Ann Rockley presented this morning-ling post-conference workshop from the perspective of content marketing and mobile.
First thing to think about when considering content strategy is to always, always start with a content analysis. Suggest go out and talk to people. W call it a substantive audit. We talk to senior management, ask 3 questions. What are dangers faced if things don't change? A company never does anything unless they are in pain. The solution needs to use the words and the terms and the understanding of what's important to them. Talk to them in management-speak. Sometimes when we are in tough times, that's the best time to do things.
Some of the dangers we hear are fear of loss, competition.
The flip side of danger is opportunity.
People like to whine? No. If you're going to be making changes, you have to listen to the people who will be impacted. Then you get their buy-in. When people tell me about their problems, this is not a reflection on the organization, but an opportunity to make changes.
What is intelligent content. We need to move away from hand crafting content. Intelligent content is structurally rich and semantically categorized. Content is often stuck in formats.
When we look at content, we need to look at it differently than the way we are gong to tag (structure) it. Why structure? Make it easier for authors to author. Helps people write the same way if everyone is following the same guidelines.
25% is your main, base level reuse for most companies of content that can be reused.
XML allows us to take advantage of many tools on the market. If you're doing unstructured content now, converting to XML will require that some of your people grow technologically.
There should be enough information in a model to allow people to create their content without being rigid.
As you model your content, you'll find that about 80% consists of reusable models that you can reference.
Even the structure of your content can be part of your company's voice and brand.
In workflow, automate as much as you can. Put processes in for reuse governance. For example, if you reuse content I created, are you allowed to change it? If so, what does that do to the original? Or do you branch it? Are you even allowed to branch it? If you're in a regulatory environment, you might be very highly controlled.
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Looking Ahead
The future is going to be about getting into our customer's heads, to find out what they need, where they need it, how they need it, and n what level they need it. There's been so much emphasis on devices, and we need to pull back and focus on what we are giving customers.
I used to be content wasn't really valued. Content was a necessary evil. By bringing content strategy to the fore, we have shifted content into an extremely important role.
We need people who can understand what technology can do with content. We will always need fabulous writers. We can have the best technology in the world, but if we don't have the best content, and the technology supporting that content, that it's not going to do us any good.
Looking forward to LavaCon '14, I expect we will see an emphasis on the high tech, the technologies to give customers the best experience.
I used to be content wasn't really valued. Content was a necessary evil. By bringing content strategy to the fore, we have shifted content into an extremely important role.
We need people who can understand what technology can do with content. We will always need fabulous writers. We can have the best technology in the world, but if we don't have the best content, and the technology supporting that content, that it's not going to do us any good.
Looking forward to LavaCon '14, I expect we will see an emphasis on the high tech, the technologies to give customers the best experience.
Executing Your Content Strategy: Governance, Optimization and Analytics
The content that we create that can be translated can help you break into new markets. Normalizing content eases translation and keeps costs down.
We do have to care about the plumbing, because if we don't, what we get out at the end is....effluent....
Content quality impacts brand. What used to be post-sale content is now becoming pre-sale content. People are going out and reading user manuals before they purchase, so what you write becomes very important.
What does it take? If you have an organization of any size, it takes governance. Tone, terminology, style, without a system that helps you enforce it, it's hard to manage.
The engines that drive these systems also allow you to track. Executives want data. And now you are armed with information, metrics, and reports.
Control your language. There are 5 areas: spelling, grammar, style, terminology, and SEO. Optimize your dictionaries to make it easier for your authors to succeed. Instead of training your employees on the style guide, how about programming it into your system? That also teaches your authors along the way.
Speak with one voice. No matter what your user reads, you want them to feel like one person wrote it.
We do have to care about the plumbing, because if we don't, what we get out at the end is....effluent....
Content quality impacts brand. What used to be post-sale content is now becoming pre-sale content. People are going out and reading user manuals before they purchase, so what you write becomes very important.
What does it take? If you have an organization of any size, it takes governance. Tone, terminology, style, without a system that helps you enforce it, it's hard to manage.
The engines that drive these systems also allow you to track. Executives want data. And now you are armed with information, metrics, and reports.
Control your language. There are 5 areas: spelling, grammar, style, terminology, and SEO. Optimize your dictionaries to make it easier for your authors to succeed. Instead of training your employees on the style guide, how about programming it into your system? That also teaches your authors along the way.
Speak with one voice. No matter what your user reads, you want them to feel like one person wrote it.
The Common Wisdom: Reality-Based Notes from the DITA Underground
The "common wisdom" often gets is wrong. Common wisdom today is that you have to are about CXM (customer experience management), being indoctrination on the customer experience is all that matters.
The common wisdom is that you should care because the executives say so. But executives care about retaining customers much more than getting new ones.
CXM leaders are aware that our technical communication needs to be tailored for customers. 30% are already doing so, and they are seeing a 13% year=over-year increase in revenue.
We have to talk to marketers. They know how the customers are segmented, and we have to segment our content the same way.
If you don't have the ability to measure your content to find out how it is affecting customers, you can't know how to improve your content.
Your organization has a structure, which means that you'll never be able to completely get rid of silos, but you can learn to communicate and collaborate between them.
When you use DITA, you have content that can be delivered dynamically. A PDF isn't going to look good on Google Glass.
Think about analytics on the content, not the pages. How are people getting to your content? You need analytics that go beyond basic web analytics.
Listen first when you're going social. The conversations are not happening in company-controlled locations. If your customer leaves a comment, you should reply. It's terrible to not reply.
The common wisdom is that you should care because the executives say so. But executives care about retaining customers much more than getting new ones.
CXM leaders are aware that our technical communication needs to be tailored for customers. 30% are already doing so, and they are seeing a 13% year=over-year increase in revenue.
We have to talk to marketers. They know how the customers are segmented, and we have to segment our content the same way.
If you don't have the ability to measure your content to find out how it is affecting customers, you can't know how to improve your content.
Your organization has a structure, which means that you'll never be able to completely get rid of silos, but you can learn to communicate and collaborate between them.
When you use DITA, you have content that can be delivered dynamically. A PDF isn't going to look good on Google Glass.
Think about analytics on the content, not the pages. How are people getting to your content? You need analytics that go beyond basic web analytics.
Listen first when you're going social. The conversations are not happening in company-controlled locations. If your customer leaves a comment, you should reply. It's terrible to not reply.
Lean UX and Agile: More Content in Less Time
We're going to be talking about principles, not practices. If you take lean or agile as just a set of practices and expect to succeed, you won't.
Productivity is the key, from manufacturing to development. Toyota looked at lean product development and figured out how to produce a new vehicle in one year, as opposed to North American companies taking two to three years. It was not just the manufacturing process. It applies to design. Toyota has a process for inventing things, for how you plan to envent things and put it on a schedule.
Agile programming methods have been applied very badly in many situations. The principles include specify value, identify the value stream, flow, pull, and perfection. The only thing that counts is what adds value to the customer. For example, moving something in a factory is waste. You are always looking for waste, which means you have to know what value is.
We often don't know all the processes that go into something. Identify the whole process by which value gets created. The key principle is flow. You want things to flow smoothly. Nothing is created until it is needed. For that to happen, you need a perfect flow.
In software development, the principles translate too eliminate waste, amplify learning, decide as late as possible, deliver as fast as possible, empower the team, build integrity, and see the whole. Why decide as late as possible? The later you make a decision, the more information that decision is based on.
These principles as applied to software development work also on content development.
We want content pull: We won't write soemthing until it's needed.
Taking this approach promotes learning.. Errors are found sooner. Errors in content result from defects in knowledge. The stuff in your head is inventory. Fix the defects in your knowledge so you can produce better content faster. this results is more efficiency--including no crunch at the end of a project.
The sooner you send your content for review, the more errors will be caught. A reviewer reading a book can't see the trees for the forest, but if you send content a chunk at a time, reviewers can focus on the one issue.
When you send stuff in pieces, it makes people who get it aware that documentation is part of the process. As a result, they are more likely to inform writers of design changes. When you make your doc process more visible, you get more feedback, more support. And that can make you more productive without changing any processes.
Waterfall fails because you're making decisions at the beginning, when you have less information.
Embrace change. Information increases throughout the process. Rather than building a system that doesn't let change in, build a disciplined process of learning. It means iteration. What is the most efficient way? It's a process that recognizes that you're trying to generate information.
Agile development includes iterative development, user stories, frequent deliveries, keeping your options open, doing the simplest thing that works, refactor constantly. The reason for an iteration is to generate information. And of course, agile content development is similar.
Evenness is the key. Different techniques optimize different parts of the process. Optimize the whole, rather than just the parts.
Best practices aren't best unless they meet your context or your objective.
Productivity is the key, from manufacturing to development. Toyota looked at lean product development and figured out how to produce a new vehicle in one year, as opposed to North American companies taking two to three years. It was not just the manufacturing process. It applies to design. Toyota has a process for inventing things, for how you plan to envent things and put it on a schedule.
Agile programming methods have been applied very badly in many situations. The principles include specify value, identify the value stream, flow, pull, and perfection. The only thing that counts is what adds value to the customer. For example, moving something in a factory is waste. You are always looking for waste, which means you have to know what value is.
We often don't know all the processes that go into something. Identify the whole process by which value gets created. The key principle is flow. You want things to flow smoothly. Nothing is created until it is needed. For that to happen, you need a perfect flow.
In software development, the principles translate too eliminate waste, amplify learning, decide as late as possible, deliver as fast as possible, empower the team, build integrity, and see the whole. Why decide as late as possible? The later you make a decision, the more information that decision is based on.
These principles as applied to software development work also on content development.
We want content pull: We won't write soemthing until it's needed.
