Sci & Tech Comm in the Twin Cities (S&TC)

by Abdikadir Ibrahim

Usability is very ambiguous phrase in terms of definition, for it encompasses in many elements. It is an umbrella for a lot of thing, and it around us. There are computer usability, website usability, project usability, and nearly all in our daily activities. However we can summarize two major definitions.  First, usability is an aspect of measuring the quality of user's experience when interacting system or product.  Second, usability is a process or set of techniques used during a design and development of a project.

I heard the word usability as a random English word before, and I really did not pay attention.  Therefore, I actually did not know what it meant exactly until last spring of 2009. I took a class with professor Lee-Ann. Since then I realized that usability is in our everyday activities. Therefore, usability is important than ever before for us to know in our digital and busy world where we use software, Internets, and project developments for daily activities.

Usability ranges from experts of software to project development to test a particular product. Costumers need specialist who understands what users want. Ted Brooks said

To summarize, costumers need usable interfaces- interfaces that meet the goals and expectations of their users. The usability specialist understands that need, understands the product, and understands how to work with designers and developers; that's where their source material comes from (Page 149 course pack).

The other article "Incorporating Usability Testing into the Documentation Process" the authors talked about a documentation usability testing and creation usability team, which we basically encounter in our everyday life. "These teams include software engineers, quality engineers, usability specialists, and technical writers" (page 152 course pack).  

The following link explains more on usability, so please refer to it. http://websitetips.com/usability/

 

  My name is Jesse Anderson and I am a senior in the Scientific and Technical Communications B.S. program.  I am taking WRIT 3001 as an independent study class so that I can stay on schedule for graduation after this year and accommodate my full-time work priorities.  As part of my independent study plan I am contributing to the class blog by discussing some of the technical communication practices I use at my job.  I work for St. Jude Medical, at their Cardiovascular Research & Development facility in Maple Grove.  St. Jude Medical has operations and manufacturing facilities worldwide (14,000+ employees), with products sold in more than 100 countries and annual net sales of over 4.3 billion dollars.

       At St. Jude Medical I am part of a cross functional team (I'm sitting front-right in the picture) that is working to vertically integrate a newly acquired piece of intellectual property into our quality management system.  One aspect of this project involves many S&TC concepts such as: editing documents to comply with format and content guidelines, creating work instructions and other documents, designing process flow charts, and maintaining the project plan, to name a few.

  While working through this project I have found that it is very helpful to follow some of the guidelines that Ronald Statt wrote about in his article titled "When Technical Writers Don't Write Technically."  Because the content of the writing I am doing it is imperative that I think about the audience that will be reading the documents I work on.  When writing work instructions I must be clear enough that a non-native speaker can follow the process without deviation, while a formal project update may be read by division vice-presidents.  Also, when writing work instructions I have to be cautious of how many pictures that are used to explain an assembly procedure.  Although Hofmann argues for the use of pictures as a stand-alone instruction in his article on "The Successes and Challenges of Visual Language," in the medical technology industry we have to integrate specific commands and warning into our instructions so that there is no room for a product builder to take any personal liberties with device assembly.  Overall, technical communication activities like writing work instructions make up a significant portion of what I do at work each day.

Statt, Ronald. "When Technical Writers Don't Write Technically". Intercon (Feb 2006)

Hoffman, Patrick. "The Successes and Challenges of Visual Language". Intercon (June 2004)

In the first article, "Career Development: Filling the Usability Gap,"

Ted Brooks explores and introduces us to the expansive realm of usability

testing and its role in the production and development process for

products, services and businesses. The article explains why usability needs

to be incorporated into the development process and not just added as an

afterthought. The reason it is important to incorporate it into the

development process is because it will save time and money. Minor flaws are

easier and cheaper to fix than major flaws and facing the possibility of

having a product that poses a major problem for consumers, and may affect

the "positive buzz" that business nowadays want to create about a

product, service or business.

 

In the second article, "Incorporating Usability Testing into the

Documentation Process," the authors talk more about how to conduct

usability testing and the steps and processes that are involved with that.

They list field research, incorporating usability into the development

process and conducting other source research as some of the most important

steps in usability testing. This article was particularly helpful in

informing us what is actually involved in usability testing and how to

solve common problems with usability testing like uncomfortable volunteers,

the setting of the testing, and people new to usability testing.

