Making Help More Human, and other discussions
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Duration: 35 min.
In this episode of Tech Writer Voices, Heidi and I talk about a number of cool trends in the technical writing world, particularly the need to make help more human by adopting conversational tones and addressing the angry/frantic state of the user.
A few of the topics we cover include the following:
- Kathy Sierra's keynote at the South by Southwest conference
- How to make help more human
- The state of mind of our users
- Where to put FAQs
- Live blogging from the Writers UA conference
- Team blogs and the importance of voice
- South by Southwest podcast archive
- Twitter trends
- 9 Lessons for Would-be bloggers
- Overcoming the fear of blogging
- Believing you have something valuable to say
- How having a focus for your blog gives you something to say
- Heidi's trail metaphor for blogging
- Keeping actions on a page grouped together, notes from a SIGCHI meeting
- Apple TV
- The paradox of choice
- How to sell the most jam in a supermarket
- Cognitive dissonance and the multitude of choices
- Applied Software Project Management by Andrew Stelman and Jennifer Green
- Authoritative sources for education
- Music from Podshow
Send feedback to tomjoht@gmail.com or hhansenseattle@gmail.com.
About Tech Writer Voices
Tech Writer Voices is a podcast specifically for technical communicators. The weekly show features interviews, conversations, tips, and other information for those who write help content.