Taking this approach promotes learning.. Errors are found sooner. Errors in content result from defects in knowledge. The stuff in your head is inventory. Fix the defects in your knowledge so you can produce better content faster. this results is more efficiency--including no crunch at the end of a project.
The sooner you send your content for review, the more errors will be caught. A reviewer reading a book can't see the trees for the forest, but if you send content a chunk at a time, reviewers can focus on the one issue.
When you send stuff in pieces, it makes people who get it aware that documentation is part of the process. As a result, they are more likely to inform writers of design changes. When you make your doc process more visible, you get more feedback, more support. And that can make you more productive without changing any processes.
Waterfall fails because you're making decisions at the beginning, when you have less information.
Embrace change. Information increases throughout the process. Rather than building a system that doesn't let change in, build a disciplined process of learning. It means iteration. What is the most efficient way? It's a process that recognizes that you're trying to generate information.
Agile development includes iterative development, user stories, frequent deliveries, keeping your options open, doing the simplest thing that works, refactor constantly. The reason for an iteration is to generate information. And of course, agile content development is similar.
Evenness is the key. Different techniques optimize different parts of the process. Optimize the whole, rather than just the parts.
Best practices aren't best unless they meet your context or your objective.
Building Global Content Collaboration
If you can learn how to collaborate with each other, you can work better.
One aspect of getting funding for a CMS is that content was scattered around the world.
Don't forget to assess the corporate culture. For example, in startups, everyone has a real sense of ownership, of the product and of the content. Sit down with marketing and product development, partner with them, find out what their pain points are. Do this also when you acquire a company, rather than just telling them that you're the content people and their content is now yours.
Have to have a central place for content and a solid process so you can begin delivering content from disparate places. Content process looks a lot like product development process. Essential to automate the publishing cycle.
Mergers and acquisitions are the order of the day in today's business. Figure out that things are gong to change. Do you current business processes scale?
One aspect of getting funding for a CMS is that content was scattered around the world.
Don't forget to assess the corporate culture. For example, in startups, everyone has a real sense of ownership, of the product and of the content. Sit down with marketing and product development, partner with them, find out what their pain points are. Do this also when you acquire a company, rather than just telling them that you're the content people and their content is now yours.
Have to have a central place for content and a solid process so you can begin delivering content from disparate places. Content process looks a lot like product development process. Essential to automate the publishing cycle.
Mergers and acquisitions are the order of the day in today's business. Figure out that things are gong to change. Do you current business processes scale?
Breaking Bad Content
We are always struggling against bad content. No matter how much we struggle the problem doesn't go away. The problem seems to just get worse. How do we break the cycle that produces bad content? How do we discover what that cycle is?
We're using better and better tools,, and we seem to be digging a deeper and deeper hole.
You cannot subordinate content strategy to UX design. The nature of content is that it is a precursor, and predecessor, and a survivor. An overemphasis on the interface leads to content chaos.
Yeah! Science! One of the themes of this year's LavaCon is data and metrics. Focus on the data, use the data as a tool as the first step to breaking bad content. Get excited about quantification.
Build a good team. It doesn't need to be big, but build a good interdisciplinary team.
What's important about the process is thinking about the whole process. When you look at only a part, that investment we degenerate, especially as things change. Look at how your content is being used, not just how it's delivered.
If you over-invest on one part of a project, you will create imbalance and not survive. Balance and integration are what's important.
There is no "easy" button. Balance and integration are extremely hard. It's the communicators who have the opportunity, even the obligation, to connect the dots within their organization.
We're using better and better tools,, and we seem to be digging a deeper and deeper hole.
You cannot subordinate content strategy to UX design. The nature of content is that it is a precursor, and predecessor, and a survivor. An overemphasis on the interface leads to content chaos.
Yeah! Science! One of the themes of this year's LavaCon is data and metrics. Focus on the data, use the data as a tool as the first step to breaking bad content. Get excited about quantification.
Build a good team. It doesn't need to be big, but build a good interdisciplinary team.
What's important about the process is thinking about the whole process. When you look at only a part, that investment we degenerate, especially as things change. Look at how your content is being used, not just how it's delivered.
If you over-invest on one part of a project, you will create imbalance and not survive. Balance and integration are what's important.
There is no "easy" button. Balance and integration are extremely hard. It's the communicators who have the opportunity, even the obligation, to connect the dots within their organization.
Generating a Culture of Doc (AKA: Bribes That Work)
Engineers don't use the product they create, so they don't see or care about user-facing docs. The way to get them to care about doc is to introduce them to the doc for the things they use every day.
The first step is to find the internal tools that engineers use all the time. Then don't fix those docs, but have the engineers write it, or collaborate with them about it. You can help them build their writing skills.
Even at companies where the ratio of engineers to writers is decent, there's still too much work for writers. (And at most companies, the ratio isn't decent.)
Where doe knowledge exist? If R&D processes aren't written down, you have lost copious amounts of engineers' time. Where does knowledge exist if it does not occur only in an engineer's head? What happens when one leaves? What happens with new people? You lose R&D productivity where people have to take time to find out.
Having internal processes documented increases R&D productivity. Hosting government data includes audits of your processes. If you have your processes documented, you're going to be prepared for success.
Companies are reluctant to think about internal documentation. Engineers get worried when they have to explain things over and over. The initiative to get your internal processes documented can come from that.
Find internal champions, engineers who are frustrated about things that are not documented. Then nurture them and give them a forum. Host a cheese and whine session and invite engineers. Get people together, find a way to organize people who are like-minded.
don't go it alone. The engineers who are complaining about no docs know where the problems are and have their own ideas. Provide the organization and project management skills.
Have a "fix the docs" hack day. "You didn't build the road. You didn't litter on it. But for a single day, can you 'adopt' a road and clean it up?" Then give clear guidelines of what they can do. Afterward, it's vitally important that you socialize the results. Have to recognize the engineers who helped.
Some text is always better than no text. It's a culture change: You must write it down.
Some engineers will claim that good code documents itself. No, it doesn't. The comments tell only what it does, not how or why.
The first step is to find the internal tools that engineers use all the time. Then don't fix those docs, but have the engineers write it, or collaborate with them about it. You can help them build their writing skills.
Even at companies where the ratio of engineers to writers is decent, there's still too much work for writers. (And at most companies, the ratio isn't decent.)
Where doe knowledge exist? If R&D processes aren't written down, you have lost copious amounts of engineers' time. Where does knowledge exist if it does not occur only in an engineer's head? What happens when one leaves? What happens with new people? You lose R&D productivity where people have to take time to find out.
Having internal processes documented increases R&D productivity. Hosting government data includes audits of your processes. If you have your processes documented, you're going to be prepared for success.
Companies are reluctant to think about internal documentation. Engineers get worried when they have to explain things over and over. The initiative to get your internal processes documented can come from that.
Find internal champions, engineers who are frustrated about things that are not documented. Then nurture them and give them a forum. Host a cheese and whine session and invite engineers. Get people together, find a way to organize people who are like-minded.
don't go it alone. The engineers who are complaining about no docs know where the problems are and have their own ideas. Provide the organization and project management skills.
Have a "fix the docs" hack day. "You didn't build the road. You didn't litter on it. But for a single day, can you 'adopt' a road and clean it up?" Then give clear guidelines of what they can do. Afterward, it's vitally important that you socialize the results. Have to recognize the engineers who helped.
Some text is always better than no text. It's a culture change: You must write it down.
Some engineers will claim that good code documents itself. No, it doesn't. The comments tell only what it does, not how or why.
Increasing Content Consistency: Flare and HyperSTE
Been thinking about what we do, and what I do is improve the post-sales customer experience. What we do as content developers is incredibly important, because what we do helps people change the world.
Topic-based authoring is really the only way to develop. The day of the long monolithic content is gone. There is no business case for it, for big long PDFs, anymore.
When you're using topic-based authoring, you can distribute work better. Reviews get better. Is is easier to localize topics. It can force a logic to your content. It makes it easier for others to use your content, such as training.
Because topics are combined and recombined, because content is localized, language must be standardized. Otherwise, it looks like we were all drunk. But we are the voice of authority.
In Flare, there's no way to standardize the language (natively). It's a manual process.
If you're writing
On the File menu...
From the File menu...
Click File...
Select the file menu...
Choose the file menu...
...and more, your cost are increasing, especially if you're translating (at 25 cents per word).
Our users are depending on us talking about things one way. If we keep changing the way we talk about stuff, we will confuse our users.
Flare 9 has plugins now. HyperSTE is a Flare plugin designed for standardized English. It's configurable for style guides.HyperSTE is not as cheap as Flare, but if you're translating, it can save you lots of money.
Topic-based authoring is really the only way to develop. The day of the long monolithic content is gone. There is no business case for it, for big long PDFs, anymore.
When you're using topic-based authoring, you can distribute work better. Reviews get better. Is is easier to localize topics. It can force a logic to your content. It makes it easier for others to use your content, such as training.
Because topics are combined and recombined, because content is localized, language must be standardized. Otherwise, it looks like we were all drunk. But we are the voice of authority.
In Flare, there's no way to standardize the language (natively). It's a manual process.
If you're writing
On the File menu...
From the File menu...
Click File...
Select the file menu...
Choose the file menu...
...and more, your cost are increasing, especially if you're translating (at 25 cents per word).
Our users are depending on us talking about things one way. If we keep changing the way we talk about stuff, we will confuse our users.
Flare 9 has plugins now. HyperSTE is a Flare plugin designed for standardized English. It's configurable for style guides.HyperSTE is not as cheap as Flare, but if you're translating, it can save you lots of money.