 

We were pleased to have Janel Anderson from Thomson Reuters speak in

class this week. Ms. Anderson spoke of user experience engineering, which

also happens to be her official job title: Director of User Experience

Engineering. She discussed the five components that make a product usable,

specifically websites:

1.       Learnability - easy to learn in a reasonable amount time

2.       Efficiency - serves its purpose in a practical manner

3.       Memorability - quick to recall process

4.       Error recovery - can re-navigate after mistake

5.       Satisfaction

Ms. Anderson's team at Thomson Reuters critiques websites by these standards and tests users to evaluate their experience. She also discussed the methods by which they gain information. One the most interesting methods Ms. Anderson discussed was contextual innovation. With contextual innovation, the team can gain first-hand experience by observing the clients everyday activities. This could include physically observing or more imaginative ways of observing, such as a photo journaling. This method answers the question: How do people do what they do? For example, what tools do lawyers use most often when researching precedent? Or, what calculation tools do accountants find most valuable on a daily basis? Discovering the needs of the client assists the usability experience engineering teams to create tools that are audience centered, which is what usability experience is all about.

For more information and a forum to discuss usability and user experience check out the Society for Technical Communication's website: http://www.stcsig.org/usability/

Sources:

Brooks, Ted. "Career Development: Filling the Usability Gap." Technical Communication 1991: 180-184.

Postava-Davignon, Christi-Anne, Kamachi, Candice, Clarke, Cory, Kushmerek, Gregory, Rettger, Mary Beth, Monchamp, Pete, Ellis, Rich. "Incorporating Usability Testing into the Documentation Process." Technical Communication (51.1) 2004: 36-44.

You can find our discussion questions here: 

s&tc disc.docx

 In the article "What is Information Design?", author Janice "Ginny" Redish offers up 
some interesting ways to look at the overall concept of information design. Specifically,
Redish looks as this in a broad and narrow view. In the broader view information 
design applies to the overall process of developing a successful document. To define 
successful it would be useful to recall John Neenan's perspective as he is largely 
focused on  audience (the users). The top down looks at the audience and all the 
various stakeholders involved with the information and how they interact with the 
document. If the user is able the find the information, understand their relationship 
to it and use it, the document is successful. Redish's narrow view relates to the way 
information is presented on the page or screen, which is pretty self-explanatory and 
certainly only a part of the broader view.

The graphic I have found expresses a view that is the result of bad information design 
and unfortunately, seems all to common amongst many web sites, though the trend is 
slowly changing toward information that is functionally designed with the user in mind.

http://catbird.tumblr.com/post/50395127/attn-web-designers

In the article, "Successes and Challenges of Visual Language," Patrick Hofmann

outlines the three key philosophies he encountered when creating all visual 
instructions at IBM:

1)      Reduce visual traffic, and include only what is necessary.

2)      Illustrate the instruction, not the object in its anatomically perfect form.

3)      Be repetitive; yes, be repetitive.

Hofmann stated that the main focus for creating wordless manuals was to save money,
while maintaining a positive experience for the user. After years of designing and 
evaluating wordless instructions, Hoffmann discovered there are new challenges 
facing visual communication. How do we visualize for different culture, languages, 
and ages? How do we visualize for new technologies?

Visual instructions are a good way to add or clarify meaning to supplement text, but
 the question still stands, "Can pictures stand alone as instructions?"

Chipotle Burrito Instruction Set: 

The challenges behind the design of an instruction set created entirely by illustration 
are highly influenced by the complexity of the task to be performed. The all visual 
instructions describing how to properly open and enjoy a Chipotle bean burrito 
serves it utility of instructing a person how to do such a task. Each illustration depicts 
an example of first holding a wrapped burrito, unwrapping one end of a burrito and 
holding it in a ready-to-eat state. The simplicity of the design serves well to satisfy the
 knowledge required to perform the simple task.

In the article, "Visual Rhetoric: A Reader-Oriented Approach to Graphics and 
Designs," Charles Kostelnick gives a basic overview of the visual design process. 
The emphasis of this article was the Four Levels of Visual Design, Intra, Inter, Extra, 
and Supra. These levels also coincide with three visual modes: alphanumeric/symbolic,
spatial, and graphic to create the Cell Matrix of Visual Communication to provide 
visual communicators with guidelines in creating documents.

Discussion Questions

"Visual Rhetoric"

Charles Kostelnick

Which strategy seems to work the best for you in establishing reader-oriented 
guidelines as described on page 124? (Following conventions, Extracting principles 
from other documents, or studying research and theories in visually processing texts)

How important is it to integrate visual communication into your writing? Is it 
inherently part of the writing process, or is it more of a mechanical skill as the 
reading suggests?

"Successes and Challenges of Visual Language"

 Patrick Hofmann

Do you believe visual illustrations could effectively instruct a reader about how to do 
something in a subject matter that is abstract?

Are there any benefits of all-visual instructions beyond no need for language 
translation or reader literacy?

Redish, Janice C. "Ginny". "What Is Information Design?". Technical

Communication 47 (2000): 163-166.

In the broad sense, what are some differences and similarities between the concept 
of information design and web or graphic design? How might a technical 
communicator use their knowledge and apply it to graphic or web design?

