Virtual Assistants

“A Virtual Assistant (VA) is an independent entrepreneur providing administrative, creative and/or technical services. Utilizing advanced technological modes of communication and data delivery, a professional VA assists clients in his/her area of expertise from his/her own office on a contractual basis." This is a quote from the International Virtual Assistants Association.

The International Virtual Assistants Association (IVAA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to the professional education and development of members of the Virtual Assistance profession, and to educating the public on the role and function of the Virtual Assistant. While certification is by no means requisite for IVAA members, IVAA holds the distinction of being the only organization offering the comprehensive IVAA Certified Virtual Assistant (CVA) exam, recognized internationally as the standard that Virtual Assistants strive to attain. Information is provided to the public so that a qualified virtual assistant can be found for your project.

You can check out more on virtual assistants at http://www.ivaa.org/

Orr's Aphorisms 7-15-2006

• Train, train, train the writing/development staff so they can do it right the first time, instead of having to revise it.
  
• Use templates with extensive autotext and macros to automate standards and, thus, do it right the first time.
  
• Planning and process aren't ends in themselves, but they are important, especially to teamwork.
  
• Involve users and clients in development to get ownership. You can sometimes mentor users into doing the writing and shorten a development process because of their superior knowledge of the job, product, and environment.
  

David Orr is an award-winning instructional designer with 23 years experience designing and developing technical training for Fortune 1000 companies. www.orrnet.biz

Moderator Skills for Web Conferencing

I've found web conferencing to be a powerful tool for marketing, selling, interviewing SMEs, collaborating in teams, training remotely, and conducting document review and design meetings. Lot's of people take a do-it-yourself approach to running these things. If you want to add some professional polish to your web conference moderation skills and get better response and attention from your participants, check out this inexpensive webinar. I have no financial interest in it, but I did help create and market it and have seen it received very well by a number of particpants from major corporations and small businesses.

Tools and Techniques for Web Conference Moderators (Delivered Online)

This webinar is aimed at those who may have to moderate or produce webinars. The emphasis is on effectively planning and using interactive elements and tools to engage participant interest and ensure optimal learning.

• 2006 Tools and Techniques for Web Conference Moderators dates:
  -November 3
  
• Webinar time is 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. CST.
  
• Webinar Highlights
  -Preparing to moderate
  -Creating an interactive environment
  -Using web-conferencing tools
  -Free tip-sheet and job aids
  -Highly personalized—limited to just 15–20 participants
  
• Click here for a webinar agenda.
  
• To register, e-mail mailto:register@drakerg.com?subject=Webinar%20Registration or call (847) 540-0655.

File Management, Training and Certification

I've recently been a beta evaluator for a product called WebFiles, which is part of a larger Documentation and Certification System http://www.projectstory.com/doc-cert/now used at some Fortune 500 companies.

WebFiles by ProjectStory.com is a system you use to store documentation and training materials with controlled access. WebFiles provides:

• Easy transfer of even VERY large files
• Ability to organize those files into groups and control access to those groups through an automatically managed process, thus providing security and controlled access. Companies can organize training groups and store material for them easily.
• Ability to brand the site with one's own business logos and info
• Ability to easily distribute files from a central repository to the defined groups

I've known Mike Baron, the owner, for 16 years and have seen him build this product based on real client needs at large corporations. Mike knows the difficulty and expense of implementing a full-scale Learning Management System. WebFiles allows you to get things up fast, inexpensively, and on a pay-according-the-level-of-use basis. It's a hosted solution, so configuration hassles are avoided. Personally, I think it is ideal for small to mid-sized businesses also in helping them to get their processes and procedures organized.

The Documentation and Certification Solution:

• Integrates all documentation into one location
• Visualizes the entire process with workflow diagrams
• Organizes procedures with powerful and flexible instructional design
• Provides certification testing
• Simplifies maintenance

BTW, I have no financial interest in ProjectStory or its products. I use WebFiles extensively with my own clients and find it helps bridge corporate communication barriers and helps me with my own branding for David Orr Consulting, LLC. For more information:

http://www.projectstory.com/doc-cert/

Writing Lesson: Passive Voice

Principle: Avoid Using Passive Voice in Directions or Procedures

• What is passive voice?
  –The subject of the sentence is the object of the action, not the initiator. Contains a form of the verb to be
  –Example: The system is updated regularly.
  
