Minutes of STC Session on Usability

Minutes of STC Session on Usability
This document details the minutes of Society for Technical Communication (STC) session on Usability for Technical Writers by Mr. Suman Kumar.

Key Details

Date........................March 20, 2010 (Saturday)

Time........................10:00 AM to 1:00 PM

Duration....................3 hours

Venue.......................Huawei Technologies India Pvt. Ltd. (HTIPL), 7th Floor,
Leela Palace, Old Airport Road, Bangalore.

Session Name................Introduction to Usability for Technical Writers

Moderators..................Mr. Rajdeep Gupta and Mr. Arun Martin

Minute Taker................Girish Urwar

Distinguished Members.......Ms. Michelle Cherian, Ms. Pratima Rajeev,
Mr. Swaminathan Moorthy, Mr. Puneet

Attendees
• STC Members
• Non-STC Members
• Technical Writers from leading organizations
• Huawei Employees

Total Attendance : 50+

Agenda

The agenda of this STC session was as follows:

Introducing STC to the audience....................................................Ms. Michelle Cherian

Introducing the concept of Usability and User experience.........Mr. Suman Kumar

Conducting a brief workshop on Usability.....................................Mr. Suman Kumar

Building a stronger technical communications network..............STC members,
general audience,
and Huawei Employees

Details

Agenda Item: Introducing STC to the General Audience

Description of Discussion:

Ms. Michelle Cherian (President-STC India Chapter) spoke about STC: its beginning, its upcoming events, its Special Interest Groups (SIGs), STC’s new portal. She stressed on building a stronger technical communications community.

Mr. Swaminathan Moorthy (Secretary-STC India Chapter) spoke about STC membership, benefits of becoming a member, SIG profiles, newsletters, types of memberships, procedure for becoming an STC member.

Agenda Item: Introducing the concept of Usability and User experience

Description of Discussion:

Mr. Suman Kumar (User experience (UX) expert with CDC software) introduced the audience to the concept of Usability. He spoke regarding the following:
• Why should a technical writer know about UX?
• Requirements for becoming a UX professional
• Who is a UX pro?
• How can UX help technical writers and organizations?
• What do UX professionals do?
• Divine proportions and Usability
• Agile Development Process
• Volunteering to perform UX-based tasks
• Building a personal brand
• How to prepare for a UX job?
• Preparing an “elevator pitch”
• Constructive criticism

Agenda Item: Conducting a brief workshop on Usability

Description of Discussion:

Mr. Suman Kumar conducted a brief workshop on UX. He asked and then directed the members in the audience to undergo a hands-on training on Usability. The training included:
• An exercise to find out usability and desirability of four leading mobile phone brands.
• A review of the IRCTC website to observe the balance between desirability and usability associated with the website.

Agenda Item: Building a stronger technical communications network

Description of Discussion

• Mr. Rajdeep Gupta (VP, STC-India Chapter) and Ms. Pratima Rajeev (from HTIPL) addressed the audience and stressed on building a stronger technical communications network.
• Ms. Rajeev gave an insight regarding the kind of tasks undertaken at Huawei.
• The audience were shown a promotional video on Huawei and its products by Ms. Rajeev
• Mr. Suman Kumar was felicitated on this occasion by Mr. Puneet and Ms. Rajeev on behalf of HTIPL.
• Mr. Rajdeep Gupta also felicitated Mr. Kumar on behalf of STC-India Chapter.

Introductory Session on Corporate Communications

On March 12, 2010, Society for Technical Communication (STC) organized an introductory session on Corporate Communication. This seminar was conducted at the Langford Road-based office of CISCO. It was headed by Mr. Peter Yorke, founder of Yorke Communications Pvt. Ltd.

The session was aimed to get professionals from the Technical Communications industry together and provide a platform for them to build a knowledge base on Corporate Communications.

Mr. Yorke spoke on Public Relations. He said that corporate communication and marketing communication are two divisions of Public Relation-related communication. He said that Corporate Communication includes terms, such as investor relations, internal communication, annual reports, company image building and several others.

Furthermore, Mr. Yorke stated that internal communication had a major role to play in the recent past that was plagued by the global economic meltdown. Showing the pink slip to an employee and stating the reason for the lay-off were two challenges the HR departments all over the world faced.

He said, “Communication has become democratic”. Saying this he stressed on the phenomenon of the Internet. According to him, nowadays in the communication field the “creator is also the consumer”.

He also gave many examples on how communication has been used both by public for venting out anger and by the corporate conglomerates as a mode of damage control. He mentioned about a leading chain of coffee shops, which had to publicly apologize due to the senselessness of one of its franchisee owner. A customer unhappy because of the franchisee owner’s behavior took out his anger by blogging about the incident and overnight his efforts gathered momentum, making the marketing head apologize to the public next day. Such is the strength of Internet.

He also cited few other examples, including that of a top computer and peripherals manufacturer. This company too had to call back a particular model of laptop because an Asian customer blogged about the faulty nature of the laptop’s battery. The company also had to organize a special seminar on “avoiding costly mistakes in Asia” for its corporate and marketing employees.

Mr. Yorke also stressed on paying attention to Social Media Strategy. No doubt, social networking sites are a very powerful medium of communication. He concluded by suggesting that we should leverage the internet properly; a concept although popular and but not widely used in India.