Customer-Centric Content: Using Taxonomy to Achieve Contextual Relevance
It's all about the customer experience, personalized for them. That builds sustainable relationships and brand loyalty. It also builds credit if the product isn't quite perfect. But you can build a good experience if you can get them information quickly.
Contextual relevance is a prime consideration, giving users when they need, where they need it.
You can't be everywhere at one. Engage your customer, let them build the relevance they need for their specific situation and need. Users also want to comment on the content they get, increasing relevance to them.
Subject schemes are a way of classifying content. Content might belong to a product or an organization, for example. It can allow you to organize content in a hierarchy and define relationships between subjects. You can even classify content you don't own, so when users are searching, they can find content you didn't even develop.
Contextual relevance is a prime consideration, giving users when they need, where they need it.
You can't be everywhere at one. Engage your customer, let them build the relevance they need for their specific situation and need. Users also want to comment on the content they get, increasing relevance to them.
Subject schemes are a way of classifying content. Content might belong to a product or an organization, for example. It can allow you to organize content in a hierarchy and define relationships between subjects. You can even classify content you don't own, so when users are searching, they can find content you didn't even develop.
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Using a Gamification Framework to Start Your Own Gamification Projects
Gamification can provide many benefits. It can increase customer engagement, motivate participation, and more. But by 2014, 80% of gamified projects will fail, primarily because of poor design.
The gamification design framework has 6 steps: define business objectives, describe players, delineate target behaviors, device activity loops, don't forget the fun, and deploy the appropriate tools, or 6 "D"s.
Like any project, think things through before you start.
We are good at describing the "players," which is what business school calls users.At least, if you're doing user research. It's really important to know what motivates your users. That helps you know what gaming elements will be effective.
Gamification does collect a lot of information about people, so you have to be careful what you collect and what you do with that information, especially if you operate globally, where laws about privacy vary from region to region.
The gamification design framework has 6 steps: define business objectives, describe players, delineate target behaviors, device activity loops, don't forget the fun, and deploy the appropriate tools, or 6 "D"s.
Like any project, think things through before you start.
We are good at describing the "players," which is what business school calls users.At least, if you're doing user research. It's really important to know what motivates your users. That helps you know what gaming elements will be effective.
Gamification does collect a lot of information about people, so you have to be careful what you collect and what you do with that information, especially if you operate globally, where laws about privacy vary from region to region.
Visual Communication and the Social Content Workflow
Content has changed, as has the way we produce, promote, and consume it. Our challenges are technical, procedural, and philosophical. But the bottom line is that communication solves a lot.
The social media world has changed. It used to be lots of text. Now it's much more visual, with lots of images.
Images are what the brain remembers most. Images increase engagement. 90% of the information transmitted to the brain is visual.
This isn't news. But knowing doesn't mean that it's easy to translate to effective content.
It takes planning to keep a consistent presence on social media. People want to do the right thing, but they don't always have the experience or the time. And there are new tools and new rules. Different social platforms have their own limitations and restrictions.
Visual communication is hard, just like writing is hard. To communicate well visually, you have to think about it.
The social media world has changed. It used to be lots of text. Now it's much more visual, with lots of images.
Images are what the brain remembers most. Images increase engagement. 90% of the information transmitted to the brain is visual.
This isn't news. But knowing doesn't mean that it's easy to translate to effective content.
It takes planning to keep a consistent presence on social media. People want to do the right thing, but they don't always have the experience or the time. And there are new tools and new rules. Different social platforms have their own limitations and restrictions.
Visual communication is hard, just like writing is hard. To communicate well visually, you have to think about it.
Socializing Content Creation
You can't collaborate socially without pulling people into your orbit.
You and your team are a brand. Being social and PR are your friends. Social media is part of that. Workplaces are becoming more dependent on social tools. Social tools can help build better content. It's not about self-promotion, but about letting people know what you're doing and what value you're contributing.
The hard part is engaging, especially if you're an introvert. Post and blog regularly. Think about what you can communicate out to the organization. When people are interested in our work they want to make it better.
When you engage co-workers, you get earlier feedback on the content you're creating. Think of your colleagues as collaborators, not reviewers.
Conversations are not only public, they are permanent. But the decisions we make are archived for posterity as well. Get your information decisions out of email and into a format you can capture. Email is a terrible way of linking people to and showing them what happened.It's also great reference material, to track how you did things last time, which can save time and money.
You and your team are a brand. Being social and PR are your friends. Social media is part of that. Workplaces are becoming more dependent on social tools. Social tools can help build better content. It's not about self-promotion, but about letting people know what you're doing and what value you're contributing.
The hard part is engaging, especially if you're an introvert. Post and blog regularly. Think about what you can communicate out to the organization. When people are interested in our work they want to make it better.
When you engage co-workers, you get earlier feedback on the content you're creating. Think of your colleagues as collaborators, not reviewers.
Conversations are not only public, they are permanent. But the decisions we make are archived for posterity as well. Get your information decisions out of email and into a format you can capture. Email is a terrible way of linking people to and showing them what happened.It's also great reference material, to track how you did things last time, which can save time and money.
Elevating the Customer Experience: Using Content to Transform Engagement
This is all about creating a "genius bar." It's solving the "knowledge problem." If product knowledge is fragmented, your message will be inconsistent when you serve your customers.
When your know knowledge is fragmented, it's hard to update.
The goal is to create continuous feedback and collaboration. If you can achieve that, it's a self-improving support cycle.
If you enable your SMEs and customers to give feedback, you can use that to optimize the content experience.
Not only layer knowledge, but provide it as a service.
When your know knowledge is fragmented, it's hard to update.
The goal is to create continuous feedback and collaboration. If you can achieve that, it's a self-improving support cycle.
If you enable your SMEs and customers to give feedback, you can use that to optimize the content experience.
Not only layer knowledge, but provide it as a service.
Keeping the "U" in UI Design
There's a difference between focusing on the interface and focusing on the user. We try not to use the word "user." There's a real human being on the other end using our stuff. We use the word "people."
Good content doesn't guarantee a good interface. Not everything is a content problem. Bud bad content does guarantee a bad experience. YOu can't fix everything with content, but you can certainly screw things up. Even good interfaces have bad elements.
Bad interfaces are self-centered. They are interfaces that "provide a window to the database fields rather than a workflow designed to support user goals."
Bad user interfaces are sticky. When you add new features, you can't really make changes.
Bad interfaces are not forever. They can be fixed.
Good interfaces evolve. Be willing to change things. Even things that work great get changed drastically, and it can help a lot.
Good interfaces know their audience. Personas help identify what make people different in your audience.
Use search analytics to see what words your users use to search for things, and that's the language that you can use in your software.
Good interfaces simplify things. They make complex tasks easier.
Nothing says "Send Message" like the words "Send Message."
The notion that users will click only 3 times is crap. Users will click as many times as they need if they know where they are gong.
Button text should serve WYLTIWLT: Would You Like To/I Would Like To.
Good content doesn't guarantee a good interface. Not everything is a content problem. Bud bad content does guarantee a bad experience. YOu can't fix everything with content, but you can certainly screw things up. Even good interfaces have bad elements.
Bad interfaces are self-centered. They are interfaces that "provide a window to the database fields rather than a workflow designed to support user goals."
Bad user interfaces are sticky. When you add new features, you can't really make changes.
Bad interfaces are not forever. They can be fixed.
Good interfaces evolve. Be willing to change things. Even things that work great get changed drastically, and it can help a lot.
Good interfaces know their audience. Personas help identify what make people different in your audience.
Use search analytics to see what words your users use to search for things, and that's the language that you can use in your software.
Good interfaces simplify things. They make complex tasks easier.
Nothing says "Send Message" like the words "Send Message."
The notion that users will click only 3 times is crap. Users will click as many times as they need if they know where they are gong.
Button text should serve WYLTIWLT: Would You Like To/I Would Like To.
Using DITA to Squeeze Maximum Value from Your Terminology
Terminology management is the identification, organization, and use of terms. You might think it's a small thing, but we move around in a sea of terms. At some point we move forward in some sort of collective understanding. The promise of management is accuracy, coherence, and findability. Terminology includes not only a set of preferred terms, but synonyms and acronyms.
Terminology is part of every content project phase.
DITA has a glossary mechanism, using the glossentry, term, and glossref tags. Glossentry is the root tag. It's children can be glossterm, glossdef, and glossbody.
A thesaurus is a kind of taxonomy, a hierarchy of concepts. You have clear communication, we have to have agreed-upon meaning for words.
Terminology is part of every content project phase.
DITA has a glossary mechanism, using the glossentry, term, and glossref tags. Glossentry is the root tag. It's children can be glossterm, glossdef, and glossbody.
A thesaurus is a kind of taxonomy, a hierarchy of concepts. You have clear communication, we have to have agreed-upon meaning for words.
How Content Strategy Fits Into the User Experience
The phrase "user experience" means different things to different people. It helps us deliver products and services. It does beyond the screen. It's not just a digital thing.
Where does UX happen? Planning? Not just there. And not just in every phase of development, but beyond. It informs the next project.
User experience is about how a person feels about using a system or device. It's not designed or objective, but designed for and subjective. It's not a recipe or procedural, but a fungible process.
There are 6 core disciplines: user research, content strategy, information architecture, interaction design, visual design, and usability & analytics. These are about understanding and measurement and more.
How does content strategy fit in? Think of a mai tai. You can't have a drink without the liquid. The content is the liquid. And UX is how you interact with it.
Architecture is the structure of things.
Personas are a way to understanding users, the essence of who they are to help communicate to the team. Content strategists need to understand them as well.
The DIKW hierarchy is a way of understanding how people learn. There are two axes, one is connectedness, one is understanding, and at the intersection is data. You go from data to information to knowledge, and from that, you get wisdom. Information is understanding relations, knowledge is understanding patterns, and wisdom is understanding even more.