• Why is passive voice inappropriate for directions or procedures?
  –Hides responsibility for an action
  –Adds unnecessary words
  –Sounds weak and stilted
  –Sounds impersonal and remote
  
• Solution: Replace passive voice with active voice. The main purpose of using active voice is to establish responsibility for an action.
  
• Passive
  A file is saved by pressing the Enter key. (Who does the pressing?)
  
• Active
  Press Enter to save the file. (Understood subject "You." In other words, the reader is responsible.)
  
• Passive
  The user database is updated every three months. (By whom? Is it automated? Does the system admin do it?)
  
• Active
  The system administrator updates the user database every three months. (Responsibility is clear.)

David Orr

Open Source Knowledge

The article below is terrific, with lots of great graphics. I live in Asheville, NC, where open source coding is king. A local technology group called Meet the Geeks (www.meetthegeeks.net ) was able to put up a technology portal in one month, from concept to execution, by using an open source application. The article is about ideas in general, not about code specifically, but the principle is the same. Shared knowledge causes synergism and explosive advances. Just ask scientists...!

Source: Robin Good's Latest News; 7/12/2006; 10:46:07 AM.Intellectual Property vs. Knowledge Sharing: Who Gains?. "Professionals" in any field come in two flavors: Knowledge Sharers and Knowledge Hoarders. The hoarders believe in the value of their "Intellectual Property" (IP). The products of their mind must be carefully guarded lest anyone steal their precious ideas. Photo credit: Linda Bucklin But let's face it -- if our only "strategic advantage" is our ideas, we're probably screwed. Or as CDBaby's Derek Sivers put in in this post: "It's so funny when I hear people being so protective of ideas. (People who want me to sign an NDA to tell me the simplest idea.) To me, ideas are worth nothing unless executed. They are just a multiplier. Execution is worth millions."...

Certification - ASTD

Here is an email I got from the American Society for Training and Development about their certification program. Thought I'd pass it on.

Dear Future CPLP Candidate,

Due to unexpected demand, the ASTD Certification Institute (ASTD CI) has opened a new CPLP™ (Certified Professional in Learning and Performance™) testing window in October 2006. Now you have an additional opportunity to get certified in 2006—either sit for the new testing window or select one of the few remaining seats for the November window.

If you have at least 3 years of industry experience and the desire to prove your value, advance your career, and demonstrate your commitment to workplace learning and performance, the CPLP™ is for you. Consisting of both a knowledge-based exam and the submission of a work product reviewed by a panel of experts, this credential can enhance your earning potential and broaden your career opportunities.

If you’re interested in differentiating yourself in this competitive job market, your resume must include the CPLP™ designation. Registration is on a first-come, first-served basis and is open now. The ASTD CI suggests a study time of at least ninety (90) days. The cost for participating in the certification program is $750 for ASTD members and $950 for nonmembers.

Register now for the CPLP™. Click here to begin the process.

Thank you for your time and commitment to building the profession.

Sincerely,
The ASTD CI


ASTD Certification Institute1640 King Street Alexandria, VA 22313 http://www.cplp.astd.org/

Qualitative Versus Quantitative Usability Testing

Often the question is asked, what is the optimal number of participants to use in a usability (user experience test). Jakob Nielsen (left), the Godfather of Usability, says 20 if you want a statistical confidence interval of +/- 19%, which he considers "ample" for a quantitative test.

"Luckily, you don't have to measure usability to improve it. Usually, it's enough to test with a handful of users and revise the design in the direction indicated by a qualitative analysis of their behavior. When you see several people being stumped by the same design element, you don't really need to know how much the users are being delayed. If it's hurting users, change it or get rid of it.

You can usually run a qualitative study with 5 users, so quantitative studies are about 4 times as expensive. Furthermore, it's easy to get a quantitative study wrong and end up with misleading data. When you collect numbers instead of insights, everything must be exactly right, or you might as well not do the study."

