The Conference ...

I was in Christchurch for a Technical Communicators Conference. Now before you doze off, technical communicators are an interesting bunch of people and it was great catching up with everyone and learning lots of new things.

I have written a short summary of a couple of the sessions I found most interesting.

Writing for the Unknown

As writers we are always considering our audience – who are we writing for, what do they need to know, what’s their level of knowledge, and so on.

However, it turns out there is another set of readers that I personally hadn’t considered too much – those with invisible disabilities and situations that make it hard to read / understand information. These include people with ADHD, dyslexia and ESOL.

At WritersInc we have always followed basic principles that include ‘chunking’ information, using headings, not using block capitals, left justifying text, and ensuring important information is presented first.  But…. I have to admit that I hadn’t really considered how important these techniques really help those with invisible disabilities.

During the conference I also attended a workshop with the same presenter that looked at writing Alt-text – that’s the text alternative that describes an image. Screen readers read the alt-text aloud to describe the image. We were reminded that it’s not only people who are blind or have low vision who use screen readers – people who have difficulty reading may also use them.

The image we describe may be a photo, graph or icon. It may be decorative, informative, or contain a link. But whatever we do, our description it has to add value.

Using Icons Effectively

Icons also came up when we talked about design. Some designers like their icons to look “different” or “snazzy”, and when they do this they risk people not understanding the intent of their icon (what happens when you click on it / what information is beside it).

A good example is the ‘Log in’ icon on websites. I did a quick search and found a huge number of options, including the ones below.

But how about adding a word to the icon.  Isn’t the icon below much easier to understand!

The Alchemy of Training

Just as an aside… which of the icons below would be most effective for this workshop on training? Some are ‘funky’. Some are ‘interesting’. But only one relates to what the session was actually about.

   

This session looked at how we can ensure the training we provide is relevant and sets our learners up for success. Amongst other things we were shown a lot of tricks on how to create a great group dynamic from the start, and what to do if dynamics aren’t so good.

Technical Writers

During the conference we had the opportunity to discuss how we became technical writers (most of us ‘fell into it’), what qualifications we have (currently there are only online technical communication courses available in New Zealand), how we can encourage more people to become technical writers, and (most importantly) how we can make companies realise how important technical writers are if they want their documentation to be successful!  Unfortunately all too often people don’t really value technical writers and the expertise we bring to a project.

If you want help with a documentation project – talk to Ruth or Niki at WritersInc.