It's not the strongest or most intelligent, but the most adaptable that survive. We're living in s tsunami of information, a technology tsunami. We used to have a work/life balance, and now we seek a work/life/technology balance. We have to think differently about how we solve these problems, beyond how we design and build and write things today. Is the future going to be about finding information or about making sense of it?
Where does UX happen? Planning? Not just there. And not just in every phase of development, but beyond. It informs the next project.
User experience is about how a person feels about using a system or device. It's not designed or objective, but designed for and subjective. It's not a recipe or procedural, but a fungible process.
There are 6 core disciplines: user research, content strategy, information architecture, interaction design, visual design, and usability & analytics. These are about understanding and measurement and more.
How does content strategy fit in? Think of a mai tai. You can't have a drink without the liquid. The content is the liquid. And UX is how you interact with it.
Architecture is the structure of things.
Personas are a way to understanding users, the essence of who they are to help communicate to the team. Content strategists need to understand them as well.
The DIKW hierarchy is a way of understanding how people learn. There are two axes, one is connectedness, one is understanding, and at the intersection is data. You go from data to information to knowledge, and from that, you get wisdom. Information is understanding relations, knowledge is understanding patterns, and wisdom is understanding even more.
It's not the strongest or most intelligent, but the most adaptable that survive. We're living in s tsunami of information, a technology tsunami. We used to have a work/life balance, and now we seek a work/life/technology balance. We have to think differently about how we solve these problems, beyond how we design and build and write things today. Is the future going to be about finding information or about making sense of it?
Monday, October 21, 2013
A Quantum Leap in Value Evolution: Making the Transition from “Developing Content” to “Solving Business Problems”
Conversations today overlap. Want to tie together the themes. There's a wealth of experience here, and not just what's come from the stage. That's how Lori Fisher started her day-ending keynote.
Got to start with the business strategy. What are your company's goals? How are they trying to stay n business. That's what it's all about.
The best content experience is no content. If we could make content go away, we could make a better user experience. It means we have to think about the way we communicate, to build the communication into the user experience.
Information strategy doesn't start with the content, but with the user experience.
There are different reasons you have to provide content, and you have to think about the goal. Think about the user experience, and how to you build and experience that helps users get to the information they need.
Because people don't value content, positioning yourself as the content provider doesn't show your value. So position yourself in a way that does add value.
Got to start with the business strategy. What are your company's goals? How are they trying to stay n business. That's what it's all about.
The best content experience is no content. If we could make content go away, we could make a better user experience. It means we have to think about the way we communicate, to build the communication into the user experience.
Information strategy doesn't start with the content, but with the user experience.
There are different reasons you have to provide content, and you have to think about the goal. Think about the user experience, and how to you build and experience that helps users get to the information they need.
Because people don't value content, positioning yourself as the content provider doesn't show your value. So position yourself in a way that does add value.
How to Reach Those Who Control the Power and Purse Strings
Noz Urbina calls this "Storming the Castle." To get to where you want to go, you will need two thing: money and power.
Before you start, you have to decide what the treasure is, what you want and why. If you do not define that, you will fail. An organization is complicated, and there are many points where you can come in. Validate what you think you want. Seen no project where the initial vision survived to implementation. There;s always an evolution. Look at audience, requirements, and ROI.
You have to know all the things that might go wrong, all the things that might fail, so you can head them off. Then ask: How do you know when you have succeeded? How do you define ROI? Money? Customer success? Or?
Audit where you are now so you know what the gap is between where you are now and where you want to go. Make sure you find out if where you want to go, what you want to be, is even possible. Part of that has to do with knowing who runs the organization.
Don't make the mistake of thinking that people care about content. People in this room care about content, but most people don't care about content. We as authors are always trying to get people to see the value of content. If you're trying to storm the castle, you're trying to get them to agree with something they don't agree with. Find out what they agree with and find a way to support that.
The perfect team is a mufti-disciplinary group where everyone knows what they have to do and everyone has something to add.
The content is not the value add. You're there as a communicator, to get information from one head to another. You bring to the table knowing what to do with content and how, not the content itself. If the product is so self-describing because of all the wayfinding you've put in there, that's the real value, not the manual.
Managers don't like to read stuff. They just want to know.
Before you start, you have to decide what the treasure is, what you want and why. If you do not define that, you will fail. An organization is complicated, and there are many points where you can come in. Validate what you think you want. Seen no project where the initial vision survived to implementation. There;s always an evolution. Look at audience, requirements, and ROI.
You have to know all the things that might go wrong, all the things that might fail, so you can head them off. Then ask: How do you know when you have succeeded? How do you define ROI? Money? Customer success? Or?
Audit where you are now so you know what the gap is between where you are now and where you want to go. Make sure you find out if where you want to go, what you want to be, is even possible. Part of that has to do with knowing who runs the organization.
Don't make the mistake of thinking that people care about content. People in this room care about content, but most people don't care about content. We as authors are always trying to get people to see the value of content. If you're trying to storm the castle, you're trying to get them to agree with something they don't agree with. Find out what they agree with and find a way to support that.
The perfect team is a mufti-disciplinary group where everyone knows what they have to do and everyone has something to add.
The content is not the value add. You're there as a communicator, to get information from one head to another. You bring to the table knowing what to do with content and how, not the content itself. If the product is so self-describing because of all the wayfinding you've put in there, that's the real value, not the manual.
Managers don't like to read stuff. They just want to know.
It All Comes Down to Return on Investment (ROI):
Why talk about ROI (return on investment) and content strategy? Need to understand where you are to figure out where you want to go. Before 2004, "content strategy" wasn't even in the lexicon of the web. But it's part of business today.
Break content strategy into 3 distinct points: audience, architecture, and flow.
The audience isn't just consumers, but competitors, the industry you're in. An important point is understanding what your brand vision is and holding true to your brand vision. The brand vision is a focus you must have with regard to your content.
Understanding who your audience is and how often they need updates from you is important.
Everyone has preferred format. The tools you use make you based toward a particular format.
Use open standards to future-proof your content. Think about the ROI that will be done 10 years from now, not just 2 years from now. Follow open standards such as XML, HTML, and CSS.
Thinking bigger than what you're currently doing doday is an important part of your ROI analysis.
Flow is internal and external. It is the idea that turns in to production that turns in to content that you deliver.
People expect to have a voice in your content.
Break content strategy into 3 distinct points: audience, architecture, and flow.
The audience isn't just consumers, but competitors, the industry you're in. An important point is understanding what your brand vision is and holding true to your brand vision. The brand vision is a focus you must have with regard to your content.
Understanding who your audience is and how often they need updates from you is important.
Everyone has preferred format. The tools you use make you based toward a particular format.
Use open standards to future-proof your content. Think about the ROI that will be done 10 years from now, not just 2 years from now. Follow open standards such as XML, HTML, and CSS.
Thinking bigger than what you're currently doing doday is an important part of your ROI analysis.
Flow is internal and external. It is the idea that turns in to production that turns in to content that you deliver.
People expect to have a voice in your content.
Overcoming Design Challenges In Multichannel Content Publishing Using HATs
It's due to Apple that the mobile market has taken off and it where it is today. The issue: Should tech comm get involved in mobile? Heard the same question in 1991 with online help (because it's so programmatic)? If we don't, someone else will.
Here, we'll look at web apps and eBooks from help authoring tools (HATs). Simply porting to small screen will work somewhat well, but there are design issues.
eBooks are largely linear formats that sit on a mobile devcie and are good for stable, linear material.
Apps are highly focused, largely for "micro-tasking." This issue becomes important when converting online help to mobile. There are 3 types of apps: native, web, and hybrid.
Mobile in tech comm is still now, and many companies aren't yet sure of the need for tech comm resources for mobile. It requires new skills, and we until recently, don't have the tools (at least the tools that made it easy). Compared to tech comm, apps are different. Apps can be heavily text-based.
Terminology mixups can spell disaster.
If you already know a HAT, you have to learn only a few extra things to produce mobile. They can keep you out of the code and reduce errors, and they also set the proper boundaries for you, letting you focus on content and design. HATs don't give you some features though.
Some content design points: Images can be too wide for phone screens. Use relative, not fixed, width measurements. Margins can also be too large. Don't use large or complex tables.
Trying to convert websites and its content to mobile usually results in a poor experience. You should redesign your content before you multichannel publish it. You then get a smooth format to mobile. There's going to be a lot of work cleaning up legacy content.
Spend as much time in designing your app as you do developing your app.
Here, we'll look at web apps and eBooks from help authoring tools (HATs). Simply porting to small screen will work somewhat well, but there are design issues.
eBooks are largely linear formats that sit on a mobile devcie and are good for stable, linear material.
Apps are highly focused, largely for "micro-tasking." This issue becomes important when converting online help to mobile. There are 3 types of apps: native, web, and hybrid.
Mobile in tech comm is still now, and many companies aren't yet sure of the need for tech comm resources for mobile. It requires new skills, and we until recently, don't have the tools (at least the tools that made it easy). Compared to tech comm, apps are different. Apps can be heavily text-based.
Terminology mixups can spell disaster.
If you already know a HAT, you have to learn only a few extra things to produce mobile. They can keep you out of the code and reduce errors, and they also set the proper boundaries for you, letting you focus on content and design. HATs don't give you some features though.
Some content design points: Images can be too wide for phone screens. Use relative, not fixed, width measurements. Margins can also be too large. Don't use large or complex tables.
Trying to convert websites and its content to mobile usually results in a poor experience. You should redesign your content before you multichannel publish it. You then get a smooth format to mobile. There's going to be a lot of work cleaning up legacy content.