At my usability lab in the 1990's, we preferred to use two of three studies of five each, rather than one study of 15. We staged the studies before and after review/revision cycles so we could see if we had fixed the problems. For the complete Nielsen article, click on the title above. David Orr

Interactive Electronic Technical Manuals (IETMs)

The Department of Defense (DOD) has invested heavily in developing Interactive Electronic Technical Manuals (IETMs). There is an excellent article on one of their sites. It outlines the features and benefits if IETMs, but also defines the five standard classes of IETMs. Here is an exerpt:

"Interactive Electronic Technical Manuals allow the user to locate required information faster and more easily than is possible with a paper technical manual. IETMs, when designed to the DoD IETM Specifications, are easier to comprehend, more specifically matched to the system configuration under diagnosis, and are available in a form that requires much less physical storage space than paper. Powerful interactive troubleshooting procedures, not possible with paper technical manuals, can be made available using the intelligent features of the IETM display device.
One study (Nugent, et at. 1987) indicated that maintenance technicians using a computer-based electronic document with aritifical intelligence assistance on troubleshooting completed tasks in less than half the time it took those with paper manuals. Even novices, using the electronic job aid, could troubleshoot 12 time faster than experienced technicians using paper manuals." (emphasis mine)

https://www.spider.hpc.navy.mil/index.cfm?RID=TTE_OT_1000013

Gray Value Issues in Presentation and Screen Design

Have you ever looked at a presentation or computer screen where one of the design elements or print seemed to recede into the background? Maybe, you just noticed that the contrast between the print and the background is low and makes the print hard to read? These effects are caused by errors in gray value design. What is gray value? by David Orr, Continued.... http://www.orrnet.biz/Blogs/gray_value_issues_in_presentatio.htm

Business Processes and Related Topics

I've seen first hand the value of documented business processes. I owned a small business of 15 to 40 people for 16 years. We had "before" and "after" stages of having our processes documented. "Before," it was chaotic. Processes were passed by word of mouth and changed just about every time they passed. Formal training? What formal training? It was all word of mouth. The only thing that saved us was a group of dedicated individuals who scrambled to make things work, at the cost of great personal stress.

Sound familiar? This formative, "before" stage is very common, I'd almost say ubiquitous, among early-stage small businesses.

The "after" stage, or normative stage, if done right, makes all the difference. The corporation all of a sudden has a reliable memory. New hire training becomes simple and uniform because the processes are in place and documented. It become posssible to stufdy existing processes and make them better because they are known and documented. The staff can now concentrate on creative efforts to make money instead of scrambling to make up for the chaos of the "before" stage.

With the availability of online tools and archives, processes can be documented rapidly and updated to every desktop just as rapidly. The excuses for not having a documented "method" to the madness are rapidly disappearing. Here's a good article for process beginners.

Streamlining Technology and Business Processes Following a Merger or Acquisition. Ascend Technologies' Dan MacKinnon reviews the steps to effective technology consolidation following a merger.

[Computerworld Breaking News]

Comments on Nielsen Article Below

My reservation about Nielsen's aversion to graphics on web sites (see article below) is governed by one of his own principles--that everything on a site ought to enhance the user experience and not just be for the convenience of the site owner.

Forget graphic ads and Flash presentations; it's a given these days that nobody likes them except some graphic designers and marketing people. What about graphics that help explain a concept or physical thing? "Learning styles," including the visual learner, are firmly entrenched in learning theory. I hope the usability experts will let us keep these useful, explanatory graphics. (I'm prejudiced because I happen to be a visual learner. I want to see the big picture represented in graphics--functional, usable graphics.)

I can't say I've read everything Jakob Nielsen has written, so maybe he has made this point already and it is not reflected in the article below. David Orr

Wise Words About Branding From The Usability Sage

An explanation of usability concepts in Nielsen's website design ...

"Jakob Nielsen knows A LOT about usability. He's perhaps the world's foremost expert on how people use Web sites. I finally had the chance to meet Jakob face to face last week (we've been trading e-mails for some time) in San Francisco at his Usability Week Summit. I was down there to sit in on his one-day session on eyetracking.

No Graphics for Nielsen.

