The Accidental Beginning of a Highly Successful Special Interest Group (SIG)  

SIGs exist to serve specialized needs within the greater organization. Special Interest Groups (SIGs) and Professional Interest Committees (PICs) are a tool by which the local chapters can serve a diverse range of special interests, boosting chapter membership. The Lone Star Chapter (Dallas/Fort Worth) began hosting SIG meetings three years ago. Currently, with four active SIGs, we are hosting an additional 100 to 200 members per month. This is how we built our SIGs to promote membership in STC. In the spring of 1990, a group of disgruntled contractors began to meet formally to discuss dissatisfaction with insurance plans for independents available through the society. We had been meeting informally for many years, to discuss the job market, rates available, and generally to gossip. We call it networking. personal contact or the sudden ice storm we had that night attendance was down significantly. From that point, we have kept a mailing list updated from our sign-in sheets, and sent postcard reminders about each meeting.

Steele, Karen A. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Collaboration>Case Studies>STC

AIGA Experience Design: Case Study Archive

Welcome practitioners, educators and students from all experience design disciplines! The goal of this archive is to build a teachable and learnable body of knowledge for the extended experience design community, which can be referenced and is freely accessible. These cases have been peer-reviewed and present best-practices from each year.

AIGA. Resources>Directories>Information Design>Case Studies

Are We There Yet?

It's true: even simple projects get messy. Christina Wodtke comes clean on Swiss Army knives, the writing on the wall, and the untidy glory of the Boxes and Arrows redesign contest.

Wodtke, Christina. Boxes and Arrows (2006). Articles>Web Design>Project Management>Case Studies

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

Behavior-Based Performance Expectations  

Many organizations document job-oriented expectations for their employees and tend to leave behavior-based performance criteria to the individual managers. Or, they may lump so many different jobs into a single performance criteria definition that that definition becomes meaningless for any individual group. In this paper we will discuss the difference between job-oriented expectations and behavior-based performance expectations. We will describe the process we used to create our performance expectations and will show some examples.

Crawford, Vanadis, Angela Pitts, Rosalind Radcliffe and Leah Ann Seifert. STC Proceedings (2004). Careers>TC>Case Studies

Best Practices: A Case Study at Kohler  

The plumbing division of Kohler Co. is no stranger to managing their content. They had been using BroadVision's document-management system, Relation Document Manager (RDM), for three years and authoring in Interleaf since 1989. But when BroadVision stopped supporting RDM, Mark Peterson, the technical publications manager at Kohler, was desperate to find a replacement. BroadVision offered BladeRunner, but that tool didn't sufficiently support the heavy and stringent print requirements of Mark's department. Plumbers don't always have adequate or readily available access to the Internet.

Hedlund, Tina. ComTech Services (2003). Design>Web Design>Intranets>Case Studies

Case in Point: Cisco’s Model For Change Management

A few months ago, a company-wide team at Cisco Systems Inc. was challenged to come up with the best model for change management. Several team members had experience in change management through various disciplines, such as process management, HR consulting, communication, Six Sigma and IT. In the first meeting, the team recognized many factors that would affect how they moved forward: hundreds (maybe thousands) of models already existed, thousands of consultants had their favorite models and were eager to help, and employees were familiar with models from other companies.

Horn, Karen. Communication World Bulletin (2004). Articles>Business Communication>Management>Case Studies

Case Studies Online

The March 1998 special issue of BCQ included 15 original cases for classroom use. We have now run out of the print version of the journal, but this site provides .pdf versions for your use. You are welcome to download and print these for your classes. Copyright for any other use of this material rests with the ABC. Listed below are links to supplemental materials for some cases. The materials include sample student responses to assignments (with identifying information masked) as well as comments on those samples and teaching and learning notes. The materials are not intended to be answers to case problems nor models of best practices but points for analysis and discussion.

Business Communication Quarterly (1998). Academic>Course Materials>Case Studies

Case Studies: Profiles of Two Technical Communicators  

Dr. Philbin and Dr. Ryan will first speak about creating and administering the survey and explain the reasons for conducting the survey. As husband and wife and as technical communicators, we will discuss our feelings about participating in the survey, working in the field, and our plans for the future. We encourage other technical communicators to examine their career goals as well. From the beginning, our relationship was linked to the technical communication field. We helped each other during our job interviewing processes and fortunately we both found jobs as Technical Communicators. While we have shared many of the same experiences, we have each experienced unique aspects of the profession. The discussion mainly focuses on the feelings, questions, plans, and expectations raised in the survey.

Theodore, Todd E. and Paulette R. Elsass. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>TC>Case Studies

Case Study - Building a Usable Site

A website can be both attractive and easy to use. Usability and good looks aren't mutually exclusive and one doesn't necessarily have to negate the other.

SitePoint (2002). Design>Web Design>Usability>Case Studies

Case Study: Artorg Makeover

Artorg.co.uk is an online community for artists and designers. At first view, this is a really nice-looking site. It has an appealing, soft colour scheme offset with well-chosen graphics, and the content appears solid and orderly.

Hunt, Ben. Web Design From Scratch (2006). Design>Web Design>Redesign>Case Studies

Case Study: Business Improvement Network Redesign

The Business Improvement Network is a highly successful free club for quality improvement professionals who meet together to share their knowledge and experience. A busy website serves the network's needs well, attracts new members every week, and gives members access to lots of free information.

