Reading time: 3 mins It’s a common topic, an oft repeated complaint, and one which has already had many many lines of advice written, and countless suggestions offered. So here’s a new slant. The reason most technical reviews fail is because of the writer, not the reviewer. It’s not because the reviewers couldn’t find the time, it’s not because…
Reading time: 2 mins As part of the product, testing documentation seems like an obvious thing to do, but what does it really mean? I’ve fielded the question in a few different places now and it’s always interesting to delve deeper and understand the rationale behind the request. “We should test the documentation”, seems like a harmless enough statement…
Reading time: < 1 min Anyone working in the software industry will know the term “usability” and have a reasonable idea of what it entails. As a technical writer, a user advocate within the development team, there is typically an overlap between how we think, and how usability specialists think. For starters, anyone who is delivering information should know who…
Reading time: < 1 min I dropped Tom an email about Writer River last week, and he alluded to some of the issues he mentions in his post in his reply. Little did I know that Writer River was soon to be hacked! I love the idea behind the website though, so it’s good to see Tom is still keen…
Reading time: < 1 min Having been off work for a few days (a bad cold, I’ll live), and when not sleeping, sneezing or blowing my nose, I’ve been thinking about this blog and if I can commit to a more regular schedule of posting. The recent posts on Consideration Layers were, I hoped, designed to prompt comment and discussion,…