Comments on: Keys to Being a Trusted Source of Information

By: Weekly links roundup by Communications from DMN

Weekly links roundup by Communications from DMN — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 10:19:55 +0000

[...] Ben Minson discusses the keys to being a trusted source of information [...]

By: Harry

Harry — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 00:40:46 +0000

Yes, in fact the new tone was a major movement by some passionate technical communicators. There was lots of data collected, several presentations explaining the idea of “less formal”, and so on. It sounds pretty funny looking back, but with major considerations like increased localization costs (already a huge expense) and all the legacy content, and dozens of writers having to adopt a new style, it was a pretty big undertaking.

Here’s a style and tone document that came out of the change – it’s guidance for developers who are writing Windows programs:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa974175.aspx

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 00:15:08 +0000

Thanks, Harry—I didn’t know about those two resources. Those characters are just some of the first things that come to mind when I’m thinking about the idea of “friendly” user assistance. I’ve noticed in Vista that text in the UI seems to be deliberately informal and conversational, an effort in that same direction I’m sure.

By: Gryphon Mountain Journals » Blog Archive » Keys to Being a Trusted Source of Information | I'd Rather Be Writing - Tom Johnson

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 23:34:09 +0000

[...] Keys to Being a Trusted Source of Information: Gryphon Mountain Journals. My colleage Ben Minson reflects on one of the key benefits of engaging in social media: trust. And then he analyzes trust in relation to the help materials we create as technical communicators. “If our audience thinks about us, they likely see us as just another part of the team that develops the product. We’re not their friends—we’re one of the people trying to make money off of them. We’re hiding inside the big office building or within the business park and don’t know them. But Joe Schmoe knows them. They’re him. He bought the product, figured out some best practices, and posted them on his blog as he went.” I agree, but I’m not sure how to expose personality and establish a friendly, personable image for corporate documentation. Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]

By: Harry

Harry — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 19:25:58 +0000

Come on now, Clippy was a long time ago. Microsoft has done other friendly things since then. Probably the most visible ones are Channel 9 (http://channel9.msdn.com/) and all those blogs at http://blogs.msdn.com. They do pretty much what you’re talking about here – letting the real people show through.