Jakob takes a pretty austere view of the user experience. One can tell this from his own website, useit.com. Perhaps his most famous quote is "Flash: 99% bad." He takes a similarly dim view of animations and large graphics, which lead to "banner blindness," he says. In fact, other than the obligatory head and shoulder shot on his bio page and a small arrow glyph used to indicate hierarchy in his breadcrumb navigation bar, there are no graphics on useit.com.

He goes on at some length about this. Why no graphics? He's pretty adamant that they add nothing to the user experience. We're not in complete agreement about this, but I get his point.

Jakob's Nielsen Norman group has recently added eyetracking to its usability arsenal. If ever you're looking for justification for not using large graphics on a site, look (sorry, no pun intended) no further than eyetracking heatmaps. In session after session, users skirt around large graphic blocks, focusing their interaction on text and navigation. It can be a rude slap in the face for most graphic designers (there's a rather amusing anecdote about one such encounter that happened at the session, and an example of the phenomenon I'm talking about, on my blog)." continued ... (Via Search Insider)
Full Article 7:08 AM Permalink

Unlocking the Promise of Web 2.0 (NewsFactor). NewsFactor - The Internet is evolving. Whereas once it served mostly as a conduit for data, today the World Wide Web is turning into something more akin to a giant operating system, an immense interactive platform on which full-blown applications run in your browser and collaboration occurs in real time. [Yahoo! News: Technology News]

Office 2007 Delayed Again. Performance problems force Microsoft to postpone again. Plus: Brazil chooses Japanese technology for its digital television standard.... Verizon sues a Maryland county over its cable franchising law.... and more. [Wired News: Top Stories]

Orr's Aphorisms (6/30/2006)
by M. David Orr

• Documenting the 20 percent of tasks that people have to use 80 percent of the time is more effective with new users than documenting all the tasks.
• Communication of the product metaphor and the way of working through the system are critical.
• Documentation is only part of a solution that might include, user interface, training, job aids, online help, Web sites, RSS, blogs, compensation changes, culture changes, and policy changes.
• Different people have different learning styles. Good documentation and training accommodate different learning styles. Common learning styles: readers, listeners, writers, see-ers, doers, socializers

David Orr is an award-winning instructional designer with 23 years experience designing and developing technical training for Fortune 1000 companies.

Miller's Magic Number

George Miller wrote a now famous paper in 1956:

The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on our Capacity for Processing Information, George A. Miller (1956), Harvard University, First published in Psychological Review, 63, 81-97.

Technical writers, business writers, instructional designers and others have elevated the central concept to a truism of writing, which we call Miller's Magic Number. Basically, it goes like this:

• A list or sequence, to be retained easily in short-term memory, should contain no more than 7 +/- 2 items.

Some interpretation has been used to apply the number.

• A list or sequence could be a bulleted list or a numbered list.
• Corollary: Use subheadings to break long procedures into shorter sub-procedures (chunking).
• Use subheadings to break long bulleted lists into shorter, related lists.
• From Orr's Aphorisms: "Miller's Magic Number--no more than 7 +/- 2 items in a list--is not perfect all the time; but it's pretty good most of the time."

--David Orr

Optimal Software Updates

From Dave O'Brien, a usability specialist:

I'm currently working on a software updater, and our usability tests have revealed a few things, at least, about users updating consumer software:

• When installing or updating, users expect to be able to click "Next"without thinking, and expect it will do the right thing.
  
• When installing, they assume they have the latest version, even ifit's on a CD. We used to ask them if they wanted to check for updates after installing, and they usually chose No for this reason, so now we just check and show them the update.
  
• When updating:
  - Most users don't care about what's in the update itself.
  - Most users *do* care how long it will take, and if they have to reboot because of it.
  - Most users want it as automatic as possible (e.g. background check, download, and install).
  - Like most other tasks, users want solid confirmation that the update succeeded.
  - If something goes wrong, they want to be able to recover so they can continue working.

