http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Interviews A listing of the most recently indexed works about Interviews in the field of technical communication. en-us Copyright (c) 2005-08 by the EServer. All rights reserved. tclib-editorial@eserver.org (TC Library Editorial Board) webmaster@eserver.org (Geoffrey Sauer) http://tc.eserver.org/images/newlogo.gif http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Interviews http://tc.eserver.org/35625.html http://tc.eserver.org/35625.html 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.” http://tc.eserver.org/35654.html http://tc.eserver.org/35654.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/35659.html http://tc.eserver.org/35659.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/35663.html http://tc.eserver.org/35663.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/35692.html http://tc.eserver.org/35692.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/35503.html http://tc.eserver.org/35503.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/35508.html http://tc.eserver.org/35508.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/35501.html http://tc.eserver.org/35501.html Leah Buley is an experience designer for Adaptive Path, and she will be running a Bootcamp at Web 2.0 Expo New York to teach others how they can more productively and efficiently work together to create great designs and better user experiences. Leah recently spoke to us about her approach and how designers can apply it to their own situations. http://tc.eserver.org/35427.html http://tc.eserver.org/35427.html Branding encompasses everything you do. If you participate in your STC chapter, for example, how does that promote your brand? If you write for a SIG or chapter newsletter or website, or some similar outlet--or give a presentation to one of those groups--how do these activities promote your brand? http://tc.eserver.org/35193.html http://tc.eserver.org/35193.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/35199.html http://tc.eserver.org/35199.html I recently sat down with Chris Coyier from css-tricks.com for a hard hitting investigative in your face user interface interview, unfortunately I don’t know how to write (I just press a bunch of keys on the keyboard and hope for the best) much less write stuff like that so I just winged it. http://tc.eserver.org/35171.html http://tc.eserver.org/35171.html In just two years, Erskine Design grew from two people working at home into a full-fledged agency of eight, working with some major clients. Our website needed to better reflect our achievements, abilities, team strengths, and to get better information from client inquiries to help grow the business. I’ll explore our thought processes and share the decisions we made as our own client. http://tc.eserver.org/35095.html http://tc.eserver.org/35095.html Writing toward personas can help produce a successful form of content creation. Of course the next step after writing is to test the content with your customers to see if it indeed answers their questions. But there’s an important next step, especially if you’re a larger organization. You must work cross-silos to make sure different departments are not having contradictory conversations with the same customers. You also have to ensure that all the information on your site is current. If one department updates data, they all must still agree! http://tc.eserver.org/34915.html http://tc.eserver.org/34915.html Manufacturing, distribution, marketing, sales, customer contact – all of that is supremely manageable by a very small team. In the traditional model, you have this big corporation where the creative department is in the back, and they’re those wacky people with the Tabasco ties and chattering teeth in their cubicle, and everybody is a little afraid of them because they’re so “wild.” The rest of the company is the marketing, production, distribution, all of that. Well, our idea was that the little creative team could do everything. http://tc.eserver.org/34782.html http://tc.eserver.org/34782.html The two main and very closely-related foci of my job are evangelizing open standards and education. I spend a lot of time writing about relevant topics and giving lectures at universities to promote better use of web standards on courses and among students. I believe that the best way to improve the state of the Web is to start with those new to learning the trade. http://tc.eserver.org/34580.html http://tc.eserver.org/34580.html Why XML documents aren’t a good fit for relational databases, how university professors are creating custom text books for students, and find links to several innovative projects that are demonstrating the power of XML and its cousin XQuery. http://tc.eserver.org/34566.html http://tc.eserver.org/34566.html Annotations come in all shapes and sizes depending on the artifact and the intent of the document. People are probably most familiar with wireframe annotations, where