Accountability and Return-On-Investment

Once viewed more as art than science, marketers are increasingly interested in measuring performance. Like it or not, there is a new wave of accountability in the world of marketing, and if you're not prepared, you could get swept under it. Companies are becoming increasingly concerned with ensuring that all activities are profitable. As a result, each dollar invested in marketing is being challenged to demonstrate bottom line performance. New forms of marketing, escalating ad costs and tools that purport to measure marketing effectiveness have all contributed to the pressure traditional media is facing to "prove its worth."

Watrall, Rick. Communication World Bulletin (2003). Articles>Business Communication>Marketing>Assessment

Accountable Assessment in the Age of Digital Labor  

Entrepreneurship is THE economic mode of the digital age and entrepreneurship is defined by risk. Students who will become workers must be comfortable, even engaged by, risk-taking.

Glaros, Michelle. Kairos (2001). Articles>Education>Assessment>Online

The Achilles Heel of Product Design Competitions and the Fair Judging Solution

I have judged a fair number of national and international product design competitions (five in the past three years alone) and each has made the same procedural mistake: products are assembled and categorized, judging criterion are devised, reputable judges are assembled, and yet we judges never see or touch the products in person. Instead, we receive a set of written documents describing each product, its intended function, and its design process. Imagine an art contest conducted by email and you get the gist of what's going on out there.

Buttiglieri, Rich. Usability Professionals Association (2007). Design>Usability>Assessment

Adding Value as a Professional Technical Communicator    

Value added means generating greater return on investment than the cost of the initial investment.

Redish, Janice C. 'Ginny'. Technical Communication Online (1995). Articles>TC>Assessment

Alternative Ways to Measure the Effectiveness of Your Publications

If you want to go beyond the usual limits of a traditional readership survey that tells you how well received a publication is, first clarify your objectives. Then you might include additional "impact" questions on your next survey, conduct in-depth focus groups with readers, and conduct some objective, "audience-free" measurements of the publication to see how well those objectives were met.

Sinickas, Angela D. Sinickas Communications (1998). Articles>Management>Communication>Assessment

Analyze Your Web Site Traffic

If you run a Web site, you're probably already thinking about tracking and analyzing the traffic it gets. Knowing how many pages are accessed, when, by whom, and for what purposes can mean the difference between simply having a Web site and building a sound Web strategy. Understanding how people use your site can help you--and your sales and marketing team--generate more traffic. If you can track your audience, learn which pages and resources are most popular, and identify technical problems and system bottlenecks, you can deliver a better experience. And that's the best way to keep people coming back to your site.

Aviram, Mariva H. Builder.com (1998). Articles>Usability>Assessment

Annual Awards for Contributions to the Field of Technical Communications  

The ACM SIGDOC Executive Board welcomes letters of nomination for the SIGDOC Rigo and Diana Awards. The Rigo Award celebrates an individual's lifetime contribution to the field of information design, technical communication, and online information design; the Diana Award celebrates the contribution of an organization, institution, or business.

ACM SIGDOC. Academic>Research>Assessment

Anvendelighed som Succeskriterie

Normalt arbejder man i en velkendt kontekst på sin lokale computer, hvad enten der er tale om Windows, Kde, RedHat, Mac os X m.fl. men når vi åbner døren til Internet bliver disse rutiner ødelagt af noget som ikke altid er til at sætte fingeren på. Hvad er det som gør webløsninger svære at arbejde med og finde rundt i? Når man første gang sætter sig foran en computer er det som oftest med et mål. Nysgerrighed, at komme på Internet og shoppe, at skrive et brev og mange andre ting. Oftest er det denne drivkraft som får os til at tage de første slidsomme uger med styresystemet som man langsomt kommer til at forstå, og som man på sigt bliver fortroligt med idet det er den platform som giver og adgang til alle de digitale oplevelser. Kan man ikke arbejde på platformen vil man med sikkerhed heller ikke kunne opnå sine mål med arbejdet.

Orgaard Larsen, Thomas. Quark, The (2002). (Danish) Design>Web Design>Assessment

Appraising Technical Communicators  

Appraisals based on objective performance criteria identify and measure the abilities and contributions of technical communicators. This workshop explores how to develop effective performance criteria, specific to technical communication, and how to use these criteria to evaluate performance and foster professional growth and development.

Gilbert, Catherine E. and Sharon A. Gambaro. STC Proceedings (1994). Careers>TC>Assessment

Are Organizations Doing Enough to Improve Customer Satisfaction

Time-to-market pressure can diminish product testing time and quality. The results are product recalls, shoddy merchandise, and apologies by CEOs about poor quality. The consequence is the loss of consumer confidence. Don’t these companies realise that there’s no compromise on quality? I’m sure that these companies are ISO 9000 certified or have a Total Quality Management (TQM) program, so what is the problem? Perhaps the problem is not with ISO 9000 or TQM but with the way it is used.

Dick, David J. and Shelby Rosiak. Usability Interface (2000). Articles>Usability>Assessment>ISO 9000

Are You Spending the "Right" Amount?  

To back up a request for more budgetor defend the existing one, you need to know exactly what you’re spending--and what you’re getting in return. But how can you tell if you’re spending too much on communication? This article suggests five approaches to weighing up the cost versus value of your communication activities.

Sinickas, Angela D. Sinickas Communications (2006). Articles>Management>Financial>Assessment

Assessing Community Informatics: A Review of Methodological Approaches for Evaluating Community Networks and Community Technology Centers  

This paper analyzes emerging community informatics evaluation literature to develop an understanding of indicators used to gauge project impacts in community networks and technology centers.

