Reusing the User Experience

As a rule of thumb, the earlier in the development process reuse can occur, the more efficient reuse becomes. Like software component reuse, the reuse of UX design elements can be a very efficient form of reuse—particularly because this form of reuse occurs very early in the product development cycle. The ability to reuse prior work effectively is one characteristic of a mature discipline.

Hornsby, Peter. UXmatters (2009). Articles>Project Management>User Interface>Planning

Is This Meeting Really Necessary?

In a world of virtual tools—blogs, wikis, feeds, forums, listservs, e-mail, IM, chat, Twitter, social networks—one would think that the traditional sit-down, face-to-face meetings had been relegated to a place in a historical museum among other old, discarded traditions (like wearing cravats). But even in the 21st century, many people still believe that if you want to accomplish serious planning and discussion, you need an in-person meeting.

Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2009). Articles>Project Management>Collaboration

Three Questions to Start Thinking Like a Content Strategist

A content strategist looks at all the content from a holistic point of view, treating everything as content, and analyzing whether each aspect of the content aligns with the company’s messaging, branding, and intent. The content strategist is acutely aware of the multifaceted nature of the user experience. It’s not just the user interface that influences the user, or the marketing material, or the training — it’s all of this and more, working together as one. The whole user experience is the content strategist’s domain, not just help materials or written text.

Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2009). Articles>Content Management>Content Strategy>Project Management

Create Effective Project Milestone Sheets

The project milestone sheet is an incredibly important document for freelancers and their clients. It defines all the most important tasks, who is assigned to them, and when they are due. In other words, it serves as the map for your entire work process.

Roque, Celine. Web Worker Daily (2009). Articles>Project Management>Planning>Methods

What's the Right Answer? Team Problem-Solving in Environments of Uncertainty    

Whether in the workplace or the classroom, many teams approach problem-solving as a search for certainty—even though certainty rarely exists in business. This search for the one right answer to a problem creates unrealistic expectations and often undermines teams' effectiveness. To help teams manage their problem-solving process and communication better, I teach a systematic comparison approach that transforms the search for certainty into a search for the best alternative based on clearly defined and weighted criteria. With this method, team members realize that all problem- solving involves subjective judgments, but that making that subjectivity transparent increases the chances that an adopted solution will in fact solve the business problem at hand.

Jameson, Daphne A. Business Communication Quarterly (2009). Articles>Education>Project Management>Collaboration

Why Good Projects Go Bad

The number of IT projects that end in failure is staggering. According to a 2007 study by researcher Market Dynamics, 62% of all IT projects miss their deadlines, 49% go over budget and 41% fail to deliver the benefits that were expected. That is worrying enough for IT departments. But for consultants and software vendors, keenly aware that project failure could well result in litigation, it is a constant concern.

Swabey, Pete. Information Age (2009). Articles>Project Management>Collaboration>Technology

Lying in a Hammock, or, Having a Single Goal without a Purpose

When you live in the moment, completing the activity itself is the success. And because writing is so multifaceted in effect — the effect both on me and others — having an open purpose doesn’t limit the results. I’m not narrow-mindedly searching for a specific achievement to happen. Instead, I’m open to unconsidered possibilities, if any of those possibilities decide to unravel.

Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2009). Articles>Project Management>Planning>Writing

Stasis Theory as a Strategy for Workplace Teaming and Decision Making    

Current scholarship tells us that skills in teaming are essential for students and practitioners of professional communication. Writers must be able to cooperate with subject-matter experts and team members to make effective decisions and complete projects. Scholarship also suggests that rapid changes in technology and changes in teaming processes challenge workplace communication and cooperation. Professional writers must be able to use complex software for projects that are often completed by multidisciplinary teams working remotely. Moreover, as technical writers shift from content developers to project managers, our responsibilities now include useradvocacy and supervision, further invigorating the need for successful communication. This article offers a different vision of an ancient heuristic—stasis theory—as a solution for the teaming challenges facing today's professional writers. Stasis theory, used as a generative heuristic rather than an eristic weapon, can help foster teaming and effective decision making in contemporary pedagogical and workplace contexts.

