Online Videos: Engaging Your Users 

A guide to using online video on your site to offer more enticing content and provide a more compelling user experience.

Kodali, Mrudula. Webcredible (2008). Articles>Internet>Video

The Security Dilemma: Balancing Robustness and Usability   

Heisenberg's uncertainty principle says the more you try to know about a particle's position, the less you can know about its momentum. A similar dilemma affects IT security. It seems the more features you load into a product, the less usable it can be.

Henneman, Richard and Michael A. Hughes. Cutter IT Journal (2008). Articles>Usability>Security

Applying Turing's Ideas to Search 

Users hold search to a human standard of understanding that computers cannot as yet achieve. This is more than just a curiosity: The Turing test has something to tell us about how we can better design our website search interfaces today.

Ferrara, John. Boxes and Arrows (2008). Articles>Web Design>Search

Mapping Memory: Web Designer as Information Cartographer 

The rise of the social web demands that we rethink our traditional role as builders of digital monuments, and turn our attention to the close observation of the spaces that our users are producing around us. It’s time for a new metaphor. Consider cartography.

Rester, Aaron. List Apart, A (2008). Articles>Web Design>Information Design

CSS Sprites2: It's JavaScript Time 

In 2004, Dave Shea took the CSS rollover where it had never gone before. Now he takes it further still—with a little help from jQuery. Say hello to hover animations that respond to a user’s behavior in ways standards-based sites never could before.

Shea, Dave. List Apart, A (2008). Articles>Web Design>CSS>DHTML

Finding the Technical Writing Community in Utah 

In Utah, technical writers abound but are hidden. Utah probably has at least 500 technical writers spread out across companies all over the state (most in Northern Utah), but communication among the technical writers is sparse. The community is a little disconnected.

Johnson, Tom H. List Apart, A (2008). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>Utah

WordPress as a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Application 

I'm amazed at how easily people can make sites look both professional and functional in a short period of time using WordPress. Clyde Parson, the STC-Suncoast chapter in Tampa, just redid the Suncoast STC with a new WordPress theme. It looks pretty cool.

Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2008). Articles>Content Management>Blogging>WordPress

User-Guide-Driven Development 

In my work with Bumblebee I use an approach I call 'User-Guide-Driven Development,' or UGDD for short. The mechanics of UGDD is similar to that of Test-Driven Development (TDD), but before I write the test for a feature, I write a snippet of the user guide describing the feature I am about to implement.

Brolund, Daniel. Thoughts of a Goldfish (2008). Articles>Documentation>Usability>User Centered Design

Driving Development 

By partly adopting the process suggested by Daniel Brolund we, the technical writing team, can be involved right up front and the documentation can be one of the methods used to validate the software as it is being built.

McLean, Gordon. One Man Writes (2008). Articles>Documentation>Writing>Technical Writing

Getting FLOSSy: Acrobat Killer Or HAT Replacement? 

Some writers truly hate Adobe Acrobat and any tool that can do the job better is worth a shot, particularly if it’s open source and easily navigated. Flossmanuals.net introduces FLOSS which does a lot of the single desktop Acrobat Pro’s job - collaboratively and open source.

Jeter, Charles. Charles Jeter (2008). Articles>Content Management>Documentation>Software

Introduction to Professional Writing Research 

English 203 serves as an introduction to research approaches and methods useful for professional writers. The course will focus on developing ideas to guide research; collecting print and online information; interviewing, surveying, and conducting observations; and evaluating, summarizing, analyzing, and reporting research. Perhaps most important, the course will focus on developing your writing skills so that you might not only engage in but also produce quality professional research.

Bay, Jennifer. Purdue University (2008). Academic>Courses>Research>Business Communication

Introduction to Professional Writing 

English 306 introduces you to the rhetorical principles and theoretical concepts that you will need as a professional writer. These principles and concepts will help you analyze and respond effectively to a variety of workplace writing scenarios. While the course will address some practical skills such as how to write memos, emails, and reports, we will focus most of our attention on theories of rhetoric, language, and information. We will learn how information operates in organizations, theories about information architecture, as well as rhetorical concepts that will allow you to effectively assess and approach any writing situation you might encounter. Additionally, the course will introduce you to the strategies and skills necessary for using various communication technologies in workplace contexts.