The concept of single sourcing allows information chunks to be reused for different 
mediums. How do you suppose last weeks speaker from Medtronic incorporated 
single sourcing into his manuals for medical professionals?

In week seven, we covered a variety of topics involving science and biomedical writing.  We also had a discussion with guest speaker Guy Petrie, who works at international biomedical corporation Medtronic.

 

Our study of biomedical and science communication encompassed some diverse subjects.  Among these was an analysis of the similarities and differences between science writing and scientific writing.  Scientific writing is most likely done by researchers and other scientists and is composed with an eye towards an academic audience; science writing, on the other hand, is tailored towards a general audience and may appear in magazines like National Geographic or Wired.  Since science journalists compose most science writing and scientists themselves write most scientific writing, we concluded that both these fields likely fall outside of our area of study.

 

We also contrasted the scientific method to scientific writing, finding that the scientific method can be used as a guideline to help improve scientific communication (although we determined that in some cases the comparison may be a stretch).  In addition, we discussed usability testing in the biomedical field by considering the effectiveness of prescription packaging, before finishing our discussion by looking at the emerging biomedical field.

 

Guy Petrie shared with us how some of these skills were relevant in his work at Medtronic.  Petrie works in writing and designing manuals describing Medtronic's devices.  He highlighted the importance of tailoring communication to different audiences--a topic not only discussed this week but throughout the entire term.  We saw this in the difference between a manual designed for medical professionals--which was black-and-white and looked like a textbook--and a user-friendly handbook designed for patients.  He also shared one of Medtronic's methods for usability research: interviewing nurses about new publications.

 

Petrie also gave us advice to help us prepare ourselves for employment after graduation, a concern that has surfaced throughout the term.  He talked about the numerous communication opportunities in the healthcare industry and discussed different positions available to help build experience, including internships, co-op, and contract positions.

 

Discussion Questions

 

The Scientific Method:

 

1. Why is the scientific method important in technical communication?

2. Do you think certain steps of the scientific method are more important?  If so, which ones and why?

3. On page 106, Hart defines a hypothesis as "Any user reading our description will be able to accomplish the task the procedure describes."  Do you agree with this statement, if so why, if not, what would you change?

 

Usability:

 

1. What do you think about Van Der Waardes evaluation method for usability?  Can you think of any ways that it could be improved?

 

Science Writing:

 

1. Samson says that "The primary differences between science writing and scientific writing appear in audience and purpose."  What audience and purpose does each try to reach?  Are there any other primary differences?

2. What is the difference between a scientific journalist and a scientific writer?  Can a scientific writer be a scientific journalist and vice versa?  What do you see yourself as being?

3.  What do you think of Samson's approach to science writing?  Do you see any similarities between science writing and scientific communication?

 

Biotechnology and Technical Communication:

 

1. What are some of the difficulties in entering the biotechnology field for technical communicators?

2. What is the internet's role in biotechnology? 

 

Readings

 

 

Hart, Geoffrey J.S.  "The Scientific Method: Learning From Scientists."  Intercom (March 2005): 14-16, 47.

 

Samson, Donald C.  "Writing about Science for General Audiences."

 

Tanrikulu, Marta.  "Biotechnology: Opportunities for Technical Communicators."  Intercom (February 2001): 2, p14, 3p.

 

Van der Waarde, Karel.  "Patients, Medicines, and Information."  Intercom (July/August 2004): 16-42, 4p.

The National Day on Writing, sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), is October 20, 2009.  On this day, we will celebrate the many kinds of writing that have become part of our lives--electronic writing, literature and poetry, workplace writing, social writing, and more. 

As part of the National Day on Writing, NCTE has encouraged writers from across the country to submit writing samples to a National Day on Writing Gallery.  Our WRIT 3001 class blog will be featured in the "Write@U" University of Minnesota Writing Gallery, which will be located on the National Day on Writing Gallery. 

Congratulations to the students in WRIT 3001:  Introduction to Scientific and Technical Communication!