Brizee, H. Allen. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2008). Articles>Education>Project Management>Collaboration

Information Technologies as Discursive Agents: Methodological Implications for the Empirical Study of Knowledge Work    

Work activities that are mediated by information rely on the production of discourse-based objects of work. Designs, evaluations, and conditions are all objects that originate and materialize in discourse. They are created and maintained through the coordinated efforts of human and non-human agents. Genres help foster such coordination from the top down, by providing guidance to create and recreate discourse objects of recurring social value. From where, however, does coordination emerge in more ad hoc discursive activities, where the work objects are novel, unknown, or unstable? In these situations, coordination emerges from simple discursive operations, reliably mediated by information and communication technologies (ICTs) that appear to act as discursive agents. This article theorizes the discursive agency of ICTs, explores the discursive operations they mediate, and the coordination that emerges. The article also offers and models a study methodology for the empirical observation of such interactions.

Swarts, Jason. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2008). Articles>Knowledge Management>Project Management>Technology

Fifteen Steps to a More Productive Workday

Freelance designers, as well as those who work for small design studios, often face the challenge of getting the most productivity out of their time and achieving maximum efficiency. While this can be a struggle for anyone in a more “typical” job, freelancers have added distractions, unique challenges, and no one to hold them accountable. To be a successful freelancer you’ll have to place a priority on productivity and find ways that work for you.

Vandelay Design Blog (2009). Articles>Freelance>Project Management>Workflow

What’s Wrong with PowerPoint as a Document Authoring Tool?

It is our position that use of PowerPoint for document planning negatively impacts all potential collaborative authoring and review outcomes. Though PowerPoint is commonly used because it is a familiar tool, it is not the most effective tool for managing knowledge either intellectually or financially.

Cuppan, Gregory P. Brainery.net (2009). Articles>Project Management>Technical Writing>Microsoft PowerPoint

Project Management is Not Overhead!

Practicing good project management in the area of initiation, planning and execution will increase the performance of your project execution. Resources will be better utilized and the team will be more motivated and organized. This will reduce any duplication of effort and ensure that dependencies are dealt with in an optimal manor.

Vaughan, Jim. CIO Magazine (2009). Articles>Project Management

Integrating Prototyping Into Your Design Process

Prototyping is a big deal right now. We get wrapped up in mailing list threads, new tools are released at an astonishing pace, books are being published, and articles show up on Boxes & Arrows. Clients are even asking for prototypes. But here’s the thing… prototyping is not a silver bullet. There is no one right way to do it. However, prototyping is a high silver content bullet. When aimed well, a prototype can answer design questions and communicate design ideas. In this article, I talk about the dimensions of prototype fidelity and how you can use them to choose the most effective prototyping method for the questions you need answered.

Beecher, Frederick. Boxes and Arrows (2009). Articles>Project Management>Prototyping

The Content Conundrum

There’s often an unsettling discrepancy between the stakeholder approved wireframes and visual comps and the actual product in production. What you see in those environments is sometimes a far cry from those polished wireframes and those shiny, pixel-perfect visualizations that were filled with placeholder content (such as lorem ipsum text, dummy copy, and image blocks). What you’re seeing in production environments now holds the real content. The imagery doesn’t support the interactions, is meaningless, useless, or worse, contradictory to the design intent. The copy, headers, and labels are unclear, too long, too short, or simply irrelevant. What happened?

Detzi, Christopher. Boxes and Arrows (2009). Articles>Web Design>Project Management

Legal Requirements in the New Age

Consider a plan that identifies who in your company will address phone or other inquiries if something goes viral (read the article and you’ll see what I mean).

2moro Docs (2009). Articles>Project Management>Social Networking>Crisis Communication

Information Overload: Conversation with Ricardo Amigo

Dealing with information overload can be a huge stressor in life. Not only trying to keep up with the constant deluge of information that comes at you daily, but also managing that information in an organized way — so that you can find and implement it — can put your sanity in question. In this podcast, I talk with Ricardo Amigo, a translator in Costa Rica, about different ways to manage information overload.

Johnson, Tom H. and Ricardo Amigo. I'd Rather Be Writing (2009). Articles>Interviews>Project Management>Information Design

Too Many Inputs Freak Out the Technical Writer

In such a scenario, this article presents some of the practices that have helped me track and address inputs effectively – regardless of their volume and importance.

