We’re speaking at UA Europe 2011

Posted on Wednesday, 26 January, 2011 by ellis

We’ve been invited to speak at UA Europe 2011, which is being held in Brighton on 16th-17th June. Ellis Pratt will be speaking on: You win! Getting users to RTFM using techniques from games.

It’s claimed that games are a powerful way of affecting user behaviour, so can we apply game theory to the provision of User Assistance and increase its uptake?

In this presentation, we’ll look at games such as Frequent Flyer Programmes, Google AdWords, as well as more recognisable games software. We’ll look at what makes makes some successful and others failures.

We’ll also look at how organisations are today applying game techniques to Web sites, Help files and support communities, in order to drive a positive response, participation and engagement from their users.

We hope to see you there.

The Cherryleaf Website has had a makeover

Posted on Wednesday, 3 November, 2010 by ellis

The main Cherryleaf website has had a makeover. The main changes you’ll notice, at the moment, are to the “look and feel” of the site. Changes to the content will come next. Behind the scenes, we’ve added new functionality for adding job vacancies to the site, which means it will take less time to post new vacancies. It also gives us the capability to add Web 2.0 features in the future. The site was developed in-house.

Do let us know what you think of it.

Here are some of our recent videos

Posted on Wednesday, 20 October, 2010 by ellis

Here’s a playlist of recent videos we’ve put together. To play a video, click on the title of the video.

UPDATE: For some reason, the playlist does not appear when you view this post on our blog’s Home page. If you click on the title of this blog post, and view the post itself, you’ll see the list. If you can see the playlist above the video box, then ignore this update.

Videos – you can use the black scroll bar on the right to move up and down the list

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Speaker profile page for Ellis Pratt

Posted on Wednesday, 11 August, 2010 by ellis

As we’re being invited to speak at an increasing number of conferences, meetings and events, we’ve added a speaker profile page for Ellis Pratt to the Cherryleaf Web site.

Ranked the most influential blogger on technical communication in Europe, Ellis Pratt is a specialist in the field of creating knowledge users will love.

Presentations include:

Getting the “document monkey” off your back
Documentation as an emotional experience for the user
What can other professions teach us about the future for Support and Technical Documentation?
Ten trends in technical communication for 2010 and beyond
Goodbye to writing user manuals; hello to creating and sharing knowledge
Building a successful career as a technical communicator
Recruiting a Technical Author
Delivering documentation in a downturn
The Social Web – 5 key steps for business success
Why won’t anyone RTFM?

Report reveals Cherryleaf has Europe’s most influential blog on technical communication

Posted on Thursday, 29 July, 2010 by ellis

Mindtouch has published a report on the Most Influential Technical Communicator Bloggers. Cherryleaf’s blog, managed by Cherryleaf’s Sales and Marketing director Ellis Pratt, comes in at No.5, and is the highest ranking blog located outside of the USA.

The purpose of this blog is to explore the value of technical documentation in all its forms. We’re asking “how we can be more effective and more efficient in what we deliver for our customers and their users?”, and “how can we best demonstrate and measure the value of what we do?”. Judging by this report, these issues are of interest to others as well.

Video – People trying to make sense of poor instructions

Posted on Monday, 26 July, 2010 by ellis

We recorded the reactions of members of the public using various samples of instructions and user guides, and edited it into an advert for Cherryleaf. You can take a sneak peek of it below:

Slightly off topic: 5 steps to seducing someone with chocolate

Posted on Thursday, 15 July, 2010 by ellis

Fraser Hay is a business growth expert, with whom, from time to time, we have a chat. After each conversation, we come away with a better focus for Cherryleaf’s marketing efforts.

During our most recent discussion, Fraser said we weren’t focusing enough on the pain our prospective clients may have. Sometimes, we forget to talk about that, and blather on about the shiny, techie side of what we do.

This lead us to the idea of “5 steps to seducing someone with chocolate”. It represents the frustration people can have when they want to know the answer, but it’s just not there.

This is a rough and ready advert to illustrate the point: