Using Journalistic Principles To Improve User Assistance

Using Journalistic Principles to Improve User Assistance

Nicky Ni k Bl Bleiel i l Senior Information Developer ComponentOne tcworld conference 2008 5 November, 2008

What we’ll we ll discuss • • • • •

Writing g Principles p Gathering Information g Time Management Convergence Technical Communication Commonalities

Writing Principles 1. Inverted Pyramid y 2. Don’t Bury the Lead 3. 5 W’s All work together – using #1 guarantees you don’t do #2 and use #3

Writing Principles 1. Inverted Pyramid y Most important facts first, others following in descending order • For readers: Makes scanning easier • For editors: Makes cutting easier (cut information from bottom up) • For TCs: Great way to plan and organize

From http://thesherpaproject.com/

Writing Principles 2. Don’t bury the lead (or lede) “Burying the lead” is putting secondary information at the beginning of a piece. Effects the entire information structure. Best practice to put the 5 W’s in the lead if possible. Lead can be followed by a “nut nut graph graph” — the  the “kernel” of information that informs the reader  why they should care about this information.

Writing Principles • Above the fold… In newspapers, the top half of the page. Reader can see it without p picking g up p the paper. Most important information goes here. here Above the scroll scroll” • … has web equivalent “Above Part of the page user can see without scrolling down.

Writing Principles The 5 Ws I keep six honest serving-men: (They taught me all I knew) Their names are What and Where and When And How and Why y and Who. I send them over land and sea, I send them east and west; But after they have worked for me me, I give them all a rest. – From "The Elephant's Child" by Rudyard Kipling

Writing Principles 3. The 5 Ws • • • • • •

What happened? Who was there? Where did it happen? ? When did it happen? Why did it happen? How did it happen?

Ask these questions when conducting interviews …

• What are we trying to accomplish? (feature description, overview, etc.) • Who can make it happen? • Why should they make it happen? • Where (in the UI) will it happen? • When will it happen? (conditions) • How do y you make it happen? pp ((steps) p )

Gathering Information • Interviewing g skills … or Working g with Subject j Matter Experts — — — —

Find the right person (or people) C Corroborate b t iinformation f ti Be assertive Be prepared to throw out unusable information

Gathering Information • “Beat” can be an area of expertise or a responsibility – – – –

Economics E i Medicine City government Local sports team

Product is a TC’s “beat”

Gathering Information • Research R h — — — —

Background/fact-checking I t i Interviews Library Web

Time Management • Deadlines! — A line which does not move. A guideline marked on a plate for a printing press (inside which all content should appear) appear).

Courtesy Wiktionary.org

Commonalities Con ergence with Convergence ith Web 2 2.0 0 • Convergence Journalism • Convergence Technical Communication

Convergence with Web 2.0 Both have … • Multiple Deliverables • Video • Podcasts • Blogs

• User Participation • Comments • Wikis

• Continuous Publishing model

Commonalities • Knowing the Audience • Interests • Skill levels • Community

Commonalities Style Guides

Commonalities • Attribution • Important to quote properly, give proper source credit • With Web 2.0 comments, need to give credit for suggestions/information in some way.

Commonalities • Knowledge g Management g • Internal KM methodologies are important so that important information can be found, retrieved … and reused reused.

Commonalities • Loss of formatting g control • Journalists gave this up long ago. • With single-sourcing, modular writing, content management, this is becoming much more common for tech comms.

Commonalities The “Fourth Estate” • In Journalism, the “gatekeeper” or “watchdog” role – defender and advocate. In Tech Comm, writers often refer to themselves as the “voice of the user.”

Further Reading g Books Convergence Journalism: Writing and Reporting Across the News Media by J. Kolodzy The Wisdom of Crowds by y J. Surowiecki Smart Mobs by Howard Rheingold On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction by W.K. Zinsser

Further Reading On the Web Journalism.org: Project for Excellence in Journalism http://www.journalism.org/resources The Committee for Concerned Journalists “J“J Tools” http://www.concernedjournalists.org/tools/index

Participatory Media Guidebook http://pmguide wetpaint com/ http://pmguide.wetpaint.com/

Further Reading Poynter y Online http://www.poynter.org/ The Literature Th Lit t Network N t k http://www.online-literature.com/kipling/165/ Communication, Cultural and Media Studies (CCMS) infobase http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/csh tml/index.html

Questions Contact information: Ni k Bl Nicky Bleiel i l ComponentOne Pittsburgh, PA nickyb@componentone com [email protected] www.componentone.com Blog “Technical Technical Communication Camp Camp” http://blogs.componentone.com/CS/blogs/techcamp/default.aspx Podcast on Tech Writer Voices/Interview with Tom Johnson “Analyzing Your Users and Needs Before Creating Help Deliverables” http://www.idratherbewriting.com/2008/05/31/podcast-analyzingyour users and needs before creating the help deliverables your-users-and-needs-before-creating-the-help-deliverablesinterview-with-nicky-bleiel/