Affective Assistance – Highlights from TCUK 2010 presentation

This video contains edited highlights from Ellis’ presentation at the TCUK 2010 conference on Affective Assistance, which was called “documentation as an emotional experience for the user”. We’re developing a workshop on Affective Assistance – contact us if you’d like to know more.

Will online video replace the written user guide?

TED’s Chris Anderson says the rise of Web video is driving a worldwide phenomenon he calls “Crowd Accelerated Innovation” – a self-fueling cycle of learning that could be as significant as the invention of print. He claims What Gutenberg did for writing, online video can now do for face-to-face communication…Information often can be taken in… Read more »

Should we offer a workshop on documentation as a emotional experience for users?

We’re presenting on documentation as a emotional experience for users at the TCUK conference later this month, and we’re considering whether we should develop this 40 minute presentation into a workshop. Technical documentation written today really doesn’t take into account the different states of emotion users can have, and this can lead to users bypassing… Read more »

How many cuddles are you putting into your user guides?

From Fast Company: “Neuroeconomist Paul Zak has discovered, for the first time, that social networking triggers the release of the generosity-trust chemical in our brains. The essence of affection. The cuddle chemical. In other words, oxytocin. If these changes apply in the world of social media, the implications for business — for every brand, company, and marketer… Read more »

When will the Technical Author become the Customer Engagement Manager?

Rahal Baillie posted on Twitter a link to an article which, in passing, made reference to “Customer Engagement Management“. Julie Hunt described it as: The activity of monitoring of brand and customer conversations on corporate websites, as well as bi-directional communication extensions to external social sites. In essence, it’s about creating and managing content that… Read more »