Cherryleaf Technical Authors' Blog

Will SEO be replaced by AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation)?

noreply@blogger.com (Ellis) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 09:35:00 +0000

Internet psychologist Graham Jones has just posted an interesting Blog called "Search is on its deathbed...bye, bye SEO".

In it he states:

"They (Search Engines) would like us to think that we are constantly "searching" for things online - but we aren't. We are "locating" stuff we already know about, a lot of the time."

"We are merely locating things that we want to find following some offline trigger... Add to that the fact that people are now seeking answers to questions rather than searching for general information, it means that traditional search engines are going to have their work cut out in the months ahead."

This sounds an awfully lot like the behaviour of people using Help files - typically they know WHAT they want to do, but they don't know HOW to do it. They ask questions, in many cases. Navigating and locating become more important than searching.

Perhaps this means the strategies and technologies adopted by technical authors when creating Help files should be adopted by Web developers. Content may need to focused on answering questions, as people migrate towards "answer engines" rather than search engines, such as Google. For software companies, this may simply be a case of adding the content of their Help files to their Web site.

How barcodes could be the technical author's best new friend

noreply@blogger.com (Ellis) — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 08:54:00 +0000

The latest mobile phones in the UK are using barcodes to provide one of the first practical applications of augmented reality. It's technology that could see barcodes appear on thousands of physical items - something which would open up new opportunities for technical authors providing user assistance for equipment.

The advert below shows how it's being used today:

Barcode Scanning wit..
Watch the ad...

In the future, users could use their mobile phone to scan a barcode (like the one below) on an item to call up instructions on how to use it.

The consequence would be that technical communicators would need to write content that can be read easily on the screen of a mobile phone (until pico projectors become more widespread).

See also

Will Nokia's new technology reinvent the manual?

Share Life with T-Mo..
Watch the ad...

User documentation - Does it matter?

noreply@blogger.com (Ellis) — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 09:15:00 +0000

It's very hard to tell how much user documentation matters to people. One completely un-scientific way is by looking at the messages on Twitter, on any given day, that make mention of it.

Below are some of the messages posted on Wednesday 4th March 2009 that mention documentation.

We've omitted those messages that relate to legal documents and others not relating to user documentation, and we've removed the poster's name. Some people are motivated enough to post a message because they hate the user documentation they are using; some because they like it so much; and others because they hate writing it.

Here they are:

Writing Documentation (sigh)
Documenting the documentation. I should burn these someday.
Rewriting some old VB5 apps that don't have any comments or documentation.
Mired in documentation hell. Can't take any more so off home to flop in front of telly with Pino Grigio.
Yeah, why AREN't you using Groove yet? Now I gotta put all all documentation on some old media like CD or USB
Using Fiddler to inspect S3 requests from S3Fox - now that's faster than reading documentation!!
I like the concept of Capistrano but the lack of documentation is alarming.

Trying to use 2 spot colors with pdflib in PHP. Also trying to think of an even more obscure, documentation-lacking task. Failing at both
When did the Wordpress API documentation go to sh*t?
Pulling together blog content for mvccontrib.. Anyone have a preference on what feature needs documentation in MvcContrib
It's crunch time. documentation review final stages commencing. t minus 2.5 days to finish.

Why I always understand the documentation with mistaken meaning
Another day writing documentation ... good times. (yawn)
Documentation or help sites are next to useless without a search!
Time to brush off the GMaps API documentation, right, right?
Ahh cool. i do have the notation guide, i think i'm just impatient haha. i basically only use it to update documentation!
Writing Documentation
Is working on an endless series of software installs and documentation... Yaaaay...

Wishing Cappuccino actually had some proper documentation and decent tutorials, I suppose it is early days though.
Is back to writing documentation
Listing to Explosions in the Sky and writing documentation. Not exactly Zen meditation, but close enough for this morning.
Cursing inadequate documentation. But going out later for drinks and canapes, mwah mwah

Eurgh! More documentation. I'm frakkin' siock of documentation!
Motivation issues again. Revisiting an old project and rewriting documentation isn't my idea of fun.
Dear Apple, This documentation is not good enough for a parameter called userInfo: "The user info the new timer.". Thank you, Dave.
Reading documentation.
Frantically writing documentation and updating config for a big release... no joy to deploy ;o)

