Journals by RSS
Journals by EmailI remembered a recent experience during a conversation today, and it reminded me of how a technical communicator can contribute to projects at nearly all stages.
Some of the systems in the organization are incorporating new security, so this switch involves guiding users through the process of getting new user accounts. The interaction designer for one particular site asked me to help with the on-screen text that would be displayed during the transition period. We had several meetings with the program manager and lead developer as we went through their design of the process and talked wording.
For two main reasons, this is an area where I think it’s important for technical communicators to be involved, especially when user assistance is embedded in an application or site (as opposed to documentation that opens in separate windows or is provided in hard copy).
The first reason, of course, is that the technical communicator is the specialist in user assistance, no matter where it appears. The designer and the folks he worked with wanted explanations and troubleshooting available to the users right on the site pages. They needed someone to help them provide the right information to get the users through the process of transitioning to a new account.
Second, the tech comm perspective helps the project team see their decisions with a more complete view. As we discussed verbiage, I asked questions like “What happens if the user clicks…” or “What if the user has already done such and such?” More than once, the lead developer turned to the program manager (or vice versa) and said something like “We need to talk more about that.” Having someone who is thinking specifically about what each sentence means and how the user may respond helps the team to have a complete design and cover all the bases.
Related posts (auto-generated):
