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 »
One of the biggest mistakes we make in technical communication is trying to write for every user. Sacrilege, I know, but hear me out. Many users don’t read documentation. They don’t not read documentation because the documentation is bad, or not written for their level, or uses big words. The don’t read documentation because they are the… Read More »
There is a lot of talk in tech comm today about topic-based writing, but very little about topic-based information design. This is a problem, because, in the age of the Web, and particularly of the mobile Web, topic-based information design is essential. Topic-based writing is often perceived (and practiced) as nothing more than writing in small,… Read More »
Today, I am announcing the launch of a new website, SPFE.info. [EDIT: Information on SPFE has moved to GitHub. See http://mbakeranalecta.github.io/spfe-open-toolkit/] The SPFE architecture is a design for building structured authoring systems. Why would the world, need such a thing when it already has DITA? Why have I spent the last 15 years or so… Read More »