To contact Dave O'Brien, click the envelope icon at the bottom of this article and post a comment with your email address. I monitor the comments before posting them and will not post your email address or contact information. David Orr

Design/Writing/Training Articles

Check out InfoDesign Understanding By Design - News. It has a large number of carefully selected RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds with newstories directly related to design, usability, technical writing, and training. Here's the link: http://www.informationdesign.org/archives/cat_techcom.php

A Really Simple Explanation of Really Simple Syndication (RSS)

Using RSS allows you to pull content from many sources into your website, news reader (aggregator) or blog. It also allows you to syndicate content from your own website or blog for use by other sites.

How Does RSS Work?
Content producers (anybody) use the XML language to mark up selected content from the website or blog so that this content can be easly identified and picked up by news aggregators and RSS directories. This marked up content, along with a title, a short description of the content, and a link to the site that contains the content is called an RSS feed.

Sites usually mark RSS feeds with graphic symbols of various kinds. See sample icons above. Typically just the Title, Description and link appear on the web site or blog pulling from the feed.

How to Read Feeds
To read a feed, you need a news reader (called "aggregator "). News aggregators let you subscribe to news feeds, such as the New York Times, or to less well known feeds on web sites and blogs. Usually all you have to do is provide the aggregator the feed link or URL of the web page containing the feed. Just Google on "news aggregators" to get specific information about subscribing to an aggregator. I use a relatively new one called RSSJam, but there are many.

How to Create a Feed
For beginners it's usually easiest to buy third-party software for creating feeds. Googling can turn up many such software packages and services. The service that I use to create this blog automatically creates feeds for the content of this blog.

It's also possible to add XML code containing the feed directly to your web site page. If you are a newbie to RSS, a helpful book is Syndicating Web Sites with RSS Feeds For Dummies ® (Paperback) by Ellen Finkelstein http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0764588486/104-1265630-4975154?v=glance&;n=283155

Marketing Your Feeds
In a process similar to submitting a web site to search engines, you submit your feeds to RSS feed directories and to aggregators. Just as with web search engine submission, there are services that will do it for you. One I use is called RSS Submit.

Why should you go to all this trouble?

• If your feed gets picked up by a lot of other sites, you will have a free syndication on that site and draw traffic back to your own site.
• Heck, you might even make a name for yourself and draw advertising to your blog or web site.

Some Applications

• Add feeds to your web site or blog to syndicate content and draw people back to your site.
• Pull in feeds to your blog or web site to concentrate information about a particular topic, along with your own comments.
• Create web pages with training course content that can be accessed with a news aggregator. This is a perfect way to deliver just in time training and eliminate a lot of production costs.
• Create user manuals that can be accessed with new aggregators and updated centrally and distributed automatically.
• Create power user tips pages within a corporation to provide best practices to software system users. For example, each of several power users or Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) can have their own blog page on the corporate intranet. Each user has a news aggregator they can use to subscribe to the Power Users' or SME feeds.
• Businesses can use RSS feeds for their customers as a value-added service. For example, an industry newsletter.
• RSS avoids many of the hassles of corporate firewalls and spam. The reader chooses what content he or she wants to see and gets it on demand.

Cold Calling Script

The idea of cold calling is to go through a list of prospects very quickly to grab the low-hanging fruit. As such, the idea is to rapidly plow through the No's to get to the Yes's. A No or Maybe, is simply something to get through as fast as possible with as little emotional energy as possible.

My script is very simple-minded:

Hi, my name is _______________. I'm an award-winning technical writer/instructional designer in the Chicago (or whatever) area. I design and write software and business process documentation (or whatever). Are you aware of anyone at your company who might need a person to do that kind of work on a free-lance basis?

• YES - Great, why don't I send you a resume and check back with you in a couple of days to make sure you got it?
• NO - Is it possible you might need someone at a future time.
  * YES - see previous YES.
  * NO - close with, "Thank you very much for your time."
  * MAYBE - same as first YES

It takes about 15 seconds for a NO. It might take longer with a YES, particularly if they start to ask questions. Leaving a message works just as well as talking to the person. They either need someone or not. If they do, they will call you.

