Training instructions

Click image above to open PDF of presentation

Technical communications is all about providing easy-to-use information to a target audience. When that target audience is students, technical communications is very similar to teaching. Like teachers, technical writers are often showing people how to do something new. Instructions, process documents, standard operating procedures (SOP’s) are all examples of this. I have been a teacher and a technical communicator so I am in the unique position of having both experiences to compare. I combined these skill sets in a process document for the job I did at Intuit while I was there. I created training instructions in PowerPoint and print document formats.

I recently experienced their existing training firsthand and subsequently performed the duties I learned so I have a fresh viewpoint for how to improve their current training process. The documents I created aren’t meant as standalone documents; rather they are meant to support and enhance the existing training. The biggest value I am adding with these documents is reducing the mentor to trainee time commitment after the initial training period is over.

After the 1 week training class, a new hire should be able to access my documents and use them to successfully complete their job without needing to ask for help from their mentor as often. The goal here is to free up the mentor’s time, so they are more productive during the beginning stages of a new hire’s employment period. These documents will also help improve the quality of a new employee’s work.

I put the content into a power point slide, but the ideal interface would be a computer-based app that would run constantly in the background prompting the user throughout the process. This is especially useful since all of the tools needed to complete the process are computer-based. Also this format would allow for relevant pop-up reminders, helpful hints, and cautions as the user progresses through the system. As the user’s competence increases, they could turn off the reminders that they no longer need.

The powerpoint format will at least show the graphic design and layout I have chosen. I have included underlined text that would indicate links to more information if it were an actual computer-based app. The print document is provided to go along with the slides since some people prefer to have a tactile interaction with information.

What is a Technical Communicator?

Technical Communications is similar to technical writing; there is writing involved. It is much more involved than just writing. The diversity of tasks involved in technical communications is actually what drew me to it in the first place. It incorporates writing, editing, page design, graphic design, procedure development, content strategy….and the list goes on. All of these tasks occur after the initial research. The end product may include an interactive website that incorporates video, sound, graphics, and many helpful links.

Technical writing is a somewhat passé term because it doesn’t convey the full scope of what is actually involved. Writing is an important part of communications, but it is just one of many necessary skills to create effective technical communications. A major portion of our work involves creating web-based communications—online help sites—as well as interactive web pages which would include audio, video, and infographics. The words “technical communications” should bring to mind intelligent content that provides answers and makes tasks easier. Gone are the days of flipping through ungainly manuals to find necessary information—that’s just not the way things are done anymore.

A technical communicator is in the unique position of working with developers, engineers, and other subject matter experts to determine what a product does, or is supposed to do. Technical communicators also interact with marketing people to learn about the target audience. Ideally market research has been done to provide data about the target audience, but if not, then it becomes the technical communicator’s job to do that research as well. After the research phase, it’s up to the technical communicator to determine what the end user/consumer would actually need to know about the product being documented.

Technical communicators also decide how to present the information; how interactive should it be? Should videos, graphics, info graphics, audio instructions, etc. be used? It’s a very creative process, and while technical communicators do have to be able to understand complex concepts—the end product must be easy to understand and provide relevant information for the intended audience. Technical communications will never be used for pleasure reading, but at the very least, it should increase understanding and ease of product use.

SEO and Technical Communications

Being new to the technical communications field, I am interested in learning anything I can about it or related fields. I was recently introduced to SEO writing. This is something that I had never heard of before, but as it turns out, it meshes really well with what technical communicators already do: target specific audiences intelligently. I like the technicality of it, because you are really writing to two audiences simultaneously; each one of which has different needs. On the one hand you are writing content for a specific human audience, and on the other, Google’s search engine robots.

The SEO writer has to make sure the content will be useful, interesting, and relevant—a goal the tech. writer is already intimately acquainted with—as well as written in such a way as to land the website at the top of the results list for a given keyword. It can be challenging to write to your human audience and include the necessary elements to achieve top-ranking results on Google and other search engines.

I enjoy the challenge, as well as learning about all of the various ways that search engine robots “decide” which pages should land at the top of the list. It encompasses a whole realm of knowledge that I had never considered before. However, I think the technical writer could really benefit by being aware of, and incorporating SEO techniques into their work. It’s a convergence of technical communications and internet marketing. As someone with a primarily technical communications background, I have a great skill set to draw on for SEO projects. Learning SEO writing will increase my desirability to future employers and clients.

The writing process

One of the most important aspects of technical writing isn’t the writing itself, but the process that is used to develop it. The writing process is what is used to  transform an accumulation of data, information, and ideas into documentation that is well-written, accurate, complete, unambiguous, and concise. It’s a 6-step process(in theory) that includes revisions, re-working, and at times, complete overhauls of work that is completed.

As you can see, there is a lot of going back and forth between the stages before the final product is achieved. Although it can seem complicated, the process actually simplifies the workload by breaking it into manageable tasks. The graphic shown is a bare  minimum of what would actually be going on; each stage will have many steps.
Following the writing process not only simplifies the workload, it also makes it possible to keep track of the small tasks necessary to complete a project. Having this data available is essential to keep  supervisors and clients updated on the work and to prove that work is being done even though there may not yet be tangible results. It also provides justification for the time that is invested into the project by the technical writer.

I created the above diagram in Microsoft Visio.

A passion for writing, a passion for intelligent communications

A passion for problem solving coupled with the desire to make people’s  lives easier has led  me down the path to technical communications. I thrive on the challenges presented by the task of transforming complicated information into informative and useful communications. In addition to information architecture, I am also passionate about the creative aspect of finding solutions . I am an independent thinker who likes to find fresh, new ways of presenting information.

A good example of this is the informational brochure I designed that advocates vegetarianism. Instead of using the common animal cruelty argument for it, I approached the problem from a different angle. I presented data that demonstrated the advantages of vegetarianism both from an environmental perspective as well as a nutritional one. I presented a different data set and a logical approach in the hopes of reaching a different audience. I wanted to reach the audience that has not traditionally responded to emotional pleas on the animals’ behalf that rely on animal cruelty arguments.

I believe that providing information in new ways makes it more compelling and memorable. A well written and researched document is much more valuable to the reader. An equally important task is to know the target audience. Writing specifically for them is critical to ensure that they will be able to understand and use the information. What good is a beautifully written brochure or manual if it doesn’t answer the questions people actually have?

Related articles

• The Paradox of Tech Comm (tc.eserver.org)
• http://www.forbes.com/sites/nextavenue/2012/10/31/how-to-cope-with-useless-user-manuals/