Visualization Strategies for Team-Oriented Problem Solving, Analysis, and Project Planning    

This article describes visualization methods used by many international organizations in the design of development projects. In this context, development projects means projects that are designed to improve the quality of life for people living in a developing country. During the project design workshop essential elements of a discussion and subsequent analysis are visualized as the discussion takes place and displayed to the participants. This visual record is kept in view through the whole period of the discussion. The visual methods of identifying, analyzing and structuring a problem dramatically improves the efficiency and effectiveness of the problem solving process and the quality of the final solution. The techniques enable a large amount of knowledge available within the group of participants to be collected quickly and allows complex problems to be taken through several steps of analysis.

Lewis, Paul. Technical Communication Online (1998). Articles>Collaboration>Project Management>Rhetoric

Visualizations for Data Exploration and Analysis: A Critical Review of Usability Research    

Data visualization has the potential to change the questions that people are able to pose to their data and transform their analytical methods and decision-making processes. It may, in fact, be the next generation of data reporting tools. This article argues that the prevailing computer science orientation to data visualizations is severely limited for addressing many of the usability concerns associated with supporting users in three critical problem areas: sophisticated visual literacy, complex data analysis, and new paradigms of visual inquiry. I first describe what visualization technology is and what is uncharted about the three usability areas of perceptually rich, interactive displays; complex problem-solving; and visual querying. Then I explain what it means to take a computing -- specifically an object-oriented -- perspective on the usability of visualizations, emphasizing the limitations of this point of view when it comes to supporting users in complex activities and reasoning.

Mirel, Barbara E. Technical Communication Online (1998). Articles>Usability>Visual>Visual Rhetoric

Visualizing Information: An Overview of This Special Issue    

The guest editors offer a brief history of visualization, discuss the present state of the art, and explore the possibilities and challenges that lie ahead. They then discuss the contents of this special issue in terms of the trends in visualization theory and research. They conclude by observing that technical communicators must respond to the challenges presented in the content of this issue, both by using the methods presented and by performing the further research the authors call for. Additionally, researchers must incorporate the results of inquiry in the related fields.

Gribbons, William M. and Arthur G. Elser. Technical Communication Online (1998). Articles>Graphic Design>Visual Rhetoric>Technical Illustration

Visuals for Speaking Presentations: An Analysis of the Presenter's Perspective of Audience as a Partner in Visual Design    

Based on an interpretive study, this article focuses on visual composition within the workforce as perceived by individuals who use visuals to instruct, persuade, or inform while speaking to an intended audience. Tabulated and evaluated responses to survey statements relate the presenter's perception of a visual's function, the presenter's sensitivity to and the use of the audience perspective in visual composition, and training received in researching an audience. Data also provides a comparative analysis among respective organizations categorized by career interests: administrative or managerial positions within product-oriented business, people-oriented business, and educational institutions. Survey statements reflect the frames of reference that regulate visual design: the color spectrum, gender, cultural sensitivity, structural organization, semantics, and adherence to ethics when applying technological enhancements.

Caricato, Josephine A. Technical Communication Online (2000). Design>Information Design>Visual>Visual Rhetoric

Walking the Labyrinth of Multimedia Law    

Recommends discovering and documenting the origins of each work used in our products to ensure that we hold the appropriate rights. Advises working with counsel and contract negotiators to ensure that all requisite licenses, releases, and other documents are obtained.

Helyar, Pamela S. and Gregory M. Doudnikoff. Technical Communication Online (2003). Articles>Intellectual Property>Copyright>Multimedia

Review: Web Design for Dummies  

I enjoyed Lopuck's book. She uses graphics well and includes plenty of illustrations to support her points. The icons that point out tips and warnings are also effective. This book is a nice reference to keep handy during the design and evaluation of Web sites and Web pages.

Lunemann, Rhonda S. Technical Communication Online (2003). Articles>Reviews>Web Design

Web Design Issues When Searching for Information Using Handheld Interfaces    

Mobility and access seem to be the features the technology industry has identified as necessary in our communications future. Experts predict that we are heading away from the desktop computer as the standard technology on campuses and in the workplace (Bloomberg 2001; Chen 1999; Weiser 1998), while at the same time the industry continues to develop more powerful delivery and storage capabilities for handheld devices. Potential uses for personal digital assistants (PDAs) have quickly grown beyond simple address/date book applications, and toward more complex, interactive uses, with an eye to connecting individuals on the go with huge databases of technical information (Chen 1999; Du Bois and McCright 2000). However, as proponents and creators of effective information design, we technical communicators need to know more about how people perceive information when using small interfaces so that we may create effective information for them, or adapt information design from desktop interfaces for the small interface.