the author calls out areas of the screen to describe functionality not immediately discernible from the picture alone. http://tc.eserver.org/34401.html http://tc.eserver.org/34401.html In this podcast, Sarah O’Keefe of Scriptorium Publishing explains the results of their recent survey about the state of structured authoring in technical communication. In the survey, they found that 84% of respondents are either thinking of moving to structured authoring, are in the process of moving to structured authoring, have already adopted structured authoring, or are undecided. Only 16% of respondents said they were not moving to structured authoring. She also discusses other survey results, such as the adoption of DITA and mistakes people make in moving to structured authoring. http://tc.eserver.org/34402.html http://tc.eserver.org/34402.html In this podcast, Mike Hamilton of Madcap Software talks about their phased approach to handling DITA with Flare. In Phase I, you’ll have the ability to import DITA topics and export to webhelp and other targets. In this sense, Flare functions as a transform engine. In Phase 2, you can use Flare for native DITA authoring. Phase 1 is on the cusp of release, but Phase II won’t be available until quarter one of next year. http://tc.eserver.org/34391.html http://tc.eserver.org/34391.html I had the pleasure of meeting Tom Hoehn from Kodak at Online Marketing Summit - DC last week. Tom has a really cool job at Kodak, where he is director of brand communications and convergence media. http://tc.eserver.org/34363.html http://tc.eserver.org/34363.html Claude Vedovini is the developer behind the DITA Open Platform. In Part 1, we talk about the DITA OP and other aspects of DITA in general. http://tc.eserver.org/34343.html http://tc.eserver.org/34343.html Anticipate the reader’s questions and then construct your writing as a response. This type of writing focuses you on your audience and gets you thinking about the specific questions, concerns, issues, and other problems your users might have. Each sentence you write should somehow answers those questions — you construct the conversation. http://tc.eserver.org/34191.html http://tc.eserver.org/34191.html Especially in the web development world, it's possible that the latest technologies and trends are being taught on blogs, rather than in the classroom. On a weekly basis, I receive emails from University students informing us that our "little ole'" blog has taught them more than their college professors. Considering the frequency at which these flattering emails occur, it does raise an interesting question: 'Is University out-dated?' http://tc.eserver.org/34141.html http://tc.eserver.org/34141.html We’re excited to bring Sara Beckman from the faculty at the Haas School of Business back into the Adaptive Path fold. We first worked with her in 2003 on our groundbreaking report, Leveraging Business Value: How ROI Changes User Experience. http://tc.eserver.org/33917.html http://tc.eserver.org/33917.html It is not often I’m contacted by a student to respond to an informational interview, so it was a pleasure when I was contacted early last week by a student in Eugene, Oregon USA to see if I would respond to his by email, and some great questions he had too. With the student’s permission, I’m posting the interview here in the event his questions reflect those of other students, whether in France or anywhere else. http://tc.eserver.org/33869.html http://tc.eserver.org/33869.html This week I caught up with Debbie Campbell, a Colorado web designer and developer and the owner of Red Kite Creative, and asked her about the latest trends in web design. I’ve been following Debbie on Twitter for a while. This week she posted a few tweets about web design and WordPress, so I asked her to share a little more. http://tc.eserver.org/33706.html http://tc.eserver.org/33706.html Scott Abel is a content management strategist and structured-XML evangelist who helps organizations improve the way they author, maintain and deliver their information assets. He also maintains The Content Wrangler (www.thecontentwrangler.com), a blog for technical writers. More importantly, perhaps, he has a tendency to explain run-of-the-mill business practice in an honest and engaging way. http://tc.eserver.org/33486.html http://tc.eserver.org/33486.html Dan Harrelson, design technologist at Adaptive Path, recently spoke with Jensen Harris, Group Program Manager of Microsoft’s Office User Experience team. Jensen was one of the key designers behind the new Ribbon user interface introduced in Office 2007. Dan and Jensen chatted about Office’s redesign and the techniques he uses to keep the focus on user needs within an organization the size of Microsoft. http://tc.eserver.org/33489.html http://tc.eserver.org/33489.html Leah Buley recently sat down to talk with Audrey Chen, the Senior Information Architect at Comedy Central. Audrey has led the IA for sites such as TheDailyShow.com