There are user documentation projects where we are asked to write in American English instead of British English, and generally this is a pretty straightforward exercise for us. However, when I speak at conferences in the USA, delegates sometimes ask me afterwards what I meant by a particular expression. For example, I was recently asked… Read more »
Tag: trends
The next advanced technical writing course will be on 23rd June
The next public Advanced technical writing & new trends in technical communication classroom course will be held on Thursday 23rd June, at our training centre in central London (WC2R). We’ll be updating the content from last month’s course, to reflect the recent and upcoming developments at Microsoft.
Microsoft launches its new documentation site, and it’s very good
Microsoft has announced the preview release of its documentation service, https://docs.microsoft.com, which currently provides content for its Enterprise Mobility products. “We interviewed and surveyed hundreds of developers and IT Pros and sifted through your website feedback over the years on UserVoice. It was clear we needed to make a change and create a modern web experience… Read more »
The return of Clippy?
Are we seeing the the spiritual child of Clippy emerge? Truth Labs’s Stelios Constantinides has written an article on his experiments with conversational UIs. Conversational user interfaces (CUIs) are a spoken or written way of interacting with a device. CUIs aren’t completely new, but they’re becoming smarter, more natural, and — therefore — more useful. Here’s where CUIs come in:… Read more »
API documentation design patterns
One of the current developments in technical communication is the development of a common way to present API documentation. At present, there are a number of different design patterns that organisations are using, but, as with many things, there seems to be a desire to establish a de facto standard. One part of this has… Read more »