Failure in technical communication

JK Rowling made a great commencement speech recently at Harvard University - on the topic of failure.



Failure is something that stalks the world of technical authors.

Failure affects our clients. Users often have to feel they have failed before they call up online Help. It is said that Microsoft nearly renamed "Help" in Vista, as a way of encouraging users to call it up more. However, they couldn't find a better word than "Help".

Failure is viewed differently in other cultures. I remember Patrick Hofmann talking in 2006 about how people from Japan read and re-read instructions carefully before they start a task, so that they won't make any mistakes. "Bodge", a typically British word, has no direct translation into the German language.

Should technical authors be comfortable living in a world of failure?

Jo Rowling's presentation illustrates that failure is part of life. Failure can have benefits as well as drawbacks. Maybe we should "re-frame" our world to something more positive. Where people fail, technical authors, through what they create, are there to help and assist.