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RE: Interesting Article... fewest jobs lost in Tech Writing
Subject:RE: Interesting Article... fewest jobs lost in Tech Writing From:Ellen Ferlazzo <eferlazzo -at- sprez -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 08 May 2002 09:24:22 -0700
>In my experience, we also stand out as targets because many
>times, technical writers are not as involved in the
>development process as they should be.
New member here... I had to chime in on this one! I do tech writing and
UI design and got into the UI design as an outgrowth of the technical
writing. One of my pet projects is to get writers more involved in the
development process BEFORE and DURING rather than merely AFTER, as so
often happens. When I do UI design, I frequently start by writing up a
"user guide as spec" for the programmers. Often, I start with a design
in mind and sketch it out, then I start writing up a FAQ-like document
and see the flaws in my design. (If you can't teach it, it's not
designed well!) I can then adjust the UI but I learn what needs
adjusting by virtue of trying to explain it. The programmers I've worked
with this way tend to like it because it frees them to deal with the
nitty-gritty details and they know how I want it to behave at the GUI
level.
I've written up a couple of articles on getting writers more involved
and have gotten some very positive feedback from clients on them, yet
most say "It sounds great but will it actually work?" It has and it
does, in the right environment. And I'd like to figure out how to
introduce it into more environments.
Have any of you had experience working on the specs in this manner? If
not, don't you feel like you could contribute a tremendous amount to the
design of a product based on your experiences of trying to explain how
it works?
E l l e n F e r l a z z o
software designer / writer / project manager
www.sprez.com
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