Bay, Jennifer. Purdue University (2007). Academic>Courses>Business Communication>Technical Writing

Digital Rhetorics and Writing 

The class English 396D: Digital Rhetorics and Writing covers contemporary digital writing practices and rhetorical theories about those practices. This space is a metasite intended to aggregate class content.

Bay, Jennifer. Purdue University (2008). Academic>Courses>Writing>Online

Multimedia Writing 

English 419 introduces students to the fundamental rhetorical theories, principles, and practices of multimedia design, implementation, and publishing. The main objective for the course is for students to understand critical theories of multimedia and the new media technologies that create and publish multimedia content, with a particular emphasis on visual rhetoric and usability. Since multimedia is, by nature, interactive, we will cover the rhetorical nature of interactivity, the relationship of the audience—or users—to interactivity, and the discovery of innovative methods for successfully interacting with others through multimedia. Students will explore these theories through projects that require creative engagements with a variety of technologies and users.

Bay, Jennifer. Purdue University (2003). Academic>Courses>Multimedia>Writing

Business Writing 

English 420 teaches students the rhetorical principles and writing practices necessary for producing effective business letters, memos, reports, and collaborative projects in professional contexts. The curriculum is informed by current research in rhetoric and professional writing and is guided by the needs and practices of business, industry, and society at large, as well as by the expectations of Purdue students and programs. All sections of English 420 are offered in networked computer classrooms to ensure that students taking the course are prepared for the writing environment of the 21st-century workplace. The course teaches the rhetorical principles that help students shape their business writing ethically, for multiple audiences, in a variety of professional situations.

Bay, Jennifer. Purdue University (2006). Academic>Courses>Business Communication>Writing

Theories of Rhetoric and Composition 

English 470 will explore some of the major theories of rhetoric and writing which shape the ways that we use language in social, educational, political, and professional situations. We will examine various definitions of rhetoric, key rhetorical concepts and debates, theories of writing, the impact of new technologies on rhetoric and writing, and philosophical questions, among others. Our trajectory for the course can be mapped across several different heuristics. We can say that we will begin with oral traditions of rhetoric, move to written traditions, and then to electric or online instantiations of rhetoric. Another way to think about the structure of the course is philosophically: we start with ancient concepts of language and thought, then move to modernist conceptions, and finish with postmodern ideas about the place of rhetoric in the world. While we won't be able to cover every historical period and every rhetorical concept, you should leave the class with an understanding of what rhetoric is, when, where, and how it can be deployed, and why rhetoric is important. The ultimate goal of the course is for students to understand rhetoric as a productive art that offers transformative possibilities.

Bay, Jennifer. Purdue University (2004). Articles>Rhetoric>Theory>Writing

English 680N: New Media 

What is "new media?" English 680N will examine this question from a variety of perspectives, investigating forms and examples of new media as well as the theories that underlie and emerge from these forms.

Bay, Jennifer. Purdue University (2008). Academic>Courses>Multimedia>Theory

Ten Technical Communication Myths 

Technical communication has accumulated its share of mythical rules of thumb, but the good news about our profession's myths is that they too contain grains of truth and insights into things that are truly important to us. (This work is a reprint of http://tc.eserver.org/10500.html, but not locked for STC members only.)

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. TECHWR-L (2000). Articles>TC

Documentation and Agile Software Development 

What’s it like doing documentation as part of an Agile software development team? Why is it a better way of working? I mull this over these and other questions with Graham Campbell.

Christie, Alistair and Graham Campbell. ITauthor (2008). Articles>Documentation>Agile>Podcasts

ITauthor 

ITauthor is a British blog about software and technical writing.

Christie, Alistair. ITauthor (2008). Resources>Writing>Technical Writing>Blogs