Kim, Loel and Michael J. Albers. Technical Communication Online (2002). Design>Web Design>Wireless Web

Review: Web Design Tools and Techniques  

Peter Kentie's new book bridges a gap between books for beginning Web designers and advanced works for practitioners interested primarily in the usability of Web pages.

Jennings, Ann S. Technical Communication Online (2003). Articles>Reviews>Web Design

Review: Web-Based Instructional Learning  

You may not find all the answers to your evolving questions, but the authors throughout the book do a good job of analyzing relevant research questions, defining the current state of Web-based education, and suggesting areas for continuing research. The book comes as close as you'll find to 'everything you always wanted to know about Web-based instruction,' with its in-depth coverage of today's Web education issues and research.

Porter, Lynnette R. Technical Communication Online (2003). Articles>Reviews>Education>Online

Review: Website Indexing: Enhancing Access to Information Within Websites  

Browne and Jermey say that 'increasingly sophisticated retrieval methods' will be needed as the Web gets more complex. They believe that good, back-of-the-book-style indexes 'are effective tools for improving the speed and accuracy of user searches.' With their book as a guide, you are in a position to determine that for yourself and for your Web site.

Hudak-David, Ginny. Technical Communication Online (2004). Articles>Reviews>Indexing>Web Design

What Do We Manage? A Survey of the Management Portfolios of Large Technical Communication Groups    

Finds that user's guides, reference manuals, and help account for most products, and about half are print. Reports that no widely used method or metric of assessing effectiveness exists

Carliner, Saul. Technical Communication Online (2004). Articles>Documentation>Management

What Is Information Design?    

This commentary provides two definitions of information design: the overall process and the presentation of information on page and on screen. It then recounts the history of information design in both these senses, and attempts to predict the future importance of both meanings of information design, in terms of design for the Web and single-sourcing.

Redish, Janice C. 'Ginny'. Technical Communication Online (2000). Design>Information Design

What Technical Communicators Think About Measuring Value Added    

As part of an STC-funded research project on measuring the value added by technical communicators and information products, researchers designed a questionnaire to get a view of current thinking in the profession about the issue of measuring value added.

Ramey, Judith A. Technical Communication Online (1995). Articles>TC>Assessment

What Workplace Stress Research is Telling Technical Communicators    

Technical communicators encounter many stresses in their professional lives. Deadlines, overly ambitious projects, and uncooperative subject matter experts can make their work exceptionally stressful. To the communicators, such stress may be so common as to seem benign, but it actually has serious consequences that range from a loss of career fulfillment to severe health problems. This article explains what stress is and how it is generated in the workplace. It also explains the health consequences of stress, and why companies often see stress as the employees’ problem, even as it eats into profits and productivity. Much research has been done on workplace stress in the last two decades, leading to many suggestions on how to reduce it. This article reviews these suggestions, which include everything from exercise programs to cognitive/behavioral training. It also considers the implications of workplace stress research for technical communicators and the communicators’ efforts to get more influence within the workplace.

Primm, Dave. Technical Communication Online (2005). Articles>Workplace

Review: What's the Matter with the Internet?  

You should not read this book if you're looking for the final answer to what's the matter with the Internet. Poster points us toward the issues that he thinks will affect the Internet's ultimate shape—politics, authorship, ethnicity, citizenship, identity—but he leaves us with more questions than answers. By questioning and observing, and by applying key technological theories, he suggests a way of approaching a critique of the Internet.

Kitalong, Karla Saari. Technical Communication Online (2003). Articles>Reviews>Technology>Theory

When No One's Home: Being a Writer on Remote Project Teams    

Asserts that technology has made remote interaction commonplace but that lack of face-to-face contact can be disorienting. Explores rules for remote teams and special behaviors needed to integrate members on those teams.

Larbi, Nancy E. and Susan Springfield. Technical Communication Online (2004). Articles>Writing>Telecommuting>Technical Writing

Where Is the Instruction in Online Help Systems?    

One of the ironic things about online help systems is that they are very often not helpful and even increase the user's frustration and stress level. This increased frustration sometimes results in the rejection of the software. One solution is to increase the effectiveness of online help systems by designing them from an instructional design perspective. Some of the things we can provide users include: imperative, task-focused procedures; graphic feedback; access to redundant instructions; links to tutorial practice; philosophical and conceptual explanations for 'why' they are completing specific tasks.

Pratt, Jean A. Technical Communication Online (1998). Articles>Documentation>Instructional Design>Online

Review: White Graphics: The Power of White in Graphic Design  

Every graphic designer or editor who has been forced to explain to a client why there is nothing—text or image—on a part of a page should have Gail Deibler Finke's newest book. It demonstrates clearly and convincingly 'the power of white in graphic design.'

