The other day, @KathySierra tweeted about this website. All I can say is ‘Wow!” What a terrific use of a graphic to explain the differences in size between small, common objects (e.g. grain of rice) and things such as human eggs, viruses, etc. Use the slider on this web page from the Genetic Science Learning Center at the Univeristy of Utah (http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/cells/scale/) to get the full effect.
There are plenty of tools out there that can help you test your website. But perhaps you’re overwhelmed for choice. If so, then start with this short list of tools: http://www.testing-web-sites.co.uk/testing-tools/
This site lists testing tools in these categories:
[Links last checked September 2009; thanks to @sue_sd for tweeting this resource]
No, not how to write the great [insert country of choice] novel or how to correct grammar errors.
These three recent How To’s all involve writing but they focus on quite different aspects.
How to write a cover letter that gets read (by Jason Cohen at WorkAwesome). Jason’s advice:
How to create a great tutorial on anything at all (by Harry at Men with Pens):
How to write with a knife (by Michelle Russell at copyblogger). Michelle’s advice:
[Links last checked September 2009]
Usability expert, Dana Chisnell, has written a great article on how some companies create happy users who then become ‘champions’ for that product/service/company, while others put all sorts of barriers in your way when you’re trying to do something simple like book a flight.
Her article is here: http://usabilitytestinghowto.blogspot.com/2009/08/beyond-frustration-3-levels-of-happy.html
My creative and inspirational moments typically happen when I’m falling asleep or when I’m in the shower.
But wherever, whenever and however your inspiration comes, you need to capture those little ‘Aha!’ moments. Pen and notepaper work very well; you might just be able to keep those thoughts going if you can decipher your midnight scribblings done in the dark first thing next morning! But pen and paper don’t work so well in the shower… Or do they?
Jonathan Follett, in his A Practical Guide to Capturing Creativity for UX published by UX Matters covers various low-tech methods of capturing your inspirational moments, such as pen and paper, note books, sketch books, and even waterproof paper for the shower! Then he moves into the more high-tech stuff like converting paper scribblings to digital, recording your voice, creating an electronic scrapbook of ideas, taking digital photos and videos.
[Links last checked October 2009]
Brad Colbow, creator of great cartoon-style illustrations and comic strips to explain tech, web and design stuff, has added a new one — The power of personas — to the Think Vitamin blog post: How to understand your users with personas.
It’s a nice explanation about personas, what they are, and how they help in the design process.
[Links last checked October 2009]
“Content is a valuable corporate asset and deserves to be managed with the care and respect given to other corporate assets.”
(Rahel Bailie, Content Strategist/Content Management Consultant, http://www.intentionaldesign.ca)
[Link last checked October 2009]
In the past day or so, STC (the Society for Technical Communication) announced its new membership structures and rates for 2010. They’ve had a very tough year and had forewarned us that rates would rise.
Every year, people on various STC SIG (special interest group) discussion lists that I’m on, get very chatty about rates. Some say they won’t renew; others accept that membership of a professional organization is one of the things that they need to do. Then there are a whole lot of other undecided people in between.
So with that preamble, I’ll hand the rest of this post over to today’s guest author, Monique Semp (www.writequickinc.com), who wrote a great email to the members of the Lone Writers SIG yesterday. I have reproduced her email with her permission.
I’ve seen this discussion [about rates and whether to renew or not] every year that I’ve been participating in the STC listservs, and there don’t seem to be any new arguments for or against remaining in STC.
So I’m simply (and hopefully politely) suggesting that before saying “I’m mad that the cost of STC is going up just like everything else, so I quit”, we all take a breath and think about:
- The benefits we get (or don’t) from STC.
- The relative costs compared to similar organizations (someone mentioned IABC recently, http://www.iabc.com/about/membership/memDues.htm; and there’s IEEE, which is kinda the software engineer’s equivalent to STC, http://www.ieee.org/web/membership/Cost/dues.html). STC is in line.
- The fact that the STC leadership doesn’t like raising dues any more than members like paying them. But business is business, and they can’t stay in business if the bank account dips in the red.
- Whether our employers are treating us writers differently than their engineers when it comes to professional memberships. I’m an independent, so I don’t know.
- How many hours it takes us to pay for our dues if we pay for them ourselves. Even at standard rates for other parts of the country, I’d think that the benefits and time savings are worth the number of hours it takes to make $300 [Note: Basic membership is $215; the number of optional extras you choose can take it much higher]. And if that’s not true, then clearly the logical decision is to drop STC from your life.
- Whether we can deduct the dues from our taxes (either as a business expense if we’re a business, or charitable contribution if not: http://www.stc.org/about/faqs02.asp?ID=3).
- Whether membership is, like books/software/dress clothes, just part of being a (tech writing) professional.
- If we’re unemployed/underemployed, whether we can qualify for the reduced dues.
- Whether the call to get the publications as PDFs isn’t greener anyway, so why not reduce the costs by cutting out the print.
- Whether we could stand the isolation if we drop out of STC (imagine having nobody to send our favorite writing bloopers to).
- Yes, the SIG membership is the most important part of the membership for many of us, and so logically it’d be the most expensive, but instead of viewing it that way, why not say “wow — what a bargain that the SIG is so low priced”.
Disclaimer — I’m not an STC officer currently, and don’t know if the rules would allow this, but it seems that if someone has been active (or wants to be), chapter officers, if approached by an individual, might be able to sponsor a limited number of memberships for un/under-employed people?
So let’s let the tension subside, and hopefully come to the conclusion that it’s worth staying in STC.
Thanks for allowing me to share your thoughts about this, Monique.
See also:
[Links last checked October 2009]
Here’s a small collection of user interface (UI) wireframing and prototyping resources I’ve come across over the past few months. I haven’t needed to use any of them, so I can’t vouch for their ease of use, but they all look interesting and could save a LOT of the time typically associated with paper prototyping.
[Links last checked October 2009]
When I was in Perth earlier this week to do some training with Chevron Australia, I received some nice accolades for being part of the HES team that made the Gorgon Project (Australia’s biggest ever resources project) a reality. I was presented with a framed certificate of appreciation, a specially minted gold-plated coin from the Perth Mint, and a silver engraved Cross pen; the rest of the team were presented with theirs at two special functions that I was unable to attend. And I was given personal thanks from my boss, the Environmental Team Lead.
We had some horrendous deadlines in the final few weeks prior to the Final Investment Decision, but we got there. It was an amazing journey and I was (and am) very proud to be part of it.
I also know a lot more about marine turtles, corals, subterranean fauna, geosequestration of carbon dioxide, and liquefied natural gas than I ever thought I would.
One of the joys of being a technical writer and editor is learning about new stuff all the time. Currently it’s environmental, health and safety stuff; on previous contracts, I’ve learned about 3D geological visualisation and modelling, gems and jewellery, satellite delivery of education to outback stations, converting 2D movies into 3D, nickel and cobalt processing etc. I love my job! And I get paid to do something I love — can’t ask for better than that.
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