Spend as much time in designing your app as you do developing your app.
Herding Tigers: Changing Our Reliance on Inline Links
Mysti Berry asked "What's wrong with putting a link on it?" Were talking about links put in by hand. Well, if you have a link from topic A and you link to topic B, what happens if you delete topic A?
Links slow readability ever so slightly and they slightly decrease comprehension and recall. Inline links in our research found inline links were clicked 0-8% of the time. (But more research is needed.) If you're using Arbortext, the Resource Manager can make it take minutes to create one link. Refactoring content that contains links is a nightmare. So we're spending time and money on resources that few people use and that slow down those who do.
If we stop with inline links, we might miss the content architecture that works better for our customers.
We found that content with embedded links caused refactoring to balloon from 4 hours to 3 days.
As things change, we don't tend to inspect the link chains that we create. In many cases, we end up with link chains.
Links can damage the scent of information. Often, once you click on a link, you don't go back.
If you couldn't use links, you might create more self-contained topics.
As a part of a re-architecture project, removed inline links that crossed "bundle boundaries," which was about 4300 links, almost 50%, across 4000 topics. Had to find links that pointed outside the ditamap. For each link, had to decide if it was necessary. If a cross reference (or XREF) is necessary, why isn't the content that it links to?
One solution: Get users back to the UI. They don't want to be in the help anyway. If you can, get them back to work.
Another: use conrefs instead of links. (This is DITA only, of course.)
Or even fix the topic. Can be hard to articulate. Writers would fix on a case-by-case basis, and not always time when lots of topics. It depends on what's wrong. Is the user goal unclear? Is it "overstuffed?"
It's hard to let go of links. It's hard to see that something good for the few affects (negatively) the needs of the many. "Minimalism" can be mis-interpreted, trying to make small topics. But think about making topics solve user goals.
Think COPE (create once, publish everywhere). You can't COPE with entangled content.
have to not blame the writers. They are fierce customer advocates. But the metrics show differently. Make your initiatives backed by data.
It also requires an investment in project management. Analyze the problems before you begin. If you can, work on a small chunk of content at a time. Fix it and publish it and show everyone, including writers, where you want to go.
Don't go overboard on reuse. Reuse before the sentence level can cause problems.
Links slow readability ever so slightly and they slightly decrease comprehension and recall. Inline links in our research found inline links were clicked 0-8% of the time. (But more research is needed.) If you're using Arbortext, the Resource Manager can make it take minutes to create one link. Refactoring content that contains links is a nightmare. So we're spending time and money on resources that few people use and that slow down those who do.
If we stop with inline links, we might miss the content architecture that works better for our customers.
We found that content with embedded links caused refactoring to balloon from 4 hours to 3 days.
As things change, we don't tend to inspect the link chains that we create. In many cases, we end up with link chains.
Links can damage the scent of information. Often, once you click on a link, you don't go back.
If you couldn't use links, you might create more self-contained topics.
As a part of a re-architecture project, removed inline links that crossed "bundle boundaries," which was about 4300 links, almost 50%, across 4000 topics. Had to find links that pointed outside the ditamap. For each link, had to decide if it was necessary. If a cross reference (or XREF) is necessary, why isn't the content that it links to?
One solution: Get users back to the UI. They don't want to be in the help anyway. If you can, get them back to work.
Another: use conrefs instead of links. (This is DITA only, of course.)
Or even fix the topic. Can be hard to articulate. Writers would fix on a case-by-case basis, and not always time when lots of topics. It depends on what's wrong. Is the user goal unclear? Is it "overstuffed?"
It's hard to let go of links. It's hard to see that something good for the few affects (negatively) the needs of the many. "Minimalism" can be mis-interpreted, trying to make small topics. But think about making topics solve user goals.
Think COPE (create once, publish everywhere). You can't COPE with entangled content.
have to not blame the writers. They are fierce customer advocates. But the metrics show differently. Make your initiatives backed by data.
It also requires an investment in project management. Analyze the problems before you begin. If you can, work on a small chunk of content at a time. Fix it and publish it and show everyone, including writers, where you want to go.
Don't go overboard on reuse. Reuse before the sentence level can cause problems.
Embrace Your Power, Influence Will Follow
Andrea Ames talked over lunch about what she termed "soft skills." If you are the "milquetoast victim," you are going to have a lot of problems getting your ideas accepted.
Going to talk about your innate power. That's what you need to embrace. Then, how your power influences everything around you, consciously or unconsciously.
We need to talk about how to use your power for good, because you will become a superhero when we're done.
How much can you actually accomplish on your own? Think about how much more you can accomplish with other people behind your initiative, providing funding, providing resources.
Skills and knowledge are important. Need to think about what's "under the water line." The things that can make us successful beyond what we know and don't know.
We can make ourselves feel powerful. We can do it with out posture. We can do it by thinking about what we want to say before we say it wo we don't have to fill our speech gaps with "um." Be comfortable with pauses. Use strong words and be confident in how you speak. You can learn these.
Power is primal. It comes from our brain stem. Own your space.
When you feel power, you project power. When you project power, people listen to you.
Fake it 'til you make it? No, fake it 'til you become it.
Power is a tool, a tool in your toolbox. Influence is something that changes people's minds.
The most important leadership you can achieve is the leadership within yourself.
There are 5 levels of leadership. At one level, you get to the point where people want to follow you. At the top, you represent an idea, something people respect and trust. You're trying to achieve a leadership relationship with people. You want to be the person others trust and come to.
Model the behavior you want to see in others. It's the most important thing you can do.
Skills and knowledge are necessary, but not sufficient, for shoring up your power and influence. Work on your "professionalism," the soft skills. If you can't own your space, if you can't project the confidence to enact, how to do your work when others claim ownership? You have to continue to build a relationship of trust to own the content in places where you've never owned it before.
Going to talk about your innate power. That's what you need to embrace. Then, how your power influences everything around you, consciously or unconsciously.
We need to talk about how to use your power for good, because you will become a superhero when we're done.
How much can you actually accomplish on your own? Think about how much more you can accomplish with other people behind your initiative, providing funding, providing resources.
Skills and knowledge are important. Need to think about what's "under the water line." The things that can make us successful beyond what we know and don't know.
We can make ourselves feel powerful. We can do it with out posture. We can do it by thinking about what we want to say before we say it wo we don't have to fill our speech gaps with "um." Be comfortable with pauses. Use strong words and be confident in how you speak. You can learn these.
Power is primal. It comes from our brain stem. Own your space.
When you feel power, you project power. When you project power, people listen to you.
Fake it 'til you make it? No, fake it 'til you become it.
Power is a tool, a tool in your toolbox. Influence is something that changes people's minds.
The most important leadership you can achieve is the leadership within yourself.
There are 5 levels of leadership. At one level, you get to the point where people want to follow you. At the top, you represent an idea, something people respect and trust. You're trying to achieve a leadership relationship with people. You want to be the person others trust and come to.
Model the behavior you want to see in others. It's the most important thing you can do.
Skills and knowledge are necessary, but not sufficient, for shoring up your power and influence. Work on your "professionalism," the soft skills. If you can't own your space, if you can't project the confidence to enact, how to do your work when others claim ownership? You have to continue to build a relationship of trust to own the content in places where you've never owned it before.
Connecting the Dots: Improving the Information Experience for Customers
Customers don't care that they are dealing with mini-organizations within the enterprise. Our job to create a single unified experience.
We're evolving from traditional content, manuals and books, to information that's clunked in topics that wee can package in different ways. This is a way to connect the information dots.
Whatever you do, it has to come back to what do the customers.need. Get feedback however you can. The feedback we received was not only that our customers needed accurate material, they need to be able to find it,
We learned that the information is there. So we had to figure out how to get the information to customers to them where they needed it and in the right way.
With education services (training), we found they were taking our content and re purposing it, sometimes word-for-word. In some ways, it makes sense, but unless someone clues you in that they are using your material, you can start with the natural synergies. We started with some of our writers working on certification exam questions. Then we found videos that was based on our documentation, so we were able to re-purpose that and put int in our documentation. We created a YouTube channel and put links to it in our documentation.
Increasing chances for customer engagement is good advertisement that we're addressing customer needs. Feedback mechanisms on content allow us to pinpoint the areas that need attention.
Looks for people sympathetic to your customers to connect with.
A lot of people don't think of content accessibility as something to think about.
One strategy is to provide a unified view of all your content in a consumable format. For example, providing a feature list for all products in one place is a huge win. It also helps you identify your content holes.
Even if you work in silos, people work together when you have one unified truth of information.
When you start using web analytics, as well as feedback mechanisms, you can see what types of topics are getting the most feedback, not just what topics.
We're evolving from traditional content, manuals and books, to information that's clunked in topics that wee can package in different ways. This is a way to connect the information dots.
Whatever you do, it has to come back to what do the customers.need. Get feedback however you can. The feedback we received was not only that our customers needed accurate material, they need to be able to find it,
We learned that the information is there. So we had to figure out how to get the information to customers to them where they needed it and in the right way.
With education services (training), we found they were taking our content and re purposing it, sometimes word-for-word. In some ways, it makes sense, but unless someone clues you in that they are using your material, you can start with the natural synergies. We started with some of our writers working on certification exam questions. Then we found videos that was based on our documentation, so we were able to re-purpose that and put int in our documentation. We created a YouTube channel and put links to it in our documentation.
Increasing chances for customer engagement is good advertisement that we're addressing customer needs. Feedback mechanisms on content allow us to pinpoint the areas that need attention.
Looks for people sympathetic to your customers to connect with.
A lot of people don't think of content accessibility as something to think about.