Hudak-David, Ginny. Technical Communication Online (2002). Articles>Reviews>Graphic Design

Who is in Control?: The Logic Underlying the Intelligent Technologies Used in Performance Support    

Performance support (also called EPSS, for electronic performance support system) emerged from the instructional design and training communities because corporate enterprise systems were difficult for people to use, and the training needed to make them productive was expensive and time consuming. A good definition is that 'EPSS (Electronic Performance Support Systems) are systems that provide employees with the information, advice and learning experiences they need to get up to speed as quickly as possible and with the minimum of support from other people' (Raybould 1996). One of the issues in designing performance support is managing information overload. Two approaches are the use of agents and the presentation of information in visual form (called information visualization). The former looks for ways that computer programs can do work for users, sorting through data on their behalf; the latter looks for ways to present information so that users can directly access it through direct manipulation. You can do both, but the selection of each has an impact on the interaction style and the degree to which users can directly control the system. It is therefore an issue that any performance support system designer should consider carefully. This is a logical extension of the goal of easy-to-use programs, adding the requirement that the user interface be actively informative and helpful.

Quesenbery, Whitney. Technical Communication Online (2002). Articles>Content Management>Workflow>EPSS

Why Should STC Publish a Journal?  

The Society for Technical Communication has good reason to be proud of its two major publications, Intercom and this journal. Both have garnered significant awards from the annual APEX competitions, and both serve important purposes. But why do we publish both a journal and a magazine? How did they develop? Why should the STC publish a journal at all?

Hayhoe, George F. Technical Communication Online (2007). Articles>TC>Publishing

Why We Should Archive, Share, and Analyze Information About Users    

In this article, I argue that technical communicators should be creating a database of information about users. Over the past 20 years, our field has described many methods for gathering information about users, especially about how they interact with our products in their workplace to solve problems. This information about users is often applied to improving the design of a specific product; however, the information gathered is not usually saved or reused later. Through archiving, organizing, and exploring information about users, designers can become more user-centered, create better designs, train new designers, ensure access to usability information, make the most of company resources, plan future usability investigations, and build more advanced theories about users.

Houser, Rob. Technical Communication Online (2001). Articles>Human Computer Interaction>Usability

Review: The Writer's Guide to Queries, Pitches and Proposals  

Have you ever wondered how to submit a piece of your work for publication, or have you done so, only to be rejected? According to Moira Allen, there are important procedures to follow when writing a perfect pitch for a potential publication. As the author of two books and over 200 articles and columns in well-known periodicals, Allen has also served as the editor for online publications such as Inkspot and Inklings. With this level of experience alone, Allen is more than qualified to offer good advice on writing queries, yet in addition, she includes 16 other contributors who provide tips from their specific areas of expertise for writing successful queries, pitches, and proposals.

Sharpe, Victoria. Technical Communication Online (2002). Articles>Reviews>Proposals

Review: Writer's Market FAQs: Fast Answers about Getting Published and the Business of Writing  

Rubie uses a question-and-answer format for his book, which makes the book difficult to sit and read cover to cover but works well when one uses it for reference.

Kadilak, Denise. Technical Communication Online (2004). Articles>Reviews>Publishing>Writing

Review: Writing a Professional Life: Stories of Technical Communicators on and off the Job  

Organized into three parts ('Initiation stories,' 'The process,' and 'Life on and off the job'), the stories cover the gamut of job titles, employers, and years of experience. The book also lists contributors' stories by topic, making it easy to locate subjects such as 'authoring, ethos and identity,' 'collaboration and teamwork,' or 'ethics.' There's a little something for everyone in this readable book, even if you've been in the field for years—and especially if you're ready for something just a little bit different.

Anderson, Darrill. Technical Communication Online (2004). Articles>Reviews>TC

Writing for the Web Versus Writing for Print: Are They Really So Different?    

Writing for the Web is often presented as being fundamentally different from writing for print. However, a review of the literature relating to Web writing and print writing shows that many of the guidelines proposed for the Web have a long history in print. For example, key Web writing guidelines such as 'write for scannability,' 'write for restless readers,' and 'write in coherent chunks' can be found in the literature about print. The guidelines for writing on the Web are extensions of the guidelines for print writing, rather than new ideas. Instead of comparing writing at the level of communication medium by contrasting the Web and print, it may be more helpful for writers to use genre to compare writing styles. This would involve using communication purpose and form as the basis of any comparison, with the communication medium being secondary.

Gregory, Judy. Technical Communication Online (2004). Articles>Web Design>Writing