To check your project for knowledge management problems, try answering the following three questions:
If you have troubles, your project might require knowledge transfer. Here’s how a dedicated Information Developer can help you. Continue reading
If you merely scratch the surface, it might seem that the only similarity between a technical writer and a customer support agent is the broad goal of serving the needs of the target audience. However, if you take a closer look, you’ll see that these jobs are not only connected but also have a lot in common. Following my own experience in customer support, I will share a couple of observations and show that customer support might even turn out to be a sort of TechComm prep school.
I’ve never imagined, even for a second, that my job might soon be replaced by what we now know as Artificial Intelligence. Have you?
That fact dawned on me when I came across a recent McKinsey Global Institute study. The report states that half of today’s jobs can theoretically be automated in the near future. More precisely, 400–800 million jobs will be displaced, and 375 million (or 15% of all workers) will need to completely change their occupational field.
Unbelievable, right?
Many believe that written user guides are doomed to extinction. Although their usage has diminished slightly, they are not clean gone yet. They are still with us—serving their particular audience and making us wonder what is the best approach to structuring them.
With the rise in the popularity of online documentation, many have ditched linearity and adopted a topic-based approach to writing—faster, more convenient, and definitely more efficient from the user perspective; absolutely challenging from the author perspective. But is such an approach still any good for structuring user guides which, unlike help systems, don’t provide immediate assistance to the user, differ in the very context of use, and are designed with a clear intention—to teach and guide?
If you read my previous articles from the Diagram Series, you are already familiar with the process of creating diagrams, the role of text in diagrams, practical tips, and so on. Now let’s see how to troubleshoot issues that accompany you from the first drawing and to the final approved diagram.
The most informed people to create diagrams are SMEs, yet they are the least appropriate for this role.
Our first impression is often made up by how we are greeted for the first time. In apps, the conventional ‘hello, nice to meet you’ is its onboarding. But like with all conventional things, this is something that we tend to rush through, or even skip entirely.
For example, by the time I downloaded the Dropbox app, I already had a good experience with the web version. I was impatient to start using the app and decided to ignore the onboarding. Come on, Dropbox. You know me, I know you. It’s official—I have an account, after all. Let’s just get to business.
However, when I downloaded a mobile app that was relatively new for me—Inbox by Google—I did pay attention to the onboarding. And I stumbled… Continue reading
Do you hear your customers sing?
Singing a song of angry men?
No? Alright. Maybe they are not that miserable. Or maybe you don’t listen. Just kidding. Les Misérables allusion aside, let’s talk about customer-centric documentation.