Hunt, Ben. Web Design From Scratch (2006). Design>Web Design>Redesign>Case Studies

Case Study: Foruse.com Redesign

www.foruse.com is the web site of Constantine and Lockwood. Have a look at their home page to learn more about them. This case study incorporates a brief critical review of the home page, plus a redesign.

Hunt, Ben. Web Design From Scratch (2005). Design>Web Design>Redesign>Case Studies

Case Study: Implementing a Content Management System  

This paper presents a case study of implementing a content management system in a federal government setting. This case study may aid technical communicators who are interested in leveraging content management technology and who work for complex organizations or organizations with intricate communications requirements. Included in this paper is a detailed description of the background, approach, and early lessons learned for this implementation. The implementation was still in process at the due date of this paper. Additional lessons learned will be in the presentation's slide set and available from the Society for Technical Communication (STC) website at www.stc.org.

Pettit Jones, Colleen, Jane Mitchko and Marc Overcash. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Content Management>Case Studies>Government

Case Study: Reaching New Markets Through Clear Documentation

Triangle is a systems integrator in the UK with about 150 employees. It extended the functionality of the InfoGenesis point of sale software onto hand-held terminals. To turn this into a commercial off-the-shelf product, Triangle needed clear documentation for resellers and for staff managers at customer sites. Triangle lacked the expertise needed to produce effective documentation, so it outsourced the documentation development. The new documentation enables Triangle to roll out the software internationally using resellers, and keeps Triangle's support costs to a minimum.

Unwalla, Mike. TechScribe (2008). Articles>Documentation>Case Studies

Case Study: Shipshape Photography

Photography has become an essential element of the communication mix for the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), and is used to reflect the diversity and international nature of the business. If executed properly, a photograph can help explain a technical point or issue in such a way that it makes sense to an audience outside of the shipping community. We initially decided to use photography to enhance the visual content of our annual report. We now also use it in company newsletters (both internal and external), brochures and exhibit stands.

Smyth, Gillian and Susan V. Gonzalez. Communication World Bulletin (2006). Articles>Graphic Design>Photography>Case Studies

The Challenges of Managing Print Operations

As organizations seek to outsource non-core functions and reduce costs through improved efficiency, in-house print operations face a number of challenges. They must meet customer need for high throughput and consistent quality; deliver the same degree of variety, personalization, and flexibility available in the commercial print market; maintain visibility over print operations; more efficiently allocate resources; and maintain high service levels. Health Care Services Corporation turned to Infoprint Workflow for a solution.

On Demand Journal (2004). Articles>Publishing>Prepress>Case Studies

Challenging Old Key Factor Assumptions to Revamp Documentation Strategy  

The Information Products (IP) group at Sun Microsystems Computer Company (SMCC) recently revamped thew documentation strategy for computer server products. While creating the new model, we realized that our goal for more streamlined documentation would be more attainable if we did not restrict ourselves. Instead of starting with an old, key factor assumption — that manuals should be written with 'Who is the customer?' in mind — we addressed questions such as 'What tasks are required during installation and maintenance?' and 'Who perform these tasks?' By replacing some old ideas with fresh ones, we developed a new documentation strategy.

Daniels-Ball, Denise. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Documentation>Case Studies

Challenging the Status Quo: Audi Redesigned

In September 2000, Razorfish, Germany was tasked to redesign the main websites for Audi. In the process they explored workgroup software, utilized technology to support the brand ideals and challenged the status quo of current web navigation thinking by proposing a right handed navigation system.

Kalbach, James. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Design>Web Design>Case Studies

CM Professionals 2005 Spring Summit: A Case Study in Event Planning and Informal Content Reuse

This case study (which contains a complete set of model content) describes the processes of content creation, content management (CM), and event coordination used to plan and implement a professional meeting held in April 2005.

van Raaphorst, Anna. VR Communications (2005). Articles>Content Management>Case Studies

The Constitutional Law of Intellectual Property After Eldred v. Ashcroft  

The past decade has witnessed an extraordinary blossoming of scholarship on the constitutional law of intellectual property, much of which focuses on copyright law. This article suggests that the scholarly debate will and should continue and that the proponents of constitutional limits are likely to enjoy some successes in the future, even if they did not do so in the Eldred case itself.

Samuelson, Pamela. University of California Berkeley (2003). Articles>Intellectual Property>Copyright>Case Studies

Content Management Problems and Open Source Solutions

With hundreds of applications to choose from, content management is one of the most active sectors of open source software. While these options present a great opportunity to leverage open source software, I.T. decision makers often find themselves disoriented by the number of choices, the lack of information, and the ineffectualness of their traditional software selection processes. This Optaros white paper 'Content Management Problems and Open Source Solutions' discusses strategies for understanding and selecting an open source content management system and describes fifteen of the more prominent options in the context of the business problems they are effective in solving.

Gottlieb, Seth. Hiveminds (2006). Articles>Content Management>Case Studies

Converting to XML: Some Point-Form Pros and Cons

I have recently converted some user documents from MS Word to XML for a medical device company with the intent that they would be looking at authoring their future end-user documentation (printed, embedded, and online) in XML. I want to share with you some of the triumphs and challenges we had met along the way.

Stuhlemmer, Barbara. ClearComm Information Design (2007). Articles>Information Design>XML>Case Studies

Customer Storytelling at the Heart of Business Success

We create personas to build upon that platform by bringing individuals within a current or potential audience to life.

Experience Planning Group. Boxes and Arrows (2005). Articles>User Centered Design>Case Studies