and ComedyCentral.com. http://tc.eserver.org/33427.html http://tc.eserver.org/33427.html An easy way to define persuasive web design is to contrast it with usable design. Usability focuses on giving users the ability to complete a transaction if they so desire. A usable site makes it easy for users to complete transactions, from buying products to convincing users to read featured articles. Unfortunately, having a usable web site is not always enough to convince users to transact. Even if a user can complete a transaction on your site, doesn't mean that they will transact. To be successful, sites must go beyond Usability by focusing on Persuasive Design. http://tc.eserver.org/33433.html http://tc.eserver.org/33433.html Recently I attended a great presentation by Spencer Gerrol (Human Factors International) in Atlanta entitled “Beyond Usability: The Science of Persuasive Design”. Gerrol discussed how important it is to not only make our websites easy to use, but to make people want to use them. He then discussed 6 key principles we can use to persuade our customers as well as some important persuasion tactics to keep in mind. The presentation began with a brief discussion of the difference between usability and persuasion. http://tc.eserver.org/33323.html http://tc.eserver.org/33323.html The EServer TC Library dwarfs all other tech comm sites. Granted, EServer TC Library is a library, which people primarily use to browse content located elsewhere, so it’s perhaps not in the same category as the other sites. Still, the sheer amount of traffic is impressive. I caught up with Geoffrey Sauer, the creator of the EServer TC Library, and chatted with him over email. http://tc.eserver.org/33313.html http://tc.eserver.org/33313.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/33285.html http://tc.eserver.org/33285.html Intelligent content is structurally rich and semantically aware, and is therefore automatically discoverable, reusable, reconfigurable, and adaptable. http://tc.eserver.org/32784.html http://tc.eserver.org/32784.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/32282.html http://tc.eserver.org/32282.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/32191.html http://tc.eserver.org/32191.html An interview between Diane Wieland, a technology writer in Indianapolis, and Scott Abel, publisher, The Content Wrangler. http://tc.eserver.org/32202.html http://tc.eserver.org/32202.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/32110.html http://tc.eserver.org/32110.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/31997.html http://tc.eserver.org/31997.html Bill DeRouchey is fascinated with buttons and the history of interface design. He talks to us as he prepares for IDEA 2008, October 7-8. In Chicago, Bill hopes to help attendees expand their sources of inspiration to include just about anything in their everyday lives. http://tc.eserver.org/31893.html http://tc.eserver.org/31893.html In this podcast, Nicky Bleiel says we should talk to as many users as we can — conducting on-site visits, sending surveys, gathering information from Marketing, Support, and other departments — so we can have a better understanding of our users’ needs and the formats and mediums that will work best for them. After completing this audience and needs analysis, we can then go out and create the deliverables that will best serve our users. http://tc.eserver.org/31894.html http://tc.eserver.org/31894.html In this podcast, Joe Sokohl explains how to create user-centered documentation by contacting, observing, and interviewing users to gather information about what types of information they use and the help deliverables they actually want. http://tc.eserver.org/31897.html http://tc.eserver.org/31897.html XML, a way of tagging and structuring your content, can help solve a number of problems, including storing, mining, reusing, and sharing content. XML helps enable the interoperability of information between systems, allowing you to export and import your content from one application to another. XML is behind much of the collaboration and information sharing Web 2.0 technologies, such as RSS (really simple syndication) and blogs. By storing content in XML, technical writers can ensure greater flexibility among technologies for authoring and publishing their content. http://tc.eserver.org/31892.html http://tc.eserver.org/31892.html In this podcast, rich media specialist Todd O’Neill explains how to add video to your training and documentation deliverables. Many technical writers are intimidated by the learning curve, equipment costs, and software they think they need to create video, but actually you can create engaging videos with minimal equipment (e.g., $150 for a Flip video camera) and using software you probably already have (e.g, Windows Movie Maker or iMovie). In this podcast, Todd lays out the basics for those who know nothing about video. He explains the equipment you need, techniques for minimizing editing time, ways to publish the video online, filming techniques to focus on, and creative ways to package your video for your users. http://tc.eserver.org/31896.html http://tc.eserver.org/31896.