In praise of dummies

We live in a world so diverse and so complex that everyone has to deal with situations where we’re really don’t know what’s going on. We have to ‘drive blindly’ – we’re all dummies at some time or another. The reality is, it’s rarely your fault. The last person said to know everything about the… Read more »

Turning employees’ knowledge into an asset for the organisation

In July 2010, Mark Prisk, UK Minister of State for Business and Enterprise said: As the events of the past two years have made painfully clear, we must leave behind the over reliance on financial services and support a renewal in modern manufacturing, so we are able to grasp the huge opportunities of the low carbon age…. Read more »

The Economics of Content Strategy

One of the recurring themes at recent conferences on technical communication has been content strategy. You see speakers commenting that writing skills are valued less, and so Technical Communicators should look to become more strategic and managerial. In this context, content strategy is a focus on improving efficiency and productivity of content creation, management and… Read more »

13 is a lucky number for some technical authors

In research for my presentation today on the emotion factor in technical documentation, I came across a recent case study in the US where changing the writing style had resulted in a 13% increase in readership. It took me a few days to realise that a 13% increase must have quite an impact on the… Read more »

3 strategic ways to reduce the number of support calls

The cost of providing support to users can be huge, so what can be done to reduce the number and duration of support calls? Here are three strategies to consider. 1.Pre-empt the calls In same way that Japanese car companies improved the quality of their products to reduce the after-sales costs, you can take steps,… Read more »