Orr's Aphorisms™. (updated weekly)

• Decision tables/charts are useful, especially in non-linear situations.
• Users expect a new product to operate somewhat like an old product of the same type.
• Often it's useful to show samples of effects you can get with a product, and then give directions for getting those effects.
• There is no magic bullet. One size does not fit all. There is no one approach to documentation and training that works every time.
• Use document structure to layer information for different audiences. This includes hypertext layers in online documents.

David Orr is an award-winning instructional designer with 23 years experience designing and developing technical training for Fortune 1000 companies.

Online Job Networks for the 55-Plus Crowd. Companies are eager to lure back to the work force retirees with decades of experience.

[Computerworld Breaking News]

Microsoft Allows Open Document Format for Software (Reuters).
Reuters - Responding to government requests for interoperability, Microsoft Corp. said on Thursday it will offer free software that will allow Word, Excel and PowerPoint to handle documents in rival technology formats.[Yahoo! News: Technology News]

Digital Photo Timelines

A Clearer Picture of You . Digital photos have been frozen in a picture-book metaphor on the Web for so long that it's refreshing to see a new crop of sites developing the picture further. By Leslie Walker. [washingtonpost.com - Technology - Industry News, Policy, and Reviews]
I can see all sorts of business applications for this timeline approach--organization histories, generic industry training, concept evolution, marketing, user profiles for software development. Can't wait to get my hands on the tools. More later...MDO

Microsoft Office (2007) Open XML File Formats

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms406049.aspx
Summary: Learn the benefits of the Microsoft Office (2007) Open XML Formats. Users can exchange data between Office applications and enterprise systems using XML and ZIP technologies. Documents are universally accessible. And, you reduce the risk of damaged files. (26 printed pages).
Comments: An important article for anyone who uses the Microsoft Office Suite. It has a well-written, thorough description of the immediate future of the Office Suite, the benefits of the XML approach, use case descriptions, and data/document architecture illustrations.

Knees Bent with Tongue Firmly in Cheek

Now here's a useful word for consultants (I'm one) and lower level corporate employees:
genuflect: Dictionary.com Word of the Day. genuflect: to bend the knee, as in worship; also, to grovel. [Dictionary.com Word of the Day]

Web Conferencing: WebEx Bug

(InfoWorld) - Researchers at Internet Security Systems (ISS) have discovered a number of flaws in Web conferencing products, including a critical bug in WebEx Communications Inc.'s client software.

ISS researchers began studying Web conferencing software at the beginning of the year and to date have discovered a handful of security problems in the products, said Gunter Ollmann, director of Internet Security Systems Inc.'s X-Force threat analysis service. Last year the Atlanta company launched a similar investigation into VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) software, which also netted a number of bugs, he said.
The WebEx vulnerability is the first Web conferencing flaw that the company has publicly disclosed, and it is working with vendors to patch and ultimately disclose the others, he said.
The WebEx flaw, which was patched Thursday, could be used by attackers to run unauthorized software on a PC, and WebEx encouraged users to make sure that their client software is updated as soon as possible. Customers who do not have automatic updates can manually download the patch here.

The bug has to do with a flaw in an ActiveX control used to download WebEx components. "The vulnerability is that you can actually call the WebEx ActiveX agent and tell it to install other things," Ollmann said.

ISS has not heard of any attacks that take advantage of this vulnerability. If it were to be exploited, however, the attacker would first need to trick a victim into visiting a maliciously encoded Web site -- the same technique that has been used in the past to take advantage of similar flaws in Web browsers.

Automatic updates have pushed the patch to more than 95 percent of WebEx customers, WebEx said. The company's small-business products, including WebOffice, MeetMeNow and PCNow, do not use the buggy installer and are not affected by the vulnerability.By Robert_McMillan@idg.com (Robert McMillan). [InfoWorld: Top News]

ISPI (International Society for Performance Improvement)

In my 23 year business career, ISPI has been the single best source of useful information for the technical writer, instructional designer and performance technologist. I belonged to the Chicago Chapter before moving to Asheville, NC. The meetings were informative and always added to my skillset, since they practiced learning by doing. (People remember 90% of what they do.) ISPI has a free newsletter that is well worth reading:
PerformanceXpress
The current issue of the ISPI online newsletter, PerformanceXpress, is a click away. Monthly features include "Websites of Interest," "Trendspotters," "Tidbits from Behavior Science" and "Games by Thiagi." Learn More...