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/31895.html http://tc.eserver.org/31895.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/31856.html http://tc.eserver.org/31856.html Kristina agreed to push the thinking further with a discussion about content, UX teams, and how the relationships can be strengthened to create experiences and projects that really sing. The resulting conversation start with content basics and closes with a bold challenge. http://tc.eserver.org/31855.html http://tc.eserver.org/31855.html Kate Rutter recently had a great email conversation with Nathan Shedroff, experience strategist, author, and the Program Chair and founder of the brand new MBA in Design Strategy at California College of the Arts. http://tc.eserver.org/31798.html http://tc.eserver.org/31798.html Master Strategist in discussion with the KnowGenesis editor-in-chief about the range of opportunities and challenges that lay ahead for the digital media industry. http://tc.eserver.org/31733.html http://tc.eserver.org/31733.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/31631.html http://tc.eserver.org/31631.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/31620.html http://tc.eserver.org/31620.html Каковы, на Ваш взгляд, наиболее эффективные каналы передачи информации в современных компаниях? http://tc.eserver.org/31601.html http://tc.eserver.org/31601.html After working on five books as an editor or co-author, Lou Rosenfeld became disenchanted with the traditional book publishing model. So, in late 2005, he founded Rosenfeld Media, a new publishing house that develops short, practical, useful books on user experience design. Rosenfeld Media published their first book, Mental Models: Aligning Design Strategy with Human Behavior, in early 2008. I recently had the opportunity to interview Lou—along with Liz Danzico, Senior Development Editor at Rosenfeld Media—about starting a new publishing house and “eating their own dog food.” http://tc.eserver.org/31584.html http://tc.eserver.org/31584.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/31568.html http://tc.eserver.org/31568.html An interview done by Scott Nesbitt of DMN Communications. Nesbitt talks with Stewart Mader, author of the book WikiPatterns. In the interview, Nesbitt and Mader discuss adopting wikis, how best to use them in an organization, building communities around wikis, and why Mader is so passionate about wikis. http://tc.eserver.org/31489.html http://tc.eserver.org/31489.html In this podcast, Stewart talks about the following: the advantages of using a wiki for your technical documentation; why lack of advanced styles in wikis isn’t a major problem; the relentless focus on simplicity with wikis; choosing the right wiki among dozens of wiki engines. http://tc.eserver.org/31490.html http://tc.eserver.org/31490.html In this podcast, I talk with Alan Porter, vice president of Operations at WebWorks, about the Web 2.0 technologies they’re using to reach out to their customer base. In addition to using blogs, wikis, and social networks to connect with customers, WebWorks also uses wikis to facilitate communication and collaboration within their company. http://tc.eserver.org/31488.html http://tc.eserver.org/31488.html In this podcast, Noz Urbina talks about how Web 2.0 is changing the role of the technical communicator into one who drives product R&D and interaction design. The interview covers how the role of the technical communicator has evolved into a diversity of roles; how awareness of user needs and requirements allows technical communicators to get involved in product R&D and user interaction design; and how implementing a backwards flow of data from hundreds of internal and external users changes the role of a technical writer to one who aggregates, synthesizes, and ensures quality rather than one who merely writes. http://tc.eserver.org/31487.html http://tc.eserver.org/31487.html In 2006, Business Objects faced a major challenge. How to migrate over 50,000 pages of unstructured non-topic based documentation it had acquired through rapid growth and acquisitions. The answer was to use DITA to standardize content creation, management, translation and publishing processes company-wide. In this short podcast, David Holmes talks about how he and his team migrated 50,000 unstructured pages to DITA. (DITA is an XML architecture that allows you to better single source your content.) http://tc.eserver.org/31477.html http://tc.eserver.org/31477.