Technical Writing

Technical Writing: Introduction
A technical document, for example, a user manual, is written by a writer, who is an expert in English language and has basic understanding of the technicalities involved in the product being documented. The product mentioned here could range from a frozen vial of rapid Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)-grade Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) to a Klimov RD-33MK turbofan of a Mig-35 Fulcrum-F fighter jet. This previous sentence might sound technical and complicated enough to a first-time reader. Simplifying this complex sentence and presenting the text in a well-structured and easy-to-understand manner is the essence of technical writing.

Technical Writing: Definition

According to a Wikipedia entry, “Technical writing, a form of technical communication, is a style of formal writing used in fields as diverse as computer hardware and software, chemistry, the aerospace industry, robotics, finance, consumer electronics, and biotechnology. Technical writers explain technology and related ideas to technical and non-technical audiences.”
The basic principles of technical communication are same as those of general communication, except for the technical aspects that are presented in an understandable and simple manner.
Technical writing is one of the three branches of Technical Communication.

Technical Writing: Importance

In the recent past, views regarding the importance of technical writing and technical authors were conflicting. In his article, “The death of the Technical Author?", William Birn stated that “Technical Authors do not have high prominence in the workplace, and they don’t have the best of images…some wonder whether the role of the Technical Author will disappear.” In contrast, a brochure produced by Society for Technical Communication (STC) suggests that “because technology is everywhere in our world, technical communication has become one of the fastest growing professions—a profession that offers a variety of career options”.
The scenario at present is tilted in favor of technical writing. The Obama administration has recently acknowledged and recognized technical writing as a distinct profession. This is a crucial development that supports the idea that technical writing is a vital component of any industry.
Without documentation, it will be exceedingly difficult to follow the logical flow of events in a process. Technical Writing is also an integral part of the Content Management System (CMS).
A well-written document enhances the business of a company. Any form of document–known as a deliverable in the technical-writing industry–including brochures, pamphlets, reports, white papers, and case studies, acts as a written proof of the company’s commitment and effort towards its product. It is the first thing a potential customer or business client wants to read or see; and similar to any other scenario, the first impression matters in this context too.

Technical Writing: Key Steps

According to the Handbook of Technical Writing, 6th Edition (Alfred et al), the main steps involved in writing a technical document are:
1. Preparation
The importance of this step is as follows:
• Establishing the purpose of the document
• Assessing the audience
• Determining the scope of the document
2. Research
Why is research such an important aspect of technical writing?
• Before documenting, technical writers must entirely understand the subject that needs to be documented.
• Research (in any form, for example, internet) plays an imperative role in developing this understanding.
3. Organization
A poorly organized document, although well written, is of no importance. Hence, following an organization scheme and then creating an outline of the project helps in effective documentation.
4. Writing a draft
Once the outline is ready, the next step is expansion of the outline into paragraphs. The writer completes the complete document using the outline as a base.
5. Review
This is probably the longest and most significant step of the complete documentation process. The manuscript/draft should be first reviewed by the author, followed by a peer review, and finally edited by a professional editor.
Consequently, we can see that each of the steps mentioned above is a rate- and quality-deciding factor in itself.

Technical Writing: Documents
There are several types of technical documents that are regularly being generated by the technical writers. Technical documents can be classified broadly as:
o Technical Documents (for example, reports)
o Marketing Collaterals (for example, brochures)
o Business Writings (for example, white papers)
o E-business Writings (for example, online helps)
Given below is an extensive list of documents, called as deliverables, which are created by technical writers
• Advertising Copies
• Analytical Reports
• Annual Reports
• Application Notes/Briefs
• Architectural Overviews/Specs
• Benchmark Documents
• Brochures
• Bulletins
• Case Studies
• Datasheets
• Design Guides
• Design Specs
• E-learning Kits
• Electronic Design Kits
• Flyers
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Functional Specs
• Employee Handbooks
• Installation Guides
• Laboratory Reports
• Marketing Scripts
• Notices
• Online Helps
• Online Tutorials
• Pamphlets
• Policy Manuals
• Press Releases
• Process Manuals
• Proposals
• Quick Reference Manuals
• Quick-Start Guides
• Reports
• Scientific Reports
• Service Manuals
• Training Materials
• Troubleshooting Manuals
• User Manuals
• White-papers

Technical Writing: Domains
Technical writing has a strong foothold in several spheres. Mostly, technical writing has been associated with the software domain that requires large volumes of technical documentation. This is a reason why most of the job openings for technical writing are in the software companies. However, apart from the software domain, there are other domains that employ technical writers. These are:

• Aerospace
• Banking/Finance
• Biotechnology
• Chemistry
• Electronics/Very large-scale integration
• Engineering
• Government
• Hardware/networking
• Large-scale constructions
• Medicine
• Non-government organization
• Pharmaceuticals
• Publishing
• Software

Technical Writing: Industries
Technical writing, being the highly versatile field it is, finds its application in most of the critical industries

Technical Writing: Growth Opportunities

Career path of a Technical Writer
A self-explanatory figure (see Figure 1) displays the titles/designations for technical writer at various levels of hierarchy. The entry level is that of the Technical Writer, whereas the highest post is that of the Knowledge Manager. Some companies even have Documentation Director as the highest ranking post in this field.
Job Trends
The job opportunities for technical writers have increased by 27% in United States, even in the times of severe recession. It has been a recession-free career option. The future for technical writing, especially in India, will be something to look forward to because its start has already been promising.