One strategy is to provide a unified view of all your content in a consumable format. For example, providing a feature list for all products in one place is a huge win. It also helps you identify your content holes.
Even if you work in silos, people work together when you have one unified truth of information.
When you start using web analytics, as well as feedback mechanisms, you can see what types of topics are getting the most feedback, not just what topics.
“You want it when!??” Content Strategy for an Impatient World
Sarah O'Keefe says that we need velocity. We need to deliver more stuff faster. How many have been asked if they need more time? Yeah, right. Even doing things as well or as quickly as we were doing things before is no longer acceptable.
Content strategy in about supporting your organization's business goal with information. We have to tie the need for speed into every aspect of what we are doing. So first, you have to understand your business, how it makes money, and how your content fits into that. Do you know your organization's priorities at the executive level? You need to know, because if you don't , you can't deliver content that supports that.
Next, how do we take our content and align it with business goals.Historically, we have not been very good at this. We have wanted to make nice help, or how many spaces go after a period. That's not value add.
Style guides and terminology is important. You have to get your source content right, because if you don't you're screwed in translation. And even if you're not translating, you're not consistent. Style guides and terminology provides the quality that supports your business goal.
Your voice and tone has to match up to the kind of business you want to be.
Knowing your business, aligning your content with business goals, styles guides and terminology, and voice and tone are all tools and technology free. And you can do them all right now with whatever tools you are using.
If you're copying and pasting, then you're probably doing it wrong and should be looking at ways to reuse content.
Global content strategy should be redundant, but it's not. Globalization should drive content strategy. It can't occur if your source isn't any good. You have to fix your source.
If your workflow involves using your computes at typewriters, bad things happen.
Content has never been for the faint of heart. Everyone thinks they can do it, but everyone is wrong.
There's going to be another thing, a new thing, and we don't know what that thing is. There are going to be new requirements that we are going to have to meet, and we do not know what those new things are going to be. Think back to just 2008, when there were no iPads. Your strategy needs to accommodate that unknown new thing.
Content strategy in about supporting your organization's business goal with information. We have to tie the need for speed into every aspect of what we are doing. So first, you have to understand your business, how it makes money, and how your content fits into that. Do you know your organization's priorities at the executive level? You need to know, because if you don't , you can't deliver content that supports that.
Next, how do we take our content and align it with business goals.Historically, we have not been very good at this. We have wanted to make nice help, or how many spaces go after a period. That's not value add.
Style guides and terminology is important. You have to get your source content right, because if you don't you're screwed in translation. And even if you're not translating, you're not consistent. Style guides and terminology provides the quality that supports your business goal.
Your voice and tone has to match up to the kind of business you want to be.
Knowing your business, aligning your content with business goals, styles guides and terminology, and voice and tone are all tools and technology free. And you can do them all right now with whatever tools you are using.
If you're copying and pasting, then you're probably doing it wrong and should be looking at ways to reuse content.
Global content strategy should be redundant, but it's not. Globalization should drive content strategy. It can't occur if your source isn't any good. You have to fix your source.
If your workflow involves using your computes at typewriters, bad things happen.
Content has never been for the faint of heart. Everyone thinks they can do it, but everyone is wrong.
There's going to be another thing, a new thing, and we don't know what that thing is. There are going to be new requirements that we are going to have to meet, and we do not know what those new things are going to be. Think back to just 2008, when there were no iPads. Your strategy needs to accommodate that unknown new thing.
So Who Are Today’s Content Professionals?
Start by changing the title: not only today's content professional, but future content professionals. Because change comes so quickly.
Three important stakeholders for content professionals: Business, Peers, and End Users.
Business stakeholders demand more efficiency. Budgets are declining and workload is increasing. There are more languages to translate to, more devices to develop for.
So we have to ask: How do we produce our content and what content really matters? For the first, the answer is structured authoring, and for the second, the answer is prioritizing content.
The adoption of structured authoring is increasing. Data indicates growth at about 30 percent per year for the past four years. 40 percent of organizations now are either using structured authoring or planning to go that way.
The myth is that only large companies use structured authoring, but that's not true. The percentage of large, medium, and small companies is about the same across the board.
Many of the reasons that organizations are adopting structured authoring have to do with efficiency.
But there is a skill gap. How many technical communication professionals have the skills to do structured authoring. Some research shows that only 10-15%, at least on resumes, of technical writers have the knowledge and skills, which include, XML, SGML, and DITA.
Businesses are demanding to know the value of content. Documentation teams are considered cost centers. Technical content is seen as necessary, but the value is questioned.
There is an opportunity here. Content marketing is the creating of content for prospective buyers. Interest here has exploded in recent years. Traditional sales channels are becoming less effective. Marketers are looking for new ways to engage customers and are using tools such as white papers to do so. Can technical content do the same? Can it be used for content marketing?
It can add value at many stages of a purchase product. For example, during evaluation, the quality of the technical documentation can make or break a sale, by influencing the overall experience.
Companies are starting to think about technical content differently. But 90% of users don't even touch the product before buying it.
Why aren't more companies using technical content for marketing content? It's the company mindset.
Collaboration is very important, but are we using the right tools to do so? Are the tools and techniques we use effective as the number of people we collaborate with grows?
Most important stakeholder is end users. What they are really asking for is that content should be accessible from anywhere.
On average, we spend 4.4 hours of our leisure time per day in front of a screen, and 36% of that time is with a smartphone. So how do you make content mobile-friendly? Responsive design.
Only about 14% of websites use responsive design.
Three important stakeholders for content professionals: Business, Peers, and End Users.
Business stakeholders demand more efficiency. Budgets are declining and workload is increasing. There are more languages to translate to, more devices to develop for.
So we have to ask: How do we produce our content and what content really matters? For the first, the answer is structured authoring, and for the second, the answer is prioritizing content.
The adoption of structured authoring is increasing. Data indicates growth at about 30 percent per year for the past four years. 40 percent of organizations now are either using structured authoring or planning to go that way.
The myth is that only large companies use structured authoring, but that's not true. The percentage of large, medium, and small companies is about the same across the board.
Many of the reasons that organizations are adopting structured authoring have to do with efficiency.
But there is a skill gap. How many technical communication professionals have the skills to do structured authoring. Some research shows that only 10-15%, at least on resumes, of technical writers have the knowledge and skills, which include, XML, SGML, and DITA.
Businesses are demanding to know the value of content. Documentation teams are considered cost centers. Technical content is seen as necessary, but the value is questioned.
There is an opportunity here. Content marketing is the creating of content for prospective buyers. Interest here has exploded in recent years. Traditional sales channels are becoming less effective. Marketers are looking for new ways to engage customers and are using tools such as white papers to do so. Can technical content do the same? Can it be used for content marketing?
It can add value at many stages of a purchase product. For example, during evaluation, the quality of the technical documentation can make or break a sale, by influencing the overall experience.
Companies are starting to think about technical content differently. But 90% of users don't even touch the product before buying it.
Why aren't more companies using technical content for marketing content? It's the company mindset.
Collaboration is very important, but are we using the right tools to do so? Are the tools and techniques we use effective as the number of people we collaborate with grows?
Most important stakeholder is end users. What they are really asking for is that content should be accessible from anywhere.
On average, we spend 4.4 hours of our leisure time per day in front of a screen, and 36% of that time is with a smartphone. So how do you make content mobile-friendly? Responsive design.
Only about 14% of websites use responsive design.
The Expanding Role of Content Professionals: Seize the Opportunity!
Victoria Koster-Lenhardt opened the 2013 LavaCon with an interesting talk about what she termed "content professionals." Content professionals, she said. are anyone who create content that helps people make decisions and are not limited by tools or strategy. They are also more than writers and managers. Content professionals are in a profession that has plenty of possibilities.
Opportunities feel a lot like failure. It is a chance to exercise my resilience muscle.
It's just so important to be more of who you are.
If you take one thing away this morning, if you're looking for a new job, you have to rewrite your resume and use the keywords in the job posting.
Don't forget your dreams. Whatever you do, it's your life that counts.
Stay relevant an nimble. Forget job titles. Just describe what you do. Don't follow. It's how you find out who you are and what you want. Then master those skills. Who cares what the job is actually called.
You signed up for LavaCon to expand your role as a content professional. Seize the opportunity. Use it to expand your horizon.
Opportunities feel a lot like failure. It is a chance to exercise my resilience muscle.
It's just so important to be more of who you are.
If you take one thing away this morning, if you're looking for a new job, you have to rewrite your resume and use the keywords in the job posting.
Don't forget your dreams. Whatever you do, it's your life that counts.
Stay relevant an nimble. Forget job titles. Just describe what you do. Don't follow. It's how you find out who you are and what you want. Then master those skills. Who cares what the job is actually called.
You signed up for LavaCon to expand your role as a content professional. Seize the opportunity. Use it to expand your horizon.
Sunday, October 20, 2013
Creating Mobile Apps without Coding
Neil Perlin spent the afternoon heading this hands-on session that showed how to create mobile apps with an web-based program called ViziApps.This program combines a browser-based development environment with its own device-based app that allows you to see, run, and test your app on your device.
Even the smallest mobile apps can cost thousands of dollars to have developed and can take weeks to produce, test, and release. The average time to market is 12 weeks.
ViziApps provides a GUI model with an emphasis on design, not coding. It's one of a larer class of GUI app development tools. ViziApps is least template-bound, most visually flexible.
Most apps require data. While you can use Google Docs (which in itself is quite powerful), you can also use ODBC, the Force.com platform, and other web services.
It's important to design for a small screen. Organize related elements on one screen and within the screen size. Create clear transitions between screens. Think of your users' physical contexts, including the number of hands they have available, the range of motions of their fingers, and their use environments, which can include noise, distractions, and light.
