experience design.
Adlin, Tamara and Whitney Quesenbery. UX Pioneers (2007). Articles>Interviews>User Experience
#28785
Whitney Quesenbery on the Five E's of Usability
Quesenbery is one of the authors of Content and Complexity: Information Design in Technical Communication. Quesenbery explains the five E's -- a simple way to talk about product usability. The five E's are efficient, effective, engaging, error-tolerant, and easy to learn. She elaborates on what it means for a product to be engaging/satisfying. Quesenbery also explains the importance of personas, which she has written about in the Personas Lifecycle by Tamara Adline and John Pruit. She says stories are essential to personas.
Quesenbery, Whitney and Tom H. Johnson. Tech Writer Voices (2007). Articles>Interviews>Usability>Podcasts
#31896
Why Content Management Projects Fail: Interview with Rahel Bailie
Many content management projects fail because organizations are either too focused on tools before properly researching their needs and processes, or because they underestimate the difficulty of migrating and restructuring their content to fit the new content management system. In this podcast, Rahel Bailie explains these pitfalls and what companies can do to avoid them, as well as how companies can climb out of problems they’re currently in. Rahel also talks about how technical communicators can influence business executives and other key stakeholders to make better decisions about content management.
Bailie, Rahel Anne. Tech Writer Voices (2008). Articles>Interviews>Content Management>Project Management
#31895
Workspaces, Collaboration, and Information Sharing — Interview with Emma Hamer
IT project teams often need to increase collaboration and communication, but they’re hampered by the cubicle walls and other physical silos they set up in the workplace. These physical obstacles force teams to have frequent meetings — which can be long and inefficient — just to keep each other updated. In this podcast, Emma Hamer talks about both physical and virtual workspaces that project teams need to increase their performance. She also outlines the rationale for teams to gather better feedback from users, project members, and others who aren’t domain experts.
Hamer, Emma C. and Tom H. Johnson. Tech Writer Voices (2008). Articles>Interviews>Collaboration>Online
#31584
In this podcast, Sarah O’Keefe talks about XSL, Flash, and live blogging. XSL (extensible stylesheet language) is a programming language that transforms XML content into a specific format, such as HTML. She explains what you can do with XSL, why it’s unique, and how the output is created.
O'Keefe, Sarah S. and Tom H. Johnson. Tech Writer Voices (2008). Articles>Interviews>XSL>Podcasts
#31620
Построить идеальныи каскад информации удается далеко не всегда 
Каковы, на Ваш взгляд, наиболее эффективные каналы передачи информации в современных компаниях?
Sinickas, Angela D. Sinickas Communications (2006). (Russian) Articles>Interviews>Business Communication
#26961
诺曼博士改变了一代设计师对人和科技的理解。在西方，他提出的可用性和情感方面的设计哲学，在人们日常产品的设计中被广泛应用。现在，中国设计界也开始受到他的影响。那么，诺曼博士对于中国的设计界和可用性行业有何看法呢？李鱼女士，代表uiGarden的编辑团队，对诺曼博士就这一问题进行了采访。
Li, Christina. uiGarden (2005). (Chinese) Articles>Interviews>Design
#32110
typoholism. noun. A disorder characterized by the excessive consumption of and dependence on type, leading to physical and psychological harm and impaired social and vocational functioning. Also called typographical abuse, font dependence.
#32191
Understanding the Need for Content Quality Management
An interview between Diane Wieland, a technology writer in Indianapolis, and Scott Abel, publisher, The Content Wrangler.
Wieland, Diane. TechCom Manager (2007). Articles>Interviews>Content Management
#32202
An Interview with Dr. JoAnn Hackos
Implementing a content-management system may seem a little outside the purview of the technical documentation manager. But, according to JoAnn Hackos, managers and their staff can play a pivotal role in the success of a content-management project. In this interview, guest editor Scott Abel, publisher of TheContentWrangler.com, chats with Hackos about how to prepare for a move to content management and explores who needs to be involved in the process and why.
Abel, Scott. TechCom Manager (2006). Articles>Interviews>Content Management
#32282
IDEA 2008: An Interview with Elliott Malkin
Where the seams of information and public space overlap and intersect, Elliott Malkin creates projects that span genres from religion to natural science. In a preview of his upcoming IDEA conference talk, Malkin talks about home-movies, butterflies, and designing for unofficial signs in public space.
Danzico, Liz. Boxes and Arrows (2008). Articles>Interviews>Information Design>Scientific Communication
#32784
A chat with technical communicator and blogger Anne Gentle in which we discuss wikis, DITA, the XO Laptop, documenting Open Source software, and a lot more.
DMN Communications (2008). Articles>Interviews>TC>Podcasts
#33285
What Constitutes “Intelligent Content”? Interview with Ann Rockley 
Intelligent content is structurally rich and semantically aware, and is therefore automatically discoverable, reusable, reconfigurable, and adaptable.
Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2008). Articles>Interviews>Content Management>Semantic
#33313
In Conversation with Adam Hyde
A conversation between Scott Nesbitt of DMN Communications and Adam Hyde, who runs FLOSS Manuals. In a wide-ranging conversation, they talk about why Adam started the project, the way in which FLOSS Manuals gets things done, Book Sprints, Adam’s thoughts on the 80/20 rule, and more.
DMN Communications (2008). Articles>Interviews>Documentation>Podcasts
