|
|
Technical Author - Red Gate Software
Technical communications
-
Posted Friday, November 11, 2011 1:13 PM |
If you read my rant, you'll know that I'm getting a bit of a bee in my bonnet about user interface text. But rather than just yelling about the way the world should be (short version: no UI text would suck), it seemed prudent to actually gather some data. Read More
|
-
Posted Monday, September 26, 2011 4:50 PM |
Last week, at the Technical Communication UK conference, I did a little lightning talk. It wasn't very nice. This is perhaps unsurprising, given that the session was billed as "rants" - an opportunity for people to get things off their chests. Boy, did Read More
|
-
Posted Monday, August 08, 2011 12:37 AM |
Recently, I got an email about content inventories. This is not habitually a joyous occasion. Anybody who's had to compile one - and that's anybody who's serious about the web - will attest that it's a miserable experience. Making a content inventory Read More
|
-
Posted Wednesday, June 15, 2011 11:51 AM |
Technical Communication UK is probably the best professional conference I've been to. Last year, I spoke there on content strategy, and this year I'll be co-hosting a workshop on embedded user assistance. Obviously, I'd love people to come along to that; Read More
|
-
Posted Thursday, May 12, 2011 5:11 PM |
A fair bit has been written about novelty error messages, particularly web 404 pages. Opinion seems broadly split about whether they're charming or unprofessional, but lots of them are pretty memorable. In the cases of a 404 page, I'm not sure it's something Read More
|
-
Posted Wednesday, December 22, 2010 10:00 AM |
This is the video of presentation I gave at UA Europe and TCUK this year. The actual sub-title was "Content strategy at Red Gate Software", but this heading feels more honest. For anybody who missed it, or is just vaguely interested, here's a link to Read More
|
-
Posted Tuesday, December 21, 2010 1:41 PM |
The 3D edition of Tron: Legacy opens with embedded user assistance. The film starts with an iconic white-on-black command-prompt message exhorting viewers to keep their 3D glasses on throughout. I can't quote it verbatim, and at the time of writing nor Read More
|
-
Posted Tuesday, September 21, 2010 10:29 AM |
Last week (16th –17th Sept) saw the UA Europe conference in Stockholm (a lovely city, by the way). I was speaking, but since this is one of my few blog posts that isn’t self-aggrandizing codswallop, I’ll gloss over that. It was well-enough received, despite Read More
|
-
Posted Thursday, August 19, 2010 11:22 AM |
Last week, over on a blog called Flyosity, there was a post: Your design is wrong I liked it, I liked it a lot. Although many of the errors it cites may seem like rather small things, I absolutely buy the idea of objective design mistakes. It got me Read More
|
-
Posted Monday, July 12, 2010 8:08 PM |
Technical Communication UK 2010 (#TCUK10 and @TCUK_conf for twitter folks) is, unsurprisingly, a large conference about tech comms. It's hosted by the ISTC, and last year is was diverse, informative, and generally moderately awesome. This year is shaping Read More
|
-
Posted Friday, May 14, 2010 10:18 AM |
Last night, I was challenged to explain (and defend) content strategy. Three sheets to the wind after a pub quiz, this is no simple task, but I hope I acquitted myself passably. I say "hope" because there was a really interesting question I couldn't answer Read More
|
-
Posted Thursday, March 04, 2010 2:32 PM |
Cognitive fluency is - roughly - how easy it is to think about something. Mere Exposure (or familiarity) effects are basically about reacting more favourably to things you see a lot. Which is part of why marketers in generic spaces like insipid mass-market Read More
|
-
Posted Tuesday, February 02, 2010 3:09 PM |
"Technical communications" is, let's be honest, quite a vague term. I think this is fantastic. More than that, I think it's important. Some folks don't agree. I'm deeply baffled as to why. What a technical communicator isn't In a discussion about what Read More
|
-
Posted Monday, January 11, 2010 11:45 AM |
Most surveys suck. Think about how many you've seen and just sighed, or clicked away from in frustration, or struggled to understand. They suck. Partly, this is because survey design is hard - requiring sound statistical and research methodological experience, Read More
|
-
Posted Tuesday, December 15, 2009 2:26 PM |
I've talked a lot about content strategy lately. Let's do some. Here's a whistle stop example of drilling into some of our web content using Google Analytics, and asking those questions: what's it for, and is it any good at it? Today's victims are the Read More
|
|
|