In a modern digitalized world, there is no need to write long messages to express feelings or intentions. With one click, people show emotions and actions – just by using emojis. These cute small symbols make text brighter, and we use them every single day. But do you know what history stands behind these funny pictures and how they can be used even in technical communication?
I work with the MadCap Flare tool on a regular basis. Namely, with two targets – the HTML 5 Help system and the PDF file. That presupposes that I deal with two outputs, two style sheets, and all my troubles are usually multiplied by two :). In this article, I want to share my pain points as well as possible solutions for them. So, here we go!
I was going to write this post much earlier. However, each time I got down to it, I was either distracted by whatever I saw in my timelines or just seemed not to have enough inspiration to kick-start the process.
Some people call it a creative block, some – a lack of inspiration, others blame laziness or a habit to procrastinate till the very last night before the deadline. No matter what it is, for an information developer such a non-creative state may sound like a nightmare, as we need bright ideas and resourcefulness like a breath of fresh air. But if you happen to feel unproductive at times, there are some tricks which may help you to find your muse again.
Today I want to share with you a brilliant post covering all the basics that an Information Developer should know about how colors work, brought to you by Dave Gash, a Technical Writer at Google.
In a nutshell, it’s a great read—both fun and educational—that explains how colors work. It’s all there – physics, optics, additive and subtractive color systems, hexadecimal arithmetic (!) and, most importantly, demonstration of how it all works together in real life (I mean, in a real-life CSS).
Believe it or not, CSS color codes really are intuitive. You’ll be surprised to see how obvious it is that “#000000 can’t be anything but black“, and “#ff0000 cannot possibly be anything but bright red“. On top of that, there’s a quiz, real-life CSS examples, and links to useful resources and tools, which all adds immensely to the post’s educational value.
Thanks to the author for gathering all this information and presenting it in such a fun and easy way! That’s rock’n’roll, folks.
Famous designer Yves Saint Laurent once said: “Trends come and go, but style is eternal”. Although the quote is exclusively about fashion, I cannot but extrapolate it to the world of user experience.
Was it worth 2 flights and 2 train rides just to get there? Yes.
Did I feel light-headed from all the modern technologies for content handling? Yes.
Has my brain been reloaded? Many times yes.
I really am still speechless from all the interesting stuff going on in content world.
What’s even more exciting is that you don’t only listen about it, but can try it yourself. Oh OK, no more spoilers.
Just make sure you book your ticket for the next year! See you there!
Most technical communicators I know can be divided into 2 types.
There are the ones who love creating general About/Welcome sections in their docs and get off on illustrating workflows, business value, etc.
And then, the ones who need a whole cake and then some to coax themselves into writing overviews and designing diagrams. It’s much easier for this type to write instructions about tangible, down-to-earth, even techy stuff.
My friend Viktoria Bezsmolna is the definitive type 1. Still, this free-spirited girl landed in our InfoDev department. But soon enough, she eloped to marketing. And then to PR. Now, she is a freelance writer and has her own blog – yay!
I finally decided to get to the bottom of how this journey worked out for her.
Our 1,5-hour interview was very thought-provoking, and here’s how it all summed up in my head.