Whenever you make a change in the app, you want to preview it on your phone to make sure your change works and dos what you intended. This is a constant process: iterate, test, iterate, test, and so on.
Even the smallest mobile apps can cost thousands of dollars to have developed and can take weeks to produce, test, and release. The average time to market is 12 weeks.
ViziApps provides a GUI model with an emphasis on design, not coding. It's one of a larer class of GUI app development tools. ViziApps is least template-bound, most visually flexible.
Most apps require data. While you can use Google Docs (which in itself is quite powerful), you can also use ODBC, the Force.com platform, and other web services.
It's important to design for a small screen. Organize related elements on one screen and within the screen size. Create clear transitions between screens. Think of your users' physical contexts, including the number of hands they have available, the range of motions of their fingers, and their use environments, which can include noise, distractions, and light.
Whenever you make a change in the app, you want to preview it on your phone to make sure your change works and dos what you intended. This is a constant process: iterate, test, iterate, test, and so on.
Streamlining Content Processes Using Structured Business Process Modeling
Jackie Damrau and Joe Gollner headed this afternoon workshop.
Graphical tells the story now. Textual doesn't tell the story anymore. Millennials don't read. Schools in Texas are allowing essays in texting. And they are allowing it because at least they are getting the work done.
Business process modeling is a series of steps that describes workflow, for a product or a service. It could be content strategy. Among the things you can do is identify places for improvement. It enables communication and discussion. The process can be a training aid. It especially helps you assess if you are in a compliance or regulatory environment. Can anyone say "Sarbanes-Oxley?"
What's interesting is thinking about business process modeling in terms of content strategy. The two big stumbling blocks are unclear structure in the content and poor communication. We can't understand our content unless we can understand what's happening to it.
Might have different models for different scenarios.
Business process models are themselves content.
A business process is a sequence of events with an input, and output, and a goal. Content strategy is how you acquire, deliver, engage, and manage content. If you don't have a vision or a goal, you can't get anywhere.
If you document every single feature of an application, how many people are gong to read it? Sometimes an application is so big, you're even aware that you can't document the whole thing, every little detail.
Graphical tells the story now. Textual doesn't tell the story anymore. Millennials don't read. Schools in Texas are allowing essays in texting. And they are allowing it because at least they are getting the work done.
Business process modeling is a series of steps that describes workflow, for a product or a service. It could be content strategy. Among the things you can do is identify places for improvement. It enables communication and discussion. The process can be a training aid. It especially helps you assess if you are in a compliance or regulatory environment. Can anyone say "Sarbanes-Oxley?"
What's interesting is thinking about business process modeling in terms of content strategy. The two big stumbling blocks are unclear structure in the content and poor communication. We can't understand our content unless we can understand what's happening to it.
Might have different models for different scenarios.
Business process models are themselves content.
A business process is a sequence of events with an input, and output, and a goal. Content strategy is how you acquire, deliver, engage, and manage content. If you don't have a vision or a goal, you can't get anywhere.
If you document every single feature of an application, how many people are gong to read it? Sometimes an application is so big, you're even aware that you can't document the whole thing, every little detail.
Creating a Content Strategy Ecosystem
IBM;s Andrea Ames and Alyson Riley took the Pre-LavaCon all-day workshop slot on Sunday and was the Adobe Day alternative for attendees who didn't want to explore Portland.
Before the attendees could really tackle IA issues, Andrea took participants through a quiz to look at their organizational maturity and team maturity. It's nice if both your organization and team are in the same range. If the team is not moving and the organization is evolving, there's not very much chance of the team surviving. The more similar they are to each other, the easier it will be to move forward together. Even if you're low on the maturity scale, it's better that both are low together than very different because you can move together.
Figure out your key weaknesses and key strengths for both your team and your organization. Identifying the strengths and where they are located are the way to leverage them.
Client, business, and technology are all important.
It's a bit crass, but it's fundamental: does it make money? A better way to ask is: Is it valuable? Value is an indirect way to make money. Companies exist to make money. If you can tie what you're doing to value, your execs have tied that to dollars.
Before the attendees could really tackle IA issues, Andrea took participants through a quiz to look at their organizational maturity and team maturity. It's nice if both your organization and team are in the same range. If the team is not moving and the organization is evolving, there's not very much chance of the team surviving. The more similar they are to each other, the easier it will be to move forward together. Even if you're low on the maturity scale, it's better that both are low together than very different because you can move together.
Figure out your key weaknesses and key strengths for both your team and your organization. Identifying the strengths and where they are located are the way to leverage them.
Client, business, and technology are all important.
It's a bit crass, but it's fundamental: does it make money? A better way to ask is: Is it valuable? Value is an indirect way to make money. Companies exist to make money. If you can tie what you're doing to value, your execs have tied that to dollars.
Adobe Thought Leadership
Adobe hosted a Thought Leadership event Sunday morning as a pre-LaveCon event.
Scott Abel, aka The Content Wrangler, opened the morning on the role of The Technical Communication Futurist, in a talk titled 5 Revolutionary Technologies Technical Communicators Can't Afford to Ignore.
Before he started, Scott did an interesting thing. He handed out cards he called "Twitter cheat sheets." It was a card listing the Twitter IDs of all the speakers. Interesting.
Scott noted we treat the "World" Wide Web like the "American Web, and this has to change. We have to be prepared to change. Consumers expect our content to work like the new devices they are used to.
We need to solve our problem with precision, guided by math & science. But we also need to shop these ideas around.
Automated translation is a "killer app." Facebook has a billion members, and still many of them can't communicate. The "World" Wide Web is the land of opportunity. In a global market, reaching customers previously viewed as "out of scope" is the goal. 96% of consumers on Earth don't live in the U.S.
In America, the average reading level is 6th grade. And less then 6% of the world's population speaks English well. But understanding spoken English doesn't mean the capability to read English. In many countries and cultures, women aren't afforded to learn to read at all.
More than 6000 languages spoken on Earth.
Recognize you write for both humans and machines.
The writing rules you learned in grade school Language Arts classes are no longer sufficient for a world where Language Science is needed.
Look at our content from the vantage point of a rules processing engine. If you don't write for the machines, many people just won't get your information.
For video--very popular these days--you need transcription files.
Terminology management is also important. I controls the words you use and stores them in a central place, accompanied by rules for their uses. Make sure the words you used, for products, for services, for branding, are used consistently. Otherwise, findability suffers. And it needs to be available to everyone in the organization. If they don't use the same words for the same things, you introduce unnecessary challenges. This also helps in translation and regulatory compliance.
Finally, adaptive content . More than cosmetics, it's about substance. And that's more than just adapting to devices, but to the needs of users. For example, a "click" on a laptop would be "touch: on a tablet and "say" on an automotive GPS.
Customers are demanding an exceptional experience. Responsive design is not enough. Responsive designers are the new webmasters. (And we all know what happened to them). Of course, content should adapt layouts. It must adapt to the experience.
Consistently structured content provides a better experience. Adaptive content is content separated from formatting. It makes content findable and usable.
The way to do this? A component content management system. They store content components that are used to assemble documents. Component content management is about managing content, not files.
When you combine structured content with CCMS, you get personalized content and targeted marketing.
All customers are not the same.
The copy-paste-reuse method is the most costly and error-prone.
Thee are business life facts, that include continuous process improvement. increasing automation, dynamically tailored products, and localized delivery. For this, you need standardized parts and flexible and dynamic assembly. Turns out, that's not only for products and services, but for content too.
It comes down to portability and processability of content. How? XML.
There's no such thing as too simple. If you can explain a complex technology in simple terms and simple sentences, you increase the chances of your readers, especially if English is their second language, understanding your content. I reject the notion of a company with complex technology needing to use complex content.
Even if you think you're not translating, your customers are.
What does it mean to be global ready?
Make sure content is structured, readable. Say the same thing every time you say it. The product has to be global ready. Not all concepts are easily translated.
What is the single largest challenge in preventing us from reaching global audiences?
We don't think strategically. The cheeky funny content can be offensive in other cultures. Think about the entire product lifecycle. How is your content going to get from the very first character you type to the consumer on the other side of the world.
Is it possible to create a consistent tone and voice that will translate well across cultures?
Can't say it is always possible, but take a ready, fire, aim approach. Every page is Page One. Have to try, have to start somewhere.
What is multi-channel publishing?
Making maximum use of automation to deliver across all channels, including ones we do not yet know of. Content engineering, thinking and extracting the structure. Can be too granular, which can go beyond the capabilities of a management system.
What are the biggest challenges for organizations seeking to publish content to multiple channels?
This is what I'm comfortable with. My audience likes PDFs. Audiences change. The ones consuming content today are not the same ones five years ago. Have to think about re-use. Management is a challenge. The writers. The content that we create isn't necessarily the content customers consume. The content we create has to be on Google. Multi-channel isn't interpreted by customers like we think. We think about putting docs together in certain ways, but when people look on Google, they get hits based on SEO. One of the best things you can do is search on Google using terms your customers would use. Googleability affects context. Search results can drop customers in the middle of your content. Keywords are managed post-publish. Do it during the authoring process, and content becomes more findable.
What are the not-s-obvious opportunities of multi-channel delivery?
Graphics. Screen sizes change. People think video is the solution. Easy to skip in a document, but not in a video. Put a TOC in or by the video. When you go from device to device and pick up in the same place.
What's the biggest mistake an organization can make when moving to multi-channel content delivery?
Organizations turn internally, which brings the same solutions they have already had from the same people. Conferences such as LavaCon bring in new ideas, and bring huge value add. The Americanization of the idea of multi-0channel authoring. Will be different in other parts of the world. We have to think globally ourselves. Imbalance: pouring too many resources in just one part of the solution. If you don't test, you don't know.
