Let's Tech Communicate!
July 2015
In this month's Let's Tech Communicate, we cover agile content development, why it’s important to design for mobile first, content trends for 2015, and how to start a conversation with a stranger. This and much more from around the Net!
Insights and trends
This month on the web there was plenty of conversation around content development. Alan Pringle outlined content trends for 2015, Bill Swallow from Scriptorium described how and why to adapt a content strategy in support of The Internet of Things (IoT), and, in an interesting interview, Ben Cornelius from PayPal talked about his experiences with agile content development.
One of the rising trends in TC currently is the customer journey. Do you know if your company provides a consistent customer experience across all types of content? Sarah O’Keefe’s recent webcast discussed how content silos can affect customer satisfaction.
If you’re publishing your content online, take a look at these 7 future web design trends, Cyberchimp’s article on designing for mobile first and why it’s now so important, and from TCWorld, practical tips for optimising your online help tools.
Cherryleaf, a TC organisation in the UK, has identified the humorous airline safety video as a new theme in technical communication. Using humour to communicate a dry, technical message can be a novel way to break down barriers (if you haven’t already seen it check out the one TechCommNZ created for last year’s conference).
Skills and Tools
For many of us, striking up a conversation at a work event with a stranger can be daunting. Heather Grace’s recent article provides useful tips for conversation starters and got us thinking that maybe it’s not that hard after all.
Are tools top of your mind at the moment? Take a look at this great site giving useful Excel tips, a review of Robohelp 2015, and news about the Adobe Tech Comm Suite 2015 release.
If you’re a contractor, or work in a small to medium business, check out 110 essential resources. It’s a cornucopia of tools for creating websites, time tracking, project management and organisation, communication, collaboration, social media and stock photo libraries.
One of our favourite geekalicious treats for the month came in the form of creating shaped text using CSS.
The newbie tech communicator's toolbox
Jill Parman identified common content quality issues and reviewed some best practice tools to help create better content, and we got some advice from Leah Gure on how to use minimalism to get the best out of technical documentation.
Many experienced TCers will know that documentation is a journey. In his post, Greg Pittman talked about three lessons he learned from documenting Scribus.
Out of this world
In the latest tech news, Apple patents a 3-D Display that tracks your eyes.
Claire Nicholson, Vice President