Machani, Sridhar. Indus (2009). Articles>Project Management>Writing>Technical Writing

Organizational Culture 101: A Practical How-To For Interaction Designers

It’s happened to all of us. We walk into what we think is a Web redesign project, only to find we have unwittingly ignited the fires of WW III in our client’s organization. What begins as a simple design project descends – quickly – into an intra-organizational battle, with the unprepared interaction designer caught in the crossfire. What is it about design projects that seem to attract such power struggles? Contrary to what you might think, being stuck in the middle of an internecine battle is actually an opportunity to effect meaningful change on your client’s organization. But it requires a set of practical tools to negotiate these battles and a more sophisticated language and knowledge to exploit these events to create meaningful change.

Ladner, Sam. Johnny Holland (2009). Articles>Project Management>Interaction Design>Workplace

Managing Documentation Projects: Keeping the Plates Spinning

A product is only as good as its information. With good information, customers can use the product--be it a piece of software, a hand-held electronic device, or a supersonic aircraft--and are more likely to hold a good opinion of its manufacturer. Without good information, no matter how good the product is, customers will be frustrated and will probably look elsewhere. It's not a stretch to say that the documentation project manager is instrumental in determining whether a product succeeds.

Kunz, Lawrence D. SDI Global Solutions (2009). Articles>Documentation>Project Management

Managing a Documentation Project Successfully: More Jelly and Ice Cream

This video on simplifying business, using the metaphor of organising a children’s party, made me smile and consider how successful documentation projects are managed. The presenter is suggesting managers need to, in complex systems, give up rigid control from above. Instead, they should watch for organisational patterns, encouraging the good and discouraging the bad.

Pratt, Ellis. Cherryleaf (2009). Articles>Management>Documentation>Project Management

How Soon is Now?

One common complaint a lot of technical writers have is that they aren’t included early enough in lifecycle of a project. The downsides are that by the time work hits your desk you don’t have a full picture of who the customer is, why they want whatever it is you are building, and how they want it provided to them. All of which directly impacts the information being created.

McLean, Donna. One Man Writes (2009). Articles>Project Management>Technical Writing>Collaboration

Going Viral

Our plan was to market Project Dragonfly virally. Going out now meant that we were a little early and many details were still on the to-do list. As a user centered design practitioner working with an Agile Development process, I was comfortable working in an iterative manner to engage users quickly so that we think through details and bring solutions forward. Yet something about this situation seemed different to me. We wanted the world to broadcast about the benefits of Project Dragonfly while our marketing efforts simply facilitated the conversation.

Arnold, Steve. Designing the User Experience at Autodesk (2009). Articles>User Centered Design>Project Management>Marketing

From Drawing Board to Working Code: Software in the Real World

Some of my designs never make it to market due to lack of funding prior to release and the company slips quietly away or gets bought and I lose contact. Other times by the time the software is released, the person who hired me has left the company and moved onto other pastures. So it's always a treat when someone calls me back to say "Would you like to come in and see the software? We're nearly done."

Sprezzatura Systems (2007). Articles>Project Management>Programming>Case Studies

Symphony or Jazz Band Metaphor for Software Development

One of the online lists I read frequently has been debating the proper metaphor for the software development environment. The building trade has been used quite often in the past. In fact, we use the term "architect" quite frequently, although ten software engineers will probably give you ten different definitions of what an architect actually should do. I think there is no single metaphor for software development roles because there is not a single software development environment.

Sprezzatura Systems (2007). Articles>Project Management>Programming

Websites: Designed by Dogs, Managed by Cats 

Websites are generally designed by dogs. There’s a lot of optimism. The dogs look at the website and think of it as an endless attic. No matter how much stuff you into it, there’s always room for more. The dogs approach each design step with a ‘have gigabytes, must fill’ enthusiasm. And then cats have to manage the website. The dogs let everyone publish and the cats are certainly not going to review all this stuff. The dogs created an architecture where everyone can find everything and now nobody can find anything. The cats shake their heads.

McGovern, Gerry. I Heart Tech Docs (2007). Articles>Web Design>Project Management