Tech Writing--Money, Honey!

"Technical Writer" Ranks 13th on Money's Best Jobs List. Money magazine's list of the 50 Best Jobs in America includes three job titles commonly held by technical communicators: technical writer (number 13), curriculum developer (18), and editor (19). [Society for Technical Communication]
STC's 2005 Salary Survey. STC's 2005 Technical Communicator Salary Survey (STC Members Only) [Society for Technical Communication]
2005 Survey of Australian Technical Communicators. Results of the latest technical communicators survey conducted by the Australia Chapter of STC are now available. We surveyed salaries (hourly rates for contractors), and other aspects of people's work, including their education and experience, what they produce, what they call themselves, and so on. [Society for Technical Communication]
Convinced there's money in tech writing, check out:
Technical Communication Career Center. STC's new Career Center, a far more advanced version of the Society jobs database, provides a comprehensive resource for job seekers. Post your resume today! [Society for Technical Communication]

STC (Society for Technical Communications) News

Three SIGs have changed their names. STC's Special Interest Groups (SIGs) are composed of STC members with common experiences and interests who share their skills and knowledge with each other and with other STC members. Online, Information Design and Architecture, Quality and Process Improvement update their names. [Society for Technical Communication]

Hole in Your Pocket??

Lots of us use flash drive to bridge clunky corporate file transfer issues. Oops!
Lexar recalls dangerous flash drives. Lexar Media Inc. recalled some of its flash memory drives made in China over fears they could overheat and burn users or cause property damage

[Computerworld Breaking News]

Usability Testing - Getting It Right

I owned a usability lab and consulting service for five years, so this topic is near to my heart. I've seen money blown and money saved. The article below has good insights as to why the blowing or saving happens.

Personally, I think the recognition that usability testing is a back-end device goes a long way toward understanding its limitations and value. Usability testing can tell you what is or is not working. The earlier in the process it occurs, the better.

Paper prototype tests at the conceptual design stage and first draft wireframe stages are much more valuable, and less expensive, than late stage (beta) usability testing. The earlier testing quashes the really bad design decisions before millions are spent implementing them. The late stage test merely shows you what you've done wrong after the money is already gone.--David Orr

Top reasons why usability doesn't pay.
I’d love to say that usability investment pays back every time. Unfortunately that’s just not the case; often a usability project will completely fail to deliver measurable benefits, and this can have a devastating effect on future organizational commitment to the user-centered cause.[uiGarden.net - Weaving Usability and Cultures]

Casting a Really Wide (Broadband) Net
This year in Las Vegas, Beth Agnew, technical communication instructor at Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology in Toronto, Canada, made the case for including podcasts and vidcasts in technical documentation. I asked her to share her views on multimedia content and the technical communication profession. Thanks, Beth, for taking time to share your views. Q: You're interested in By noemail@noemail.org (Linda). [STC Chicago Updates from the 53rd STC Annual Conference in Las Vegas]

Putting the Strunk Back in Strunk and White
Minimalist design for websites ..."In web design screeds, the most commonly cited book is not what you might expect. It is not by Jakob Neilson or Jeffery Zeldman or Edward Tufte. It's not even on design or typography or code. It is a thin volume of guidelines on writing by a professor at the closing of the first world war and treasured by one student enough to put it into print.

William Strunk was the professor, and E.B. White, author of Charlotte's Web, was that grateful student. White took the master's set of laws, removed some bewhiskered entries, corrected some errors, and added his own chapter at the end for those who feel English prose composition is not only a necessary skill but a sensible pursuit as well.

The most common excerpt from the book is one from Strunk, quoted as much for its poetry as its proposition:"Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts."

