The straight path. It is an idea with immense psychological appeal to us. Every valley, Isaiah promises, shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill laid low (Isaiah 40:4). As communicators, we naturally want to lay out a straight path for our readers. But the truth is, we lack the power to make the crooked straight… Read More »
My Book is currently in the technical review stage — meaning that people who I and the publisher respect have been asked to read and comment on the full draft. It is a humbling, daunting, and also energizing experience, and I am deeply grateful to the reviewers for their time, energy, and expertise. One of… Read More »
Ask what minimalism is (in a Tech Comm context), and you are likely to get a recitation of the four principles of minimalism. Per JoAnn Hackos, the four basic principles of minimalism are ♦ Principle 1: Choose an action-oriented approach ♦ Principle 2: Anchor the tool in the task domain ♦ Principle 3: Support error… Read More »
Why does help still kind of suck even after so many years? Tom Johnson asks this poignant question in his post Do We Need a New Approach to Help? Why Are Users So Apathetic Towards Help after 50 Years of Innovation? Tom provides a great survey of the trends and ideas in help design, starting with… Read More »
John Carroll, in Nicky Bleiel’s recent interview in Intercom, suggests that there has emerged a theory that the advent of the Web means that information does not need to be designed anymore: I do think that techniques like crowdsourcing and search have caused, what I think, is a radical position that there is no need to design… Read More »
If you write, you will sometimes be misconstrued. If you read, you will sometimes misconstrue what you read. These things are part of the human condition. If you speak, you will often be misconstrued, and if you listen you will often misconstrue. These things are even more certain. But the beauty of conversation is that… Read More »
It struck me today that the Web does Minimalism. Not only does it do it, it does it naturally, and it does it well. Consider: Here’s a common listing of the principle tenants of minimalism (borrowed from http://www.ryerson.ca/~ipederse/Minimalism.htm via Google): Take An Action-Oriented Approach Aim for Guided Exploration Position the Documentation in the Task Domain… Read More »