Let's Tech Communicate
December 2016
Technical communication has changed since Joseph D. Chapline wrote a user manual for the BINAC computer in 1949. Now users can supply the documentation themselves while the writers come to grips with Industry 4.0 and bemoan the demise of the GUI which is to be replaced with the CUI. All this news is here, with a whole lot more from around the Net!
The Rise of the Conversational User Interface
If you like to spend time creating beautiful user interfaces then please enjoy it while you can. They are going to disappear according to Sreeraj. He predicts the Graphical User Interface will be replaced by the Conversational User Interface (think Siri on Steroids). He’s right of course.
More Readers Means More Testers
Anne Gentle combines the concept that you should treat docs like code with more readers equals more testers to arrive at Quality Tracking with GitHub for Docs in this short but compelling article.
Do You Exist – Really?
If you have ever felt invisible, Claire Mahoney knows your pain. In Tech writer life: The Invisibility conundrum (sic) Claire proffers advice on how to tell if you are invisible in your organisation and what to do to fix that.
DPI Love
We all think we understand resolution and DPI. Well – sort of. Lea Verou has created the DPI Love web page which will tell you everything you ever wanted to know to understand DPI (really PPI). There are also sections including advice for designers, facts about the resolution of the human eye and more. (Thanks Earnsy).
Content Sensing and Information 4.0
Information 4.0. Industry 4.0. Where will it end? Ray Gallon and Andy McDonald know. They say context sensing provides us with the means to produce highly personalized information that is geared towards the user’s needs on a minute-by-minute basis. So are we ready to become creators of Information 4.0? See Content sensing and Information 4.0.
Writing for the 21 st Century
Industry 4.0 and new technologies such as intelligent agents or Augmented Reality are bringing a new user experience and transforming customer support. Their coming of age forces us to think about how we produce technical documentation to make the most of this revolution. Structure, metadata and semantics are how technical communicators are going to cope with writing for the 21 st Century according to Fabrice LaCroix.
From Product Information to Product Communication
In times of user forums and service portals, user information is no longer a one-way street. But while many manufacturers still ignore – or even fear – user-driven information, we should think of ways to tap into this great pool of knowledge that users give away freely. Well, that is what Johan Elisson and Carl Carlheim-Gyllenskold think. From product information to product communication
Grant Mackenzie