This concept seems to have permeated the design community's collective mind. Minimalist websites eschewing borders, decorative graphics, and even color abound. The book's principles are often held up to praise Google or damn eBay. But is anyone reading Strunk and White, or are they simply taking away quotes they like, and leaving the rest of the movie on the cutting room floor? There is a richness in the entirety of the text, which ranges from rules of grammar to approaches to structure, to even the heart of design: personal style." continued ... (Via Boxes and Arrows) (Usernomics). [Usability In The News]

Below is a link to the Amazon.com page for the book. Happy reading! It's a classic.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/020530902X/sr=8-1/qid=1152320606/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-3515275-1602365?ie=UTF8

User Manual Checklist

by M. David Orr

• Is the document written from the user's point of view (as opposed to the developer's)?
• Does the design follow job tasks, not program structure?
• Is information easy to find? Does the document have:
  * Headers or footers, navigation bars, or tabs
  * Table of contents
  * Index using both approved product terminology and alternate terms users might use * Glossary with both approved product terminology and alternate terms users might use
  * Visual cues (see more below)
  * Cross-references or hyperlinks to other, related procedures
• Is each topic and procedure self-contained so the user can perform the procedure without interrupting his/her workflow to go elsewhere?
• Is there a digestible amount of information per page or screen?
  * At least 25% white space
  * No large blocks of text
• Does the document separate conceptual information from step-by-step procedure text?
• The document requires less than one minute of reading before doing?
  * Each procedure requires less than one minute of reading before doing?
  * Each topic can be read in one minute or less?
• Does the document contain appropriate visual cues - areas of high contrast used to call attention to content:
  * Headings
  * Bullets
  * Boldface numbers
  * Arrows and labels
  * Horizontal or vertical lines
  * Illustrations or special graphics
  * Boxes or borders around illustrations
  * Any boldface or underlined type
  * Shaded or specially decorated text on screens
• Accommodates different learning styles
  * Reading
  * Seeing
  * Hearing
  * Writing
  * Touching/doing
  * Concrete examples
  * Abstract concepts
• Format fits the user's environment
  * Size
  * Online/print
  * Software/hardware environment
  * Sound/video appropriate/inappropriate
  * Binding
  * Complexity
  * Coatings (like waterproofing for documents used on a boat)
  * Ease of update

Blind Reader
New device could open up new jobs for blind workers ..."The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) unveiled Monday a groundbreaking new device, the Kurzweil-National Federation of the Blind Reader.The portable Reader, developed by the National Federation of the Blind and renowned inventor Ray Kurzweil, enables users to take pictures of and read most printed materials at the click of a button. Users merely hold "the camera that talks" over print -- a letter, bills, a restaurant menu, an airline ticket, a business card, or an office memo --- to hear the contents of the printed document played back in clear synthetic speech.Combining a state-of-the-art digital camera with a powerful personal data assistant, the Reader puts the best available character-recognition software together with text-to-speech conversion technology in a single handheld device." continued ... (Via Positive Technology Journal)
Portable Blind Reader By noemail@noemail.org (Usernomics). [Ergonomics In The News]

Hole in Your Pocket

Lots of us use flash drive to bridge clunky corporate file transfer issues. Oops!
Lexar recalls dangerous flash drives. Lexar Media Inc. recalled some of its flash memory drives made in China over fears they could overheat and burn users or cause property damage

[Computerworld Breaking News]

Casting a Really Wide (Broadband) Net
This year in Las Vegas, Beth Agnew, technical communication instructor at Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology in Toronto, Canada, made the case for including podcasts and vidcasts in technical documentation. I asked her to share her views on multimedia content and the technical communication profession. Thanks, Beth, for taking time to share your views. Q: You're interested in By noemail@noemail.org (Linda). [STC Chicago Updates from the 53rd STC Annual Conference in Las Vegas]

Business Prospecting

In business we have to communicate who we are and what we can do for the prospective client. The series of cartoons above suggest an important lesson. Can you suggest a caption that embodies this lesson?

Answer: In order to find the handsome prince, you have to kiss a lot of frogs.

Prospecting involves going through hundreds of prospects a week (most of them frogs) in order to find the one that needs what we have to offer. Prospecting is, therefore, a numbers game. The more we do, the luckier we get. - David Orr

Stories are the human experience.
Usability through storytelling, the theme for the UPA 2006 conference, was examined from many angles. Presenters looked at how stories fit into our work, throughout the entire user-centered design process.[uiGarden.net - Weaving Usability and Cultures]