Red Gate Software’s Dominic Smith mentioned in his presentation at UAEurope conference that the company had found Technical Authors were ideally suited to take on the role of Project Manager for small Agile software development projects. In fact, Red Gate had morphed most of its Technical Authors into to a hybrid Project Manager role. Dominic made a… Read more »
Cherryleaf Blog
Towards Flow-Based User Assistance
Flow theory is a psychological concept that is gaining interest in e-learning. It is a concept that should be also considered in the fields of User Assistance and Technical Communication. Flow is akin to sportsmen being “in the zone” – flow is the situation where people are happiest when they are completely engaged in a task. Online Help… Read more »
Cherryleaf XML DITA workshops October 2012 – your opinion needed
We’ve arranged for Dr. Tony Self to host a few training workshops in London this October. Tony is based in Australia, and he also known as Dr. DITA, as he has a PhD in DITA and is the author of The DITA Style Guide. We’d love your feedback on which XML and DITA training courses… Read more »
Any user guide, as long as it’s black
At last week’s UAEurope conference (and in this season’s Communicator magazine), Dr. Tony Self suggested how car manufacture can be an allegory for the technical communication profession. Henry Ford revolutionised car manufacture when his production line replaced the method where cars were hand-made by artisans. Famously, Henry Ford offered the Model T in “any colour…… Read more »
Rethinking technical communications, rethinking Technical Authors
Our June newlsetter contains a links to a flurry of articles on rethinking technical communications. We’ve added comments to a number of these articles, and I thought it might be worth summarising our thoughts on the likely future for technical communication. Today, many products are not always “technical” A lot of technology today is part… Read more »