• The uncertainty of the benefits of user documentation.
• The business case for documentation.
• What you should measure.
• Adapting user value measurement from the design profession.

The Uncertainty of the Benefits of User Documentation when technology companies contact us about writing their user documentation, we ask them why they’ve approached us. We ask questions about what problems they want to solve, what benefits they were hoping for, and how they will be measuring the benefits. The responses are usually fairly woolly, to be honest. Most relate to improving the credibility of the product (a feeling that professional products have professional documentation) and reducing the cost of support. Unfortunately, customer loyalty (an area where user assistance can add great value) is something often taken for granted by organizations…

Reading Ellis Pratt's article on measuring the value of technical communication

Click here to continue reading A Different Perspective on Measuring the Value of Technical Communication FREE

This is the Intercom July/August 2009 Free Feature Article. Intercom, the magazine of the Society for Technical Communication, is published to provide examples and applications of technical communication that will promote its readers’ professional development. When you join STC, your receive ten issues of Intercom as part of your membership.

Ann Gordon highlights some of the best articles in the latest issues of Intercom and Technical Communication Journal

These are some of the articles I found helpful:

• “Technical Communication’s Value Proposition: Providing Value and Return on Investment”
• “Measuring the Value of Technical Communication in Economic Terms”
• “A Different Perspective on Measuring the Value of Technical Communication”

Here’s a quote from the second article listed above, the one about economic terms:

“Companies serve customers by providing products or services at minimal risk (for the customer and the company) while earning a profit. Technical communicators correctly focus their efforts on creating information products that present minimal risk for customers.”

In the latest issue of Technical Communication journal (May 2009):

PowerPoint: Technical communicators are often asked to create PowerPoint presentations for their manager, their team or the company’s sales team. This is one way technical communicators can shine – and can shown their worth to the company. But how do we know what to put on a slide? What would be considered too wordy? What graphics are corny? What works well for conveying a message?

Luckily, the latest Technical Communication magazine has a great article about PowerPoint presentations: “Exploiting Verbal-Visual Synergy in Presentation Slides.” The article starts slow because the author wants to give credit to numerous authors. But just beyond this long introduction comes the really good stuff: “Two Basic Principles for Creating Effective Graphics” and “Techniques of Generating Images that Validate the Claim.” These sections provide some of the best information I’ve read about creating presentation graphics that work for the presentation, not against it. In conclusion the author writes, “Don’t insert a piece of clip art just to fill up blank space on a slide.”

Online Training: I am glad to see this article about online training: “Goal-based Scenarios: An Approach to Online Instruction and Training.” The author defined this type of training as “a learn-by-doing simulation in which learners work toward a goal by practicing problem-solving skills and updating their content knowledge to help achieve the goal.” This approach allows users to be active participants in their learning experience instead of just passive recipients. The scenario-based training I’ve created worked well in training insurance agents how to use a new computer system. Check out this article for tips on how to create a goal-based scenario.