We have a number of projects running at the moment that involve us improving organisations’ policy and procedures documents. It may not seem likely, but these projects are enormous fun. The best analogy I can find is that it’s like rearranging someone else’s record collection. Or in a more modern setting, it’s like creating a… Read more »
Category: Technical Author
The Maker generation, hacking and why user documentation suddenly becomes important
One of the emerging trends in the 2010-2020 decade is the emergence of the ‘Maker Generation’. According to The Economist: The maker movement is both a response to and an outgrowth of digital culture, made possible by the convergence of several trends. New tools and electronic components let people integrate the physical and digital worlds… Read more »
Brand authenticity and the role of the Technical Author
The current edition of Autocar (14/12/11) contains an interview with David Woodhouse, head of Ford’s London Strategy Concept Group, a semi-secret team that looks at emerging consumer trends. From the article: Woodhouse said “One of the rising trends is the search for authenticity. How does it (the product) tell you what it is?” Woodhouse points… Read more »
Improving policy and procedures documents
I’ve been trying to work out why we’ve seen a marked increase in the number of enquiries relating to improving policy and procedures documents. Typically, these documents relate to very important issues. For example: dealing with vulnerable people calling an emergency hotline, and ensuring patient records are always handled confidentially and securely. Reading these documents, it… Read more »
Documenting an Olympics
The London 2012 Olympic Games are less than a year away, and we recently came across some information about the IT systems that will be supporting the games. According to Computer Weekly, “Planning and implementing IT in any major project is challenging to say the least. Problems and delays can cost millions of pounds. The… Read more »