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/31308.html http://tc.eserver.org/31308.html The media interview seems like a pretty cut-and-dry experience. Reporter calls source. Reporter interviews source. Reporter uses portions of the interview in a piece and a lot more as background. Those of us who have been in PR a long time or have been interviewed by the press frequently know the drill. However, the media interview as we know it is going through a radical transformation, and it's starting not with the reporters but with bloggers. http://tc.eserver.org/31203.html http://tc.eserver.org/31203.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/31002.html http://tc.eserver.org/31002.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/30873.html http://tc.eserver.org/30873.html Few usability professionals are as well-rounded as Avi Parush. Avi has worked in industry and academia, testing and design, the Old World and the New, with web applications and airplane cockpits, in operating rooms and on the bridges of ships. http://tc.eserver.org/30796.html http://tc.eserver.org/30796.html An interview with Dan Saffer, 2008 Conference Chair and IxDA Director. Dan discusses the context of the organization, how the conference emerged and formed, what the conference will be like, and how one might get a flavor even if attendance is not an option. http://tc.eserver.org/30756.html http://tc.eserver.org/30756.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/30579.html http://tc.eserver.org/30579.html An interview with Whitney Quesenbery about minimalism and plain language in user experience design. http://tc.eserver.org/30294.html http://tc.eserver.org/30294.html An interview with the senior manager of Library and Document Services for the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics. http://tc.eserver.org/30256.html http://tc.eserver.org/30256.html In this podcast, I talk with Svi Ben-Elya about Elephant.org.il. Elephant is an online community he and others created to empower technical communicators in Israel (originally in the city of Yokneam) with relevant salary information to make them more market savvy when they negotiate jobs. http://tc.eserver.org/30255.html http://tc.eserver.org/30255.html In this podcast, I interview Brenda Huettner about strategies for overcoming the top 10 Worst Things Subject Matter Experts Say or Do. http://tc.eserver.org/30117.html http://tc.eserver.org/30117.html For George Saunders, recipient of a MacArthur Grant and former technical writer, years working on reports and proposals proved to be excellent training for creative writing. http://tc.eserver.org/29939.html http://tc.eserver.org/29939.html Karen Schriver is the author of Dynamics in Document Design: Creating texts for readers, an extensive, multidimensional portrait of what readers need from documents and of ways to integrate word and image in order to better meet those needs. She is the former co-director of the graduate program in technical communication and document design at Carnegie Mellon University. Her company, KSA Document Design and Research, helps organizations improve the quality of their paper and electronic communications through strategies based on research and best practices. http://tc.eserver.org/29919.html http://tc.eserver.org/29919.html This podcast features Char James-Tanney's June 2007 presentation to the Suncoast Florida STC chapter on virtual ways of communicating. http://tc.eserver.org/29818.html http://tc.eserver.org/29818.html Kim Goodwin is the General Manager and Vice President of Design at Cooper. The great folks at Cooper created an interaction design methodology known as Goal-Directed Design. Their methodology identifies the goals and behaviors of users and directly translates them into the design. UIE's Christine Perfetti recently had the chance to talk with Kim about her work and we've included an excerpt of their conversation below. http://tc.eserver.org/29811.html http://tc.eserver.org/29811.html It's important for the people responsible for creating the personas to have active listening skills, empathy, and clear communication skills. Ultimately, what design teams need to do is aggregate all of the qualitative or quantitative data into a clearly communicated story. This means that writing and communication skills are also critical. From the point of view of a more tactical skillset, the design team will get better results if they have experience conducting interviews and writing surveys. http://tc.eserver.org/29506.html http://tc.eserver.org/29506.html Dr. Shneiderman muses on mulidisciplinarianism and reminds us that no computer is smarter than a wooden pencil. http://tc.eserver.org/29499.html http://tc.eserver.org/29499.html Want to see what passionate thinking looks like? Peek inside a brain filled with theatre, invention, games for girls, and design-as-activism. http://tc.eserver.org/29501.html http://tc.eserver.org/29501.html Cliff Nass revels in being weird, thinking 'wildly,' and taking 'big fliers.' But he's also fascinated by what makes everything the same. If we were all as open to oddness as he is, the world would be a much more interesting place. http://tc.eserver.org/29505.html http://tc.eserver.org/29505.html Ginny Redish has