Let's Tech Communicate
February 2017
In this edition of Let’s Tech Communicate! we read some surprising truths about the computer skills of users, navigate an evolutionary timeline of technical communication, and learn with Lego. This and a whole lot more from around the Net!
Insights
Jakob Neilson presents some home truths for our profession in the form of some startling statistics in his article The Distribution of Users' Computer Skills: Worse Than You Think. Across 33 countries, only 5% of the population has high computer-related skills, and only a third of people can complete medium-complexity tasks. He also provides a short summary of the tasks we can expect most users to be able to do.
In The evolution of technical communication, writers Monalisa Sen and Debarshi Gupta Biswas provide an evolutionary timeline of technical communication and a list of key trends. Who knew that our profession was recognised by the US legal fraternity as recently as 1980? Over the years, we've transitioned from a conventional relationship between author and reader to the realm of collaboration.
If you're driven nuts by CSS styling in complex layouts, read Samantha Zhang's cunning approach to element padding in Learning from Lego: A Step Forward in Modular Web Design.
Content Strategy
We all know we have to measure our work, but it can sometimes be challenging to know what to measure. Laura Bellamy gives us the golden triangle of content metrics, which focuses us on customer engagement, content value, and market reach to evaluate success and plan future work.
If you're involved in creating and maintaining online knowledge bases for your organisation, you'll want to read Karl Montevirgen's compilation of Robert Norris' wisdom and experience in Managing Enterprise Content: 12 Lessons from 2016.
Tech Comm Skills
Polish your jottings by looking up some New note-taking methods for technical communicators.
Don't over-simplify – this CyberTest Newsletter article warns about the problem with 'simple' instructions.
Looking back on 2016
Finally, Alan Pringle reviews Scriptoriums’ best blog posts for 2016. Enjoy the sunny weather and we’ll see you next time!
Luke Pivac