O'Neil, Dara. Georgia Institute of Technology (2002). Articles>Communication>Community Building>Assessment

Assessing Existing Engineering Communication Programs: Lessons Learned from a Pilot Study  

Increased support for greater accountability and assessment of engineering communication programs have led many schools of engineering and technology to initiate methods of assessing the quality of their students’ engineering communication abilities. In my institution, I have spearheaded the pilot year of such a program, and, as anticipated, have learned several valuable lessons that may be of interest to others interested in developing assessment procedures for engineering communication programs.

Rush Hovde, Marjorie. CPTSC Proceedings (2000). Academic>Education>Engineering>Assessment

Assessing Proficiency in Engineering English      

Though engineers around the world conduct their work in nearly every language on the planet, there are very few who never use English for some aspect of their job. The largest professional engineering organizations use English as their primary language; most of the world’s engineering publications are written in English; and nearly all cooperative ventures with multinational participation choose English for their common language of communication. Unfortunately, most of the world’s engineers are not native speakers of English and thus are considerably disadvantaged in professional terms.

Orr, Thomas. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication (2002). Articles>Language>Assessment

Assessing Publications Process-Maturity: The Experiences of Two Organizations at Different Levels of Process Maturity  

As Information Development organizations grow and mature, their organizational structure should grow and mature as well. The optimal structure for an organization in its early stages should focus on achieving stability and repeatable quality. As an organization matures, the optimal structure may need to be significantly different to develop a more thorough understanding of customers and contribute substantially to customer satisfaction.

Hackos, JoAnn T., Lisa Blaschke, Brenda MacKay and Deborah J. Rosenquist. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Information Design>Assessment>Case Studies

Assessing the Value Added by In-House Technical Communication Courses  

A specially designed instrument that measures the effectiveness of written communication courses taught in-house has been pilot-tested with employees of a major power utility. The instrument showed that, one month afrr attending the course, participants’ written communication skills increased by twenty percent. A second measurement, recordedfour months aJer the course, showed there had been only a marginal drop in skills compared to the level recorded three months earlier.

Blicq, Ronald S. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Writing>Assessment

Assessing Web Site Quality  

Lists several questions to pose when evaluating a Web site's form and content.

Smart, Karl L. Intercom (2000). Design>Web Design>Assessment

Review: Balanced Scorecard Step-by-Step: Maximizing Performance and Maintaining Results

Paul Niven's book is invaluable for communicators whose companies are implementing a Balanced Scorecard, and it can also provide a great deal of useful information on setting measurable goals for a staff function like communication to ensure it aligns with a company's strategy. The book provides easy-to-understand summaries of how various business processes work for communicators who want to better understand their businesses.

Sinickas, Angela D. Communication World Bulletin (2003). Articles>Reviews>Communication>Assessment

Balancing Image Quality and Speed: How to Shave Seconds off Your Download Time

The Internet has changed the way information is displayed. According to Weinman and Heavin, (1997) “It is no longer necessary to only create compelling visuals and information - the speed with which your site is viewed is also subject to critique,” (p. 36). Internet audiences are not captive. They can leave, and often do, at any time. It is the daunting task of web designers to not only draw the audience into a page, but to keep them there. One way to attract and keep an audience is by maximizing image quality while minimizing download time. This can be accomplished by choosing appropriate graphic file formats and by utilizing a variety of file size reduction techniques.

Larsen, Laurie and Christine Phillips. Usability News (2001). Design>Web Design>Assessment

A Behavioral Framework for Assessing Graduate Technical Communication Programs

Behavioral science, with its emphasis on association, reliability, and validity provides a promising set of models upon which to enhance further work in scientific and technical communication. Our proposed model is based on the five independent variables that, when constructed validly and measured reliably, may be associated with effective programs in technical and scientific communication.

Coppola, Nancy W. and Norbert Elliott. CPTSC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Education>Assessment

Benchmarking the Document Management Process  

The Bank of Canada manages the public debt as fiscal agent, for the Federal Government. As a public service organization, it is committed to deliver quality services to its clients in a cost effective and efficient manner. Recognizing that a fundamental role of documentation is to provide continuity within a changing environment, the Public Debt Department (POD) piloted best practices benchmarking of its internal documentation unit with partners identified as having best-in-class processes.

Edwards, Roy, James D. McGuire and Shirley A. Hancock. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Content Management>Assessment

Benchmarking: Ugly Truths and Unpredictable Outcomes

A walk through a benchmarking project, sharing some of the behind-the-scenes stories of benchmarking gone right, and gone wrong. So, here they are, complete with tales of terror, moments of madness and even some back-room horse-trading.

Sinickas, Angela D. Sinickas Communications (2000). Articles>Management>Communication>Assessment

Bobby: the World Wide Web Accessibility Tool and Your Web Site

Bobby tools can help you know some real touches you can give to your web site to enrich its accessibility. Since the Bobby document is the generalization of strategies and techniques to further web site usability concern, you can selectively and optimally adopt them to serve your purpose the best way.

Azam, Rahbre. Amateur Writerz (2007). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Assessment

Borders Are Not Barriers: Running a Multilingual Tech Pubs Competition  

This presentation is aimed at all those who would like to either participate in a Technical Publications Competition in a language other than English or organize multilingual Technical Publications in their chapter. And we hope you will! We briefly describe why and how we came to organize multilingual competition in the France Chapter. There is some practical information but feel free to ask us questions. We will do our best to answer you.

O'Neill, Jennifer and Patricia McClelland. STC Proceedings (2001). Presentations>Language>Assessment

Bridges To Trust: Achieving Corporate Expectations within a Skeptical Environment  

Explains some of the tough challenges, novel approaches and successful procedures implemented at Leybold Inficon--actions that worked there, and may also be helpful to you in building a more tightly-coordinated technical communication function within your company.

Inch, Richard. STC Central New York (1999). Presentations>Workplace>Assessment