been in love with language since she was twelve. And today? It's only logical--she creates conversations between people and computers. http://tc.eserver.org/29502.html http://tc.eserver.org/29502.html Today Jakob Nielsen is an inspiration and, through his books and seminars, a teacher to many. But what inspired him to get where he is today? http://tc.eserver.org/29504.html http://tc.eserver.org/29504.html Did ye know that studying Medieval troubadours can actually help ye understand the communication challenges we face in our 'High Church of Technology?' http://tc.eserver.org/29498.html http://tc.eserver.org/29498.html Before he co-founded Adaptive Path, Mike sold hot sauce online and built giant dancing robots. Today he thinks about things like boxes of chocolates that deliver joy and surprise long after the candy is gone. http://tc.eserver.org/29500.html http://tc.eserver.org/29500.html From deciding he hated math to becoming the president of Adaptive Path, Peter describes a career driven by experience design. http://tc.eserver.org/29503.html http://tc.eserver.org/29503.html A solo usability consultant who focuses on user research and strategy, Whitney thinks and writes about the role of storytelling in user experience design. http://tc.eserver.org/29335.html http://tc.eserver.org/29335.html Tufte shares Orwell's impatience with doublethink and humbuggery, his insight that bad thinking and bad expression travel in a pair, and his awareness that they are usually deployed in the service of some brand of propaganda. http://tc.eserver.org/29337.html http://tc.eserver.org/29337.html For the techno-savvy TechRepublic member, writing in some form or fashion is an almost daily occurrence. But how effective is your communication? In this interview, author Barry Rosenberg shares his thoughts about the current state of technical writing skills. http://tc.eserver.org/29326.html http://tc.eserver.org/29326.html 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.' http://tc.eserver.org/28937.html http://tc.eserver.org/28937.html More companies are doing user research than ever before, but what is becoming of all the information? Steve Mulder talks about strategies for getting research into shape so real people can actually use it. The key: user personas. http://tc.eserver.org/28875.html http://tc.eserver.org/28875.html An interview with Geoffrey Sauer, a professor of Rhetoric and Professional Communication and the director of the EServer TC Library. http://tc.eserver.org/28792.html http://tc.eserver.org/28792.html Thom Haller, information architect and director of the Center for Plain Language, talks about how to create a site where users can actually find the information they're looking for. http://tc.eserver.org/28793.html http://tc.eserver.org/28793.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/28782.html http://tc.eserver.org/28782.html Ann Rockley shares information about an upcoming report on component content management systems her group will be releasing this summer. She also says the Rockley Group is launching a blog to provide quicker information to users in a more interactive way. She talks about the growing presence companies have in the blogosphere, and why they chose WordPress as their blogging tool. http://tc.eserver.org/28784.html http://tc.eserver.org/28784.html Jarrett is one of the authors of User Interface Design and Evaluation, a beginning text for technical communicators moving into user interface design. Jarrett says this book is a perfect start for users looking to add usability basics to their toolbox. She also talks about forms, and how the best forms are ones you barely notice. http://tc.eserver.org/28783.html http://tc.eserver.org/28783.html Thompson talks about his search for the right content management system. He talks about the importance of content reuse across an entire system and having a workflow for editing, reviews, and translation. He discusses AuthorIT as a possible CMS solution. He also gives tips for talking with CMS vendors without being suckered in. http://tc.eserver.org/28778.html http://tc.eserver.org/28778.html Geoff Sauer is one of the founders of tc.eserver.org--the largest online index for all works related to technical communication. The library indexes works by technical communicators in dozens of categories, and allows users to add new works, rank them, and get RSS feeds of specific titles. There are over 25,000 RSS feeds generated on the site and 15,000 visitors each day. http://tc.eserver.org/28786.html http://tc.eserver.org/28786.html Miller, a technical editor at Microsoft interested in multimedia documentation, talks about why multimedia documentation is a growing trend and how writers can get started. He discusses Microsoft's Channel 9 and the human element with instructional screen demos. http://tc.eserver.org/28788.html http://tc.eserver.org/28788.html Brazill gives tips for writers who document APIs or write other information for developers. He says that because developers are busy and want to get started, you have to write less and provide more examples. Developers are more goal-oriented than task oriented. He also explains the different levels of API writing. http://tc.eserver.org/28780.html http://tc.eserver.org/28780.html Rob explains how you can use Captivate to create nontraditional e-learning materials, such as on-the-job training, sales and marketing training, or even bird-watching training. You aren't just limited to technical how-to information in screen demos. http://tc.eserver.org/28781.html http://tc.eserver.org/28781.html Abel's presentation on Web 2.0 was the most popular presentation of the STC 2007 conference (at least this is my impression from these interviews). In his presentation, Abel touches upon RSS feeds, wikis, blogs, geospatial positioning, social networking, tagging, podcasts, and other Web 2.0 technologies. He expands here on geospatial positioning and tagging. Abel also explains why he uses a newsletter in addition to a feed for his popular blog, www.thecontentwrangler.com. http://tc.eserver.org/28787.html http://tc.eserver.org/28787.html Bryant talks about videoblogging as a tool for promoting yourself or for communicating with others. She explains the equipment she uses and the process for producing videoblogs. Her book, Videoblogging for Dummies, is available from her website: www.mortaine.com. Bryant also discusses interesting ways lawyers can use videoblogging to educate their clients. http://tc.eserver.org/28785.html http://tc.eserver.org/28785.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/28765.html http://tc.eserver.org/28765.html In this special presentation podcast, Susan Burton, executive director of the STC, provides an inside, in-depth look at the most pressing issues and challenges the STC faces. She also explains the initiatives underway to reshape the STC and provide more value to members. http://tc.eserver.org/28596.html http://tc.eserver.org/28596.html Every wondered what it's like to hold a high-powered design position in the cosmetics and fashion industry? Enjoy this intreview by industry expert and sessions EDU instructor Laura Schwamb, and get a peek into the life of Lara Modjeski VP of Creative, Tom Ford Beauty. http://tc.eserver.org/28573.html http://tc.eserver.org/28573.html An interview with Nick Maselli, Senior Manager, English Editing Group, UTStarcom Telcom, People's Republic of China. http://tc.eserver.org/28250.html http://tc.eserver.org/28250.html Carol M. Barnum is Professor of Technical Communication and Director of the Usability Center, at Southern Polytechnic State University in Marietta, GA. She is also a technical communication consultant specializing in custom training and usability, an award-winning author, a top presenter at the Society for Technical Communication (STC) annual conferences, a Fellow of STC, and a recipient of the STC's Jay R. Gould Award for Excellence in Teaching Technical Communication. She was a member of the STC's board of directors for seven years, three years as a Director-Sponsor and four years as Assistant to the President for Publications. Her graduate and undergraduate courses in technical communication at Southern Polytechnic include a graduate level course in usability testing. Her consulting work includes testing hardware, computer-based training, software, and websites. Her most recent book, Usability Testing and Research, reflects the focus of her work on usability since 1992. In her discussion with KnowGenesis, she shared her views on how organizations can benefit by investing more on usability research. http://tc.eserver.org/26961.html http://tc.eserver.org/26961.html 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。 http://tc.eserver.org/26858.html http://tc.eserver.org/26858.html Mark H. Clifford's career in technical communication has included managing eighty-plus writers and designers engaged on projects with clients in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany. He was part of a project team that developed a process model for outsourcing, and then running technical communication groups for major organizations (HP, Nokia, Ferranti) worldwide. He currently runs his own information design and recruitment company, providing consultancy and resource solutions for European clients from offices in the UK and France. http://tc.eserver.org/26561.html http://tc.eserver.org/26561.html Can we reasonably judge authority? How can we make good decisions in the information age? How do we know enough to ask the right questions? Peter Morville takes a moment to talk with us about these and other potential answers, his most recent book, the death of data, and our fascination with the future. http://tc.eserver.org/26285.html http://tc.eserver.org/26285.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/25300.html http://tc.eserver.org/25300.html A discussion with a systems support specialist, documented from InterMOO.