It’s time to put our heads above the parapet, make ourselves hostages to fortune, and predict what will happen in technical communication in 2015 and beyond.
1. “User Churn” will lead to SaaS providers looking to assist users in better ways
The move towards Software as a Service (SaaS) has led to organisations worrying about “user churn” – if users give up using the application after only a short period of time, the company won’t generate enough income. This means it’s becoming more important to assist the users when they begin to use the product.
2. Organisations will take a more holistic approach to communication with users
We’re seeing organisations looking at the all the ways it communicates with users, and making sure they are consistent and supportive of each other. For example, the training emails sent out to new users, the User Interface text, the Help and the training videos.
3. Software developers will see Help as part of the product design, as first user Help grows in popularity
Instead of seeing the user documentation as almost as an afterthought at the end of the project, we’re seeing organisations considering the first user interaction Help you see in mobile applications. This has to be planned into the UI itself, which means technical writing can no longer be left to the end of the project.
4. Microsoft’s greater level of informality in its Help will be copied by others
Microsoft’s “No more robot speak” programme, which has lead to a more empathic and informal tone will be noticed by more companies. We understand Microsoft has only spoken officially about this change twice; it’s likely that many organisations will misunderstand what Microsoft is doing and make mistakes when they try to adopt a similar approach.
5. DITA will make slow progress
It’s easy to forget that the DITA technical writing standard is used by fewer than 10% of technical communicators. When the Lightweight DITA standard approved later in 2015, it may become easier for smaller organisations to adopt DITA. However, the adoption of DITA is likely to continue as its current rate – a slow, but steady 1% per annum.
Your predictions?
A lot of these trends actually began some time ago, but we’re likely to see them adopted more widely in 2015.
What you see as future trends? Use the Comments box to let us know.
[…] Instead of making my own predictions, I’m going to respond to one nice and concise list that I found: Cherryleaf’s five predictions for 2015. […]
Great predictions! I took them and described how they match my plans for this year: http://customersandcontent.com/2015/01/06/not-my-predictions-for-2015/
With the caveat that my plans can change by next month, of course.
Thanks Neal.