    The first part of our reading and a large part of the class discussion surrounded writing in the financial industry, and the debate about whether it is better to be educated in writing or whether a business background is more valuable to a company. Our class was split in our opinions but certainly recognized that expertise in any industry is valuable as a technical writer, like we have talked about in previous discussions.The readings also covered audience analysis, which we talked about briefly. This talked concentrated on user vs. task analysis. User analysis considers the target audience and includes their knowledge of the task at hand and their abilities. Task analysis studies applications and the processes involved with them. To end our discussion, we talked about having well-rounded writing skills as technical writers. The class agreed that it is good to have skills beyond hard technical style. Some skills identified included "writing to engage the reader", "creating or identifying a theme", and "peer use and time management". We discussed the details included in some of these skills and our guest speaker certainly re-iterated the importance of the skills.
    Our guest speaker, Alecia Ramsey, came in well- qualified to talk to us. She is a 97' grad of the Technical Writing program at the U of M, Twin Cities, when the program was still located in St. Paul, and she has an MBA from St. Catherine's in St. Paul. She has worked her way up the corporate ranks from a technical writer at entry level to a team leader in project development.
    Alecia discussed a few aspects of her job and also described the tasks that the technical writers who she manages perform. Alecia leads her team, which includes running meetings, creating long-term plans, attending meetings with her managers, and assessing resources and making requests. She attends a lot of meetings. Her technical writers work with Subject Matter Experts (SME's) to answer content questions, release and revise and re-revise documents and release them. They work with files in DITA to build PDF and HTML documents. We will be discussing DITA later on in the semester, as this is a very important part of technical writing duties. Alecia also discussed her work-at-home status, what that means in the corporate world, and how it works for as a mom, but it certainly isn't for everyone.
    Alecia finished her visit by covering social networking in the corporate world. We discussed as a class some personal experiences with networks like Facebook and Alecia went over the pros and cons to having a profile as it concerns the corporate environment. She went over some of the obvious do's and don'ts when it comes to photos and other information posted online. Some of the other social networking tools she mentioned included BeeHive and Lotus SameTime, both intra-corporation networking programs. We found Alecia's visit stimulating and entertaining. We enjoyed having someone with so much knowledge and experience and look forward to guest speakers with similar qualifications from other parts of the technical writing world.
    
 

In week five we discussed the task of editing for a technical communicator. Editing is the act of fixing improper grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Not all editing jobs are similar, but almost all involve taking a text, correcting any mistakes, and returning it to the original author for it's eventual publication.

Editing can also involve such diverse tasks as working with formatting, style, content altering, schedules, budgets, meetings, converting manuscripts into publications, as well as dealing with people.  Each of these jobs falls under the title of "editor", but companies often have different names depending on the particular type of role assigned. We discussed how comfortable we were with certain titles, and whether or not the title dictated our level of comfort with the job performed.

            One of the recurring topics we discussed was what to do when the writer of a document gets offended when you change their paper.  We decided the best way to get around that obstacle is to be open and honest with the person about what is being switched and why. If they become offended, the best thing to do would be to remind them that you are working together toward a common goal.  One of the main duties of an editor is to help the writer; this is a very difficult task to accomplish when you are not open and honest with him or her.

An additional opinion was shared that through our required sub plans within our major, many more doors are open to us as opposed to an individual without a specialty in the field.  Because of the added required classes, we will be more qualified and more able to perform specific tasks in our area of specialty. Many students verbalized how underdeveloped they feel that their editing skills are, even through completing our assignments. Most would feel quite inadequate if they were expected to perform general editing tasks on a daily basis. 

A quick visual look at the role of the editor.

DiscussionQuestions.docx

This week we covered the job skills in the technical communication field.  The discussion ranged from the relative importance of various job skills to the best ways to gain technical communication experience.  We also discussed the importance of portfolios in getting a job out of college.  Finally, we debated the use of recruiters as college graduates, and generated some questions for a recruiter who we hope to visit within the next few weeks of class.  

Experience seems to have emerged as a necessity in acquiring a job as a technical communicator of any sort. It was proven relevant during class when a poll of the classes students was taken. The most common selection was experience, followed closely by tool knowledge/ skills. When this idea was further explored, students felt that tool knowledge and tool skills could be gained with the more experience you acquired.

A main concern throughout the class was how they would gain enough experience to meet the two plus years of experience that are required in many technical writing careers. This was played into the question of the usefulness of portfolios. It was generally agreed upon that portfolios showed a higher level of professionalism, and provided a means to come up with creative ways to show experience. This was a way students felt they could get around the two plus years requirement.

Lee-Ann showed us a creative way to make a portfolio while showing off some computer technology skills. You can make an e-portfolio using Mahara or the University of Minnesota ePortfolio system.  The class agreed that a portfolio was important to appearing professional and presenting your work when searching for jobs. 

Recruiters are useful for workers who are actively involved in the technical communication field.  Recruiters seem to be less useful for college students with no work experience and few references to support their job skills.  We discussed ways that a recruiter might help you get around the dreaded 'two years work experience required' line in job postings by creatively wording volunteer and other job experiences.  We also discussed questions to ask a recruiter who will be visiting class in the next few weeks.  Some of the questions involved fees that recruiters charged, what they look for in candidates, and how students should approach a relationship with a recruiter.  Be sure to stay tuned to the blog for the results of the interview with the recruiter in a few weeks.

(References for the week)

28SEP Discussion Questions 3001.doc