Taking screenshots and writing boring documentation
First I have to finish programming it, then outcome 3 (testing it then 5 test journeys + documentation + screengrabs) then outcome 4
Ok so maybe so far documentation day isn't so hellish.
Taking some Mac documentation we did and creating the same docs for Windows XP. Surprised at what works on XP, as well as what doesn't.
Congrats on the upcoming worldwide Documentation Sprints

Congrats to @add1sun for winning one of the 6 Knight Drupal Initiative winners for documentation sprints. w00t!
In place of proper documentation (coming soon), here are some lengthy release notes for WebComic 1.8 & InkBlot 1.3
Getting intimate with Adobe Acrobat as I create boatloads of documentation for our SACS review next year. Brain turning to mush!
Do it! Joomla has a bit of a learning curve. WP is great for blogging and has its
own CMS as well as a plethora of documentation.

Writing documentation for SMARTY FUNCTION OF DOOM. Seriously, that's what it's called.
Canon Professional Services documentation almost as nice as apple packaging!
Putin mais quand est ce que ces putains de projets open-source fourniront une documentation complète d'utilisation...
Proofreading is a very valuable skill to have when writing technical documentation and specifications

Printing the Admin Guide for Respondus Lockdown Browser prior to installing it for our 8-week pilot test. 12 pages of documentation. yay...
Researching twitter for documentation use -- ideas, anyone???
Writing up documentation on maintaining the RSS Feed. I hadn't realized just how many steps there were until I started writing them down.
JCE is also a lot easier for novices to use which means less documentation.
Just baby barfed!! Doing more documentation!!!
Today is documentation day. Oh joy. How can I make this fun?

Pouring through PayPal API documentation
IT Intervention ep. 4: Sysadmin gets out of control setting up 55 virtual machines with no documentation, standards or even hostnames.
Writing another CMS documentation for a website which is due to go live next week.. 25 pages thus far.
Hello, software documentation writers: QuickStart is two words, separated by a space, that thing beneath your thumb.

Documenting processes. Not exciting, but it's better than not having documentation!
Looking into using the Amazon Seller Central SOAP API but documentation seems a bit sparse, not great for company like amazon
After many tries to undestand values of a MATRIX 3D and iam at the same point. Can't find a great documentation or sth to solve that!
Writing help documentation might be useful but it still sucks
Breaking my balls with springsecurity.. reading its documentation! o/

Cherryleaf has been approved by the North East England Service Provider Register

noreply@blogger.com (Ellis) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 12:52:00 +0000

Cherryleaf has achieved Full NEESPR (the North East England Service Provider Register) approval. Only registered providers with satisfactory customer feedback are eligible to receive referrals from Business Link and other business support organisations using the North East England Service Provider Register so, it's a true mark of quality.

Looking for a Technical Author in London?

noreply@blogger.com (Ellis) — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 09:46:00 +0000

Cherryleaf's clients are often looking to work with a technical author who is based in or near London. From our location near London Heathrow Airport, we're able to do this. Indeed, our other locations (in Brighton and near Oxford) are also with in commuting distance to the city, as well as the Thames Valley.

How Pico Projectors could help the Technical Author of the future

noreply@blogger.com (Ellis) — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 08:42:00 +0000

Pico projectors are the latest technology to be incorporated into mobile phones, and their introduction could provide technical authors with a new way of delivering technical documentation. They could be of particular interest to those writing documentation that's used in factories, workshops and other areas unsuited to computers and paper manuals.

Pico Projectors are miniature low power projection modules. They are able to produce full colour, high-resolution images up to 1.5 metres onto any surface. Their size means they can be embedded into mobile phones, with the promise that people can show their friends what they've recorded using their mobile phones and other videos, such as music videos of their favourite bands.

They can be used to project other information too, and this could well be user documentation. The aircraft engineer of the future could project the maintenance instructions next to the item they are handling - on a nearby object or wall.

At present, they work best in subdued lighting, but the Lumen output from this technology will increase in the near future.

26 March DITA Workshop - 75% of places now booked

noreply@blogger.com (Ellis) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 10:41:00 +0000

75% of the places our special DITA workshop on the 26th March have now been taken.

There are still some places available at the moment, but this training workshop is now likely to sell out.

Why bother with user documentation in recessionary times?

noreply@blogger.com (Ellis) — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 12:04:00 +0000

Although many organisations see user assistance as a "good thing", it's not immune to the belt tightening that many organisations face in times of difficulty.

Business expert Mike Southon recommends that in recessionary times, organisations should focus on getting sales from existing customers - so customer retention becomes ever more important.

There's a virtuous circle of a customer finding user assistance helps them and becoming a loyal and happy customer. Whilst user documentation can help with the perceived quality of a product before the sale, its key value is in keeping customers: customer retention in marketing-speak. It's the philosophy of Toyota and others - the focus on quality and customer service.

Chris Bose of In Press PR Ltd, told me that recessions are the times when market share changes. This is why successful companies reduce their advertising spend, but never cancel it. They know that when the economy turns and business improves, they'll get more sales than the competition - more sales than they ever did before, most likely.

Recessions are also often the times of greatest technological change. The Great Depression saw the wide-scale introduction on electricity to houses in Britain, and, today, we're seeing significant developments in Help Authoring software. Those companies that can adopt these new developments in user assistance now will be able to differentiate themselves from their competitors - something of importance in these highly competitive times. As the economy swings upwards, this competitive edge will make a difference in sales.

However, it can very hard to measure the effectiveness of documentation. Again, this is where recent technological changes come into the place. A number of Help tools now enable you to measure how many people accessed your documentation, whether it assisted them or not, as well as many other useful measures. Indeed, Web based user documentation can be the trick to increasing your Search Engine rankings (but keep that a secret!).

It may be that you can provide better user assistance for less money. You may find you save on translation costs, lower support calls and lower printing costs.

Perhaps the question should not be "why bother?", but "how can we do it better?"

What can a Technical Author learn from a TV shopping channel?

noreply@blogger.com (Ellis) — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 08:52:00 +0000

TV shopping channels are immensely successful at selling technology to the general public. Most salesmen will tell you how good these channels are at using the power of persuasion to create and fulfill a need that might never had existed before you turned on the TV.

Technical Authors could also pick up a few tips from these channels. These channels have to explain - on live TV and in just a few minutes - how easy a particular gadget is to use. They need to use language their audience will understand - people who are typically very not very technical at all.

For example, today a British TV shopping channel is promoting a portable pocket Internet surfer. Not only do they have to explain the device, they have to explain concepts such as Instant Messaging, remote data storage and free Internet access. They do this by using a range of methods to explain. In this case, it's video clips, walking users through a key task and using a "Question and Answer" dialogue between expert and TV host.

So take a few minutes to look using your technical author eyes. Operators are standing by.

Twittering Technical Communicators

noreply@blogger.com (Ellis) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 17:03:00 +0000

The technical writing community is starting to take Twitter to its heart. The people below are a mixture of technical communicators and entrepreneurs (plus one celebrity - Stephen Fry) whom we're following.

Updated: 24 February 2009

If you're just starting out on Twitter this may give you a headstart on who to follow:

Get your twitter mosaic here.

Microsoft Help v.3 Preview

noreply@blogger.com (Ellis) — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 07:26:00 +0000

April Reagan of Microsoft will be talking about Microsoft Help v3 at the WritersUA conference:

"Microsoft Help 3 is a new client help system. This help system has been built from the ground up with simplicity, performance and relevance in mind. It was not a straightforward road in getting the project approved, and with a large legacy content base and complex content scenarios, it took a lot of long and heated design discussions with a will to favor simplicity. The end result is a greatly improved deployment model, a fast underlying architecture based on the Zip storage standard and a beautiful new Windows Presentation Foundation based help viewer featuring a web-browser feel. Initially shipping as the product help system for the next wave of Visual Studio products, this system will become available to all Windows developers in the near future. This will be the first wide release of a help system from Microsoft since Help 1."

WritersUA is looking like it will be a great conference this year.

Test video - Technical Author Vacancy #3531

noreply@blogger.com (Ellis) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 17:54:00 +0000

Should you appoint a Director of Content?

noreply@blogger.com (Ellis) — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 08:39:00 +0000

We ask the question, because a need for a "Director of Content Marketing" is being discussed by a number of Web 2.0 related blogs.

According to Wikipedia, it is an umbrella term encompassing all marketing formats that involve the creation or sharing of content for the purpose of engaging current and potential consumer bases. In contrast to traditional marketing methods that aim to increase sales or awareness through interruption techniques, content marketing subscribes to the notion that delivering high-quality, relevant and valuable information to prospects and customers drives profitable consumer action.

Should that role be extended to cover technical documentation? Will a the role of "Director of Content" appear in the future?

See Warren Sukernek - Our new Director of Content Marketing

How Content Marketing Will Shake the Tree

New Technical Author vacancy: Thames Valley, £30K-£45K

noreply@blogger.com (Ellis) — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 09:21:00 +0000

#3531 Technical Author, Thames Valley (Berkshire), £30K-£45K

Tony "Dr DITA" Self's London DITA workshops this March

noreply@blogger.com (Ellis) — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 10:17:00 +0000

We've managed to arrange for Tony Self ("Dr DITA"), to break his journey again (this time it's Melbourne to Seattle) and deliver his Beginners and Advanced DITA training workshops in London.

This time, the advanced course will be more advanced and delegates will receive a free copy of a DITA utility that Tony has been developing.

The workshops will be held on Thursday 26th March in London.

During that week, Tony will be also be carrying out DITA consultancy, on-site training and 1-2-1 tuition. If these would be of interest to you, then contact Cherryleaf on 01784 258672.

Why "Dr DITA"? Tony is currently studying for a PhD, on DITA and its impact on academic documentation. He also lectures in technical communication at the University of Swinburne, heads up the DITA Help Standards committee, and runs a technical authoring consultancy.

More details to follow.

What I learnt from 21 hours of interviews with UK Documentation Managers

noreply@blogger.com (Ellis) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 15:16:00 +0000

After conducting 21 hours of interviews with Documentation Managers and writing a 7,000 word report on the findings, two factors stand out:

1. The importance of usability testing documents.
2. The importance of measurement.

As the saying goes, you can't manage what you can't measure.

UPDATE: The report is now available for purchase via the Cherryleaf online shop: Benchmarking Survey of UK Publications Teams - Special Report

Will Twitter change the way customer service is provided?

noreply@blogger.com (Ellis) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 09:54:00 +0000

The debate about the usefulness of Twitter in User Assistance (aka technical writing) is starting to take off:

Charlene Kingston will be speaking at the WritersUA conference in March about integrating Twitter.

The Carphone Warehouse has started to use Twitter to support its users.

See
"Mind the gap" and guy1067 on Twitter

Uploaded on authorSTREAM by ellispratt

Survey of UK Documentation Teams

noreply@blogger.com (Ellis) — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 16:00:00 +0000

We've completed interviewing the managers of UK documentation teams today. We estimate our survey covers 5% of the technical authors in the UK. This means we should have a representative sample size.

The next step is to combine all the questionnaires, analyse the data and write the report.

In our survey, we were particularly interested in discovering:

• Is there likely to be a significant change in the number of authors in the team in 2009?
• Will the split between contract and permanent staff change in 2009?
• Is there a difference between teams single sourcing and those that are not?
• Is there any move to off-shore documentation?
• Are other departments encroaching on Technical Authors’ work?
• How is the documentation team’s performance measured?
• Is there unanimity as to what makes a good document?
• Is the size of the documentation team related to the volume of content produced, the number of programmers/engineers or the size of the company?
• How do authors develop and improve their skills?
• Is there a trend towards customised documentation?
• Is there a trend towards user generated content?
• Is there a move towards DITA?
• Does the adoption of XML based authoring lead to wider use of authoring tools outside of the Publications team?
• How important is documentation to organisations?
• Has there been any adoption of Web 2.0 technologies?
o If there has been a move away from manuals, do technical authors still do the work?
• If there has been a move towards XML,
o Do non-technical authors now get involved in writing content ?
o Do technical authors get source content in XML format (or is it still “cut and paste”)?

It will be interesting to see what answers we find.

We'll be writing a report on our findings, which will be available in our online shop in the near future.

How valuable is product documentation?

noreply@blogger.com (Ellis) — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 13:33:00 +0000

We received this email from a Documentation Manager, yesterday:

"As times are getting tougher, we've been challenged with the age old question of "how valuable is product documentation?" - e.g. prove your worth basically!

Certainly, we know that for a product to be marketable and successful, it needs documentation to support the end user.
However, I am currently trying to gather more information specifically about GUI product online help:
1. How often is it really used? I know every product is different so usage will vary - but in general how do user's feel about it?
2. Do user's require it to be context sensitive - or can an e-support Center with all documentation available for searching suffice?
3. What is the current trend for online help structure? Scenario based instructions, quick snippet videos, etc.

Ideally, I'm trying to gain insight into the ROI for documentation efforts spent. If you have any information from past research on the value of documentation, I'd be really grateful if you could share it.

So how would you respond to this challenge?

Help files - A question of trust

noreply@blogger.com (Ellis) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 10:28:00 +0000

Last month, Forrester Research released results from a survey on how much consumers trust different sources for information. They didn't include online Help or knowledge bases in the survey, so we don't know how well or badly they would have come out in the survey.

They found independent (non-corporate) information were the most trustworthy sources. Top of the list was information contained in emails sent by people we know. Interestingly, the survey showed that only 16% of consumers trusted corporate blogs and only 33% trusted wikis (such as Wikipedia).

Commenting on this report, Dominic Jones has claimed that, for corporate blogs in particular, "it’s ALL about credibility and trust."

So are Help files credible and trustworthy?

How could online user assistance be made more trustworthy and credible? If the independent sources for information are the most trustworthy, should online assistance contain links to independent, external sources of information?

The research shows that message board posts are trusted by only 21% of consumers, so would user generated content be seen as independent, impartial and trustworthy?

Josh Bernoff of Forrester wrote a post about corporate blogs in which he stated that blogs themselves are not the problem, but rather consumers are being turned off by how companies are using them. I would have thought that would be true for other online tools such as forums, online Help and knowledge basis.

However, I can't help feeling that online user assistance is one of the most credible information sources provided by organisations, and that by integrating it more into company Web sites its trustworthiness could be put to greater and more wider use.

PS Happy New Year!

When you need Help, do you press F1 or search Google?

noreply@blogger.com (Ellis) — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 16:36:00 +0000

I was at two clients in Cambridge earlier in the week, where the conversation turned to the Internet generation and how they search for information. Both publish their user documentation on their Web site, as well publish traditional PDFs and online Help files.

The first client said that they'd found from their recent customer usability studies that the first action for 50% of those studied was to go to Google - even when they knew there was F1 online Help available. They said it was essential the Help content was available on the Web - otherwise, users would be relying on information outside of the client's control.

The second client said they'd analysed the key word searches on their Web site and from Google. As a consequence, they were re-writing the Help topic meta data and titles so that they'd appear higher up the rankings. In some cases they were having to create content containing mis-spellings, which they said went against the grain.

It surprises me how few organisations make their user documentation findable through the search engines, and how few do any Search Engine Optimisation. As our first client indicated, if they don't use your information they they may well be using someone else's.

"I'm a technical writer" slideshow challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Ellis) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 17:22:00 +0000

Using the photos in the "I'm a tech writer" project, can you make a better slide show for promoting technical writers than this? Contact us and show us what you've created.

Technical Writer - Exploding the myths

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: writing writer)

I'm a Technical Writer - Dispelling the myths

noreply@blogger.com (Ellis) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 13:01:00 +0000

Technical Writers (aka Technical Authors, Content Wranglers and Documentation Managers) have an unfair image as probably the last type of person you'd like to meet at a party. Fictional writers tend to portray them as agoraphobic social misfits.

We aim to challenge this image, by showing technical writers in a different light - by posting photos of technical communications professionals doing a variety of activities.

See www.imatechwriter.com or www.cherryleaf.com/imatechwriter.htm

If you are involved in technical writing and you'd like to be included, contact us and send us a photo, together with your name and location (only photos suitable for viewing at work please).

Could Zuberence be used in technical documentation?

noreply@blogger.com (Ellis) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:05:00 +0000

Zuberance is a hosted service for encouraging user generated content. Although aimed at creating "Brand Advocates" or "Customer Evangelists" and a "Volunteer Salesforce", maybe it could be used to create user generated support. What do you think?

Would you like to take part in our benchmarking survey of UK Publications teams?

noreply@blogger.com (Ellis) — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 14:56:00 +0000

Cherryleaf is undertaking a benchmarking survey of Technical Publications teams based in the UK. Participants will be give a copy of the summary report of our findings that we'll be putting together.

If you head up a team of 3+ writers, which is based in the UK, and you'd like to participate, then please contact us.