#32494
Sometimes users find it difficult to perform tasks based on the information provided. Take a minute to understand why this could happen.
Abraham, Anitha. Indus (2008). Articles>User Centered Design>Audience Analysis>Cognitive Psychology
#33887
Embedded Help System: The Emerging Help Technology
Embedded user assistance is a cutting-edge approach towards delivering online help that provides dynamic, context-sensitive, task-based information. Such a help system is very different from other types of online help in the sense that it requires very short and focused topics. This article examines embedded help system as an emerging help presentation that offers the potential for users to access information when and where they need it while using a software program. It also evaluates the ability of embedded help systems to overcome usability issues that are inherent in traditional online help systems.
Biswas, Debarshi Gupta. Indus (2007). Articles>User Experience
#33888
Fundamentals of Business Process Documentation
It is important to identify, understand, and evaluate key business processes to determine how effective they are in accomplishing the business goals of an organization. As a result, end-to-end business process documentation is increasingly becoming a significant initiative for many organizations. Essentially, process documentation should communicate the guidelines to support specific processes, and can be used by a wide range of business units, partners, process leaders, and anyone who is involved in these processes. Interviewing people who follow a business process is an effective method toward understanding how the business process is executed. While interviewing the right people to understand how they execute processes, it is essential that the writers look beyond just recording what they are told about the process. Handling situations like these also provide opportunities for the writers to evolve to business domain analysts or subject matter experts
Biswas, Debarshi Gupta. Indus (2008). Articles>TC
#34440
This article examines the need for continuous learning and the challenges that working professionals must overcome to invest in learning. It also explores how experience makes us better learners, and analyzes the relative effectiveness of various learning techniques.
Dhanagopal, Kumar. Indus (2009). Careers>Advice
#34441
How has Web 2.0 affected me as a writer? The ability for users to comment and rate content. Improved help systems. Blogging.
Kurnool, Preran. Indus (2009). Articles>Web Design
#34442
Review: Web Application Design Patterns 
Web Application Design Patterns by Pawan Vora provides practical user interface design guidance for developing web applications by offering a "working" starting point that designers can adapt and refine to develop creative solutions. He condenses best practice methods, along with research and solid experience to create a useful reference about designing web applications.
Dick, David J. Indus (2009). Articles>Reviews>Web Design>Information Design
#34443
Do I Really Need a Style Guide?
So, after all, I must follow those infernal style guides. I am straight-jacketed. Am I not?
Palagummi, Sharada. Indus (2009). Articles>Editing>Style Guides>Writing
#34444
Why do product manuals sound formal and stiff-upper-lipped? Why don’t users read manuals? These questions have haunted the precincts of Technical Writing for quite some time now. From what I have seen in Indian writers, I am forced to conclude that English Composition, as we were taught in school, is the culprit.
Kumar, Suman. Indus (2009). Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design>Rhetoric
#34445
Review: The Systematic Design of Instruction
The Systematic Design of Instruction is a book on Instructional Design written by Walter Dick, Lou Carey, and James O. Carey. The book introduces the fundamentals of instructional design and explains the concepts and procedures for designing, developing, and evaluating instruction.
Kamal, Begum Laila. Indus (2009). Articles>Reviews>Instructional Design>Education
#35207
Are the days of print documentation over? How ‘usable’ is your print documentation?
Nair, Manjusha. Indus (2009). Articles>Documentation>Publishing
#35208
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
#35209
This article examines the need for continuous learning and the challenges that working professionals must overcome to invest in learning. It also explores how experience makes us better learners, and analyzes the relative effectiveness of various learning techniques.
Dhanagopal, Kumar. Indus (2009). Articles>Education>Workplace
#35210
As help systems continue to evolve, whatever name they are called, we will increasingly have to face responsibility for their content, and bring their expertise to what we write. The new systems provide us with all the required tools that tell us the problems with their content. It is up to us to leverage that information to provide better content, and act as ambassadors for products that we write. If writers can go a step ahead, and use their help information to sell products, and reduce the burden on customer support, we would have truly arrived.
Kurnool, Preran. Indus (2009). Articles>Web Design>Documentation>Help
#35211
Do I Really Need a Style Guide?
Style guides recommend certain styles. In the domain of technical communication, we refer to guides for writing style, presentation of content in user documentation and technical documents, and graphical user interface of software and web sites.
Palagummi, Sharada. Indus (2009). Articles>Style Guides>Editing>Writing
#35212
Why do product manuals sound formal and stiff-upper-lipped? Why don’t users read manuals? These questions have haunted the precincts of Technical Writing for quite some time now. From what I have seen in Indian writers, I am forced to conclude that English Composition, as we were taught in school, is the culprit. Our merit was based on how verbose we were. They judged our style based on how ‘formal’ we were. Take for example, the leave letter. I am sure you have written a few in school or college. Rewind and replay one of those leave letters. Right from the salutation (Respected Sir/Madam) to the signature (Faithfully/Obediently yours) it reeks of colonialism. And, we have yet to learn our lessons. In this age of globalization (or globalisation, to my stiff-upper-lip comrades), it is important to pay attention to the three Cs: Consistency, Context, and Culture.
Sumankumar R. Indus (2009). Articles>Documentation>Rhetoric
#35220
Open-Source Software for Technical Writers
For companies that are struggling in the current times because of the economic slowdown, an option that might not compromise on product quality is to switch to open-source software. In this article, I will talk about open-source publishing tools for the writing community.
Dhodi, Harjot Singh. Indus (2009). Articles>Software>Technical Writing>Open Source
#35221
I learnt that a verb is the most essential part of speech. So, I thought investing a little time to learn to use it better (if not master it) might not be a bad idea. But then, there are so many aspects of a verb. Can I ever say I learnt it? I can try one proven (presumably by the British) method: divide and conquer. I will start with the voice of a verb, the much-talked-about aspect of a verb.
Palagummi, Sharada. Indus (2009). Articles>Writing>Grammar
#35222
One of the difficult concepts to understand in the English language is perhaps the manner in which articles are used in a sentence. Over the course of one's life history, every student of English has had to face this nightmare at one point of time or another. The verbs are all in place and you know the nouns, the pronouns are fairly obvious, and the prepositions can eventually be worked out, but what comes before the word year and what comes before SMS is tricky.
#35223
My Journey from Technical Writing to Pharma Quality Management
Like most people who entered the technical communication profession in India in the mid to late 1990s, I too became a technical writer more by accident than by design. I enjoyed my technical writing career thoroughly, but slowly moved away, and a decade later, I now find myself heading the Quality Management function at a multi-national clinical research and technology company in India. The career paths of no two individuals are similar. And yet, there are always some common themes in successful transitions from one career path to another.
Narasimha, Kumar. Indus (2009). Careers>Scientific Communication>Technical Writing>Biomedical
#35224
Awful Writer or “Awe”full Writer
If you are reading this article in INDUS, I assume that the majority of you must be technical writers. The peer-review checklist might be firmly etched in your mind. Please make sure this checklist in disabled. If doing so is not possible, just click the X sign at the top-right corner of the screen. Also, if you have no sense of humor, it is mandatory to click the X sign. I make no apologies for the grammatical errors or syntax errors or sentence structure or comma splices or… whew..pant..pant… this ‘or’ is making me breathless. In fact, I am thriving on these errors because my creative skills are running riot. I have expressed my thoughts in an unconventional manner and, believe me, the feeling is exhilarating and invigorating.
Menon, Sangeeta. Indus (2009). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing
