Free content on technical communication

Don’t miss out on these

You’ll find most of our free content in the:

Cherryleaf newsletter

Cherryleaf blog

Cherryleaf Podcast

As technical communicators, we love to share what we learn, explore better ways to communicate, and explain things. Below, you’ll find links to articles, courses, podcast episodes and presentations on technical communication and content strategy.

Discover what different personas think of your documents

Free assessment of what users think of your policy and procedures documents

Curious what different types of users think of your documents, and whether they’re finding the information they’re looking for?

User insights can be invaluable for learning whether you’re meeting the needs of any or all types of users. Will they give up if they can’t find what they need? Can they understand and use the information once they’ve found it?

Unfortunately, most documentation teams don’t have access to a dedicated user research team, and they lack the time or budget to carry out tests themselves. Often, they’re left guessing about effectiveness.

Cherryleaf has developed three free AI tools that simulate different user personas navigating through documents to identify navigation issues and measure success rates.

See: Discover what different personas think of your documents

The Cherryleaf blog

Our blog provides information on becoming a better technical communicator. It contains news, articles, videos, podcast recordings, transcripts, and examples.

Podcast

Cherryleaf podcast screenshot of home web page

 

The Cherryleaf Podcast | Listen Notes

The Cherryleaf Podcast is a podcast on creating clearer and simpler information, technical writing, technical communication, and related topics. You can ask your question to the podcast team. We’ll see if we can feature it in a future episode of our podcast.

You’ll find the the show notes for each episode at cherryleaf.podbean.com

Subscribe now so that you don’t miss out on anything:

Listen on Google Play Music Listen to Stitcher

Documentation examples

See Cherryleaf – Examples

Published articles

Article on value of technical communication

  • Guide to chatbots in technical communication
  • The changing nature of content (voice and tone)
  • “If you’re not telling your story, someone else will do it for you” (Social Media and technical communication)
  • The changing nature of content (whitepaper commissioned by Adobe)
  • Towards an Agile authoring methodology (whitepaper commissioned by Adobe)
  • “A Technical Communication User’s Hierarchy of Needs.” Intercom, January 2016
  • Can we quit QWERTY?, Communicator, Autumn 2015.
  • “The Emotion Factor in User Manuals: How to Use Affective Assistance to Create More Loyal Customers” Intercom Dec 2010/Jan 2011, and Communicator Winter 2010/11
  • “What Every Business can learn from a Haynes Manual” STC Devil Mountain Views (East Bay Chapter of STC); November/December 2010
  • “A Different Perspective on Measuring the Value of Technical Communication” Intercom; July/August 2009
  • “How We Work with Technical Communicators” Technically Write (STC Lonestar Community); December 2008
  • “The Death of the Technical Author?” Dateline Houston; January/February 2005
  • “Help formats” The Communicator; Winter 2004
  • “RoboHelp vs WebWorks” The Communicator; Spring 2004
  • “Implementing single sourcing” The Communicator; Summer 2003
  • “Single Sourcing” STC Forward; March 2003
  • “Nine Trends in online user assistance” tekom newsletter; November 2003
  • “Understanding single sourcing” The Communicator; Spring 2003

Archived website articles

Recordings and slides from conference presentations and webinars

You’ll find copies of Ellis’ slides on SlideShare

https://www.slideshare.net/ellispratt/towards-an-agile-authoring-methodology-learning-from-lean

Videos and recordings of past webinars