5 Revolutionary Technologies Technical Communicators Can't Afford to Ignore.
Scott Abel, aka The Content Wrangler, opened the morning on the role of The Technical Communication Futurist, in a talk titled 5 Revolutionary Technologies Technical Communicators Can't Afford to Ignore.
Before he started, Scott did an interesting thing. He handed out cards he called "Twitter cheat sheets." It was a card listing the Twitter IDs of all the speakers. Interesting.
Scott noted we treat the "World" Wide Web like the "American Web, and this has to change. We have to be prepared to change. Consumers expect our content to work like the new devices they are used to.
We need to solve our problem with precision, guided by math & science. But we also need to shop these ideas around.
Automated translation is a "killer app." Facebook has a billion members, and still many of them can't communicate. The "World" Wide Web is the land of opportunity. In a global market, reaching customers previously viewed as "out of scope" is the goal. 96% of consumers on Earth don't live in the U.S.
In America, the average reading level is 6th grade. And less then 6% of the world's population speaks English well. But understanding spoken English doesn't mean the capability to read English. In many countries and cultures, women aren't afforded to learn to read at all.
More than 6000 languages spoken on Earth.
Recognize you write for both humans and machines.
The writing rules you learned in grade school Language Arts classes are no longer sufficient for a world where Language Science is needed.
Look at our content from the vantage point of a rules processing engine. If you don't write for the machines, many people just won't get your information.
For video--very popular these days--you need transcription files.
Terminology management is also important. I controls the words you use and stores them in a central place, accompanied by rules for their uses. Make sure the words you used, for products, for services, for branding, are used consistently. Otherwise, findability suffers. And it needs to be available to everyone in the organization. If they don't use the same words for the same things, you introduce unnecessary challenges. This also helps in translation and regulatory compliance.
Finally, adaptive content . More than cosmetics, it's about substance. And that's more than just adapting to devices, but to the needs of users. For example, a "click" on a laptop would be "touch: on a tablet and "say" on an automotive GPS.
Customers are demanding an exceptional experience. Responsive design is not enough. Responsive designers are the new webmasters. (And we all know what happened to them). Of course, content should adapt layouts. It must adapt to the experience.
Consistently structured content provides a better experience. Adaptive content is content separated from formatting. It makes content findable and usable.
The way to do this? A component content management system. They store content components that are used to assemble documents. Component content management is about managing content, not files.
When you combine structured content with CCMS, you get personalized content and targeted marketing.
All customers are not the same.
The copy-paste-reuse method is the most costly and error-prone.
The Technical Communicator withing the Integral Product Lifestyle
The next speaker at Adobe Day is Joe Gollner. He riffed on the theme of gears, the theme of his presentation, and how it also means how we all work together. We need to adapt as a community because the demand for integration are so strong.Thee are business life facts, that include continuous process improvement. increasing automation, dynamically tailored products, and localized delivery. For this, you need standardized parts and flexible and dynamic assembly. Turns out, that's not only for products and services, but for content too.
It comes down to portability and processability of content. How? XML.
It Starts with the Source - English Terminology in a Multi-Channel Global World
Val Swisher was next on this subject In summary, terminology is important. Be consistent. Technology leads to faster, cheaper, and better translation. It enables global mobile responsive design.There's no such thing as too simple. If you can explain a complex technology in simple terms and simple sentences, you increase the chances of your readers, especially if English is their second language, understanding your content. I reject the notion of a company with complex technology needing to use complex content.
Even if you think you're not translating, your customers are.
Producing Rich Media Output from DITA.XML
Matt Sullivan was the next speaker before the panel. The focus here is about rich media within documentation. Of course, it's being done with Adobe products, largely Adobe FrameMaker.Panel Discussion: Preparing Your Content for Multi-Lingual, Multi-Channel Global Delivery
Scott Abel hosted the panel to identify challenges and opportunities.What does it mean to be global ready?
Make sure content is structured, readable. Say the same thing every time you say it. The product has to be global ready. Not all concepts are easily translated.
What is the single largest challenge in preventing us from reaching global audiences?
We don't think strategically. The cheeky funny content can be offensive in other cultures. Think about the entire product lifecycle. How is your content going to get from the very first character you type to the consumer on the other side of the world.
Is it possible to create a consistent tone and voice that will translate well across cultures?
Can't say it is always possible, but take a ready, fire, aim approach. Every page is Page One. Have to try, have to start somewhere.
What is multi-channel publishing?
Making maximum use of automation to deliver across all channels, including ones we do not yet know of. Content engineering, thinking and extracting the structure. Can be too granular, which can go beyond the capabilities of a management system.
What are the biggest challenges for organizations seeking to publish content to multiple channels?
This is what I'm comfortable with. My audience likes PDFs. Audiences change. The ones consuming content today are not the same ones five years ago. Have to think about re-use. Management is a challenge. The writers. The content that we create isn't necessarily the content customers consume. The content we create has to be on Google. Multi-channel isn't interpreted by customers like we think. We think about putting docs together in certain ways, but when people look on Google, they get hits based on SEO. One of the best things you can do is search on Google using terms your customers would use. Googleability affects context. Search results can drop customers in the middle of your content. Keywords are managed post-publish. Do it during the authoring process, and content becomes more findable.
What are the not-s-obvious opportunities of multi-channel delivery?
Graphics. Screen sizes change. People think video is the solution. Easy to skip in a document, but not in a video. Put a TOC in or by the video. When you go from device to device and pick up in the same place.
What's the biggest mistake an organization can make when moving to multi-channel content delivery?
Organizations turn internally, which brings the same solutions they have already had from the same people. Conferences such as LavaCon bring in new ideas, and bring huge value add. The Americanization of the idea of multi-0channel authoring. Will be different in other parts of the world. We have to think globally ourselves. Imbalance: pouring too many resources in just one part of the solution. If you don't test, you don't know.
Saturday, October 19, 2013
LavaCon 2013 Preview
The 2013 edition of LavaCon is one of the biggest ever. With multiple tracks every day in areas that are important to content strategists, project management, information developers, and more, it's going to be a full four days--and that's not even counting the pre- and post-conference workshops.
Let me state right up front: I'm not going to pretend this is objective. This preview is colored by my own personal interests, passions, and work and career goals, among other things. I want to make it clear that a failure to be mentioned in this piece is no reflection of the quality of the speaker or the subject.
Aaaaaand it's Sunday morning and it turns out that the actual Sunday workshops are radically different from the early program. Different, and fewer. So not only is my Sunday going to be a lot saner, mosg of what I wrote last night as a Sunda preview iss, to use a highly technical term, toast.
It looks like I'll be spending more time than planned in Adobe's thought leadership session than planned. It looks like it's being moderated by Scott Able, which should make it fun. Andrea Ames is also foing an all-day session (not sure yet on what), but I know I want to drop in there for a bit.
Monday begins with not one, but three keynotes. I'm looking forward most to Sarah O'Keefe's on You Wat It When? Then, right out of the gate, there are three sessions I want to attend. The one I'm leaning toward the most is DITA for Documents, with a case study on Improving the Information Experience for Customers right on its tail. A Content Strategist's Toolbox looks very interesting as well.
After lunch, I'm very curious about Adaptive Content. I saw Noz Urbina last year and his thinking is quite out-of-the-box and requires broadening your horizons. IN the final multi-track time slot, I'm looking at either Converting Legacy Content to DITA Doesn't Have To Bo Complex, Slow, and Expensive and a case study of Overcoming Design Challenges in Multichannel Publishing Using HATs.
Monday ends with two more keynotes--which for me will likely be a way to catch up on Tuesday's newsletter preparation.
...and it's bedtime Sunday night. Have to be fresh in the morning. I'll add to this on Sunday.
Let me state right up front: I'm not going to pretend this is objective. This preview is colored by my own personal interests, passions, and work and career goals, among other things. I want to make it clear that a failure to be mentioned in this piece is no reflection of the quality of the speaker or the subject.
Aaaaaand it's Sunday morning and it turns out that the actual Sunday workshops are radically different from the early program. Different, and fewer. So not only is my Sunday going to be a lot saner, mosg of what I wrote last night as a Sunda preview iss, to use a highly technical term, toast.
It looks like I'll be spending more time than planned in Adobe's thought leadership session than planned. It looks like it's being moderated by Scott Able, which should make it fun. Andrea Ames is also foing an all-day session (not sure yet on what), but I know I want to drop in there for a bit.
Monday begins with not one, but three keynotes. I'm looking forward most to Sarah O'Keefe's on You Wat It When? Then, right out of the gate, there are three sessions I want to attend. The one I'm leaning toward the most is DITA for Documents, with a case study on Improving the Information Experience for Customers right on its tail. A Content Strategist's Toolbox looks very interesting as well.
After lunch, I'm very curious about Adaptive Content. I saw Noz Urbina last year and his thinking is quite out-of-the-box and requires broadening your horizons. IN the final multi-track time slot, I'm looking at either Converting Legacy Content to DITA Doesn't Have To Bo Complex, Slow, and Expensive and a case study of Overcoming Design Challenges in Multichannel Publishing Using HATs.
Monday ends with two more keynotes--which for me will likely be a way to catch up on Tuesday's newsletter preparation.
...and it's bedtime Sunday night. Have to be fresh in the morning. I'll add to this on Sunday.
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Welcome to the 2013 LacaCon Blog
Hello, and welcome to the semi-unofficial blog for LavaCon 2013. I'm your host, Chuck Martin, and this is the second year I've attended LavaCon and the second year I've blogged about it.
Posts here will include live-blogging from the sessions I attend, day summary posts, post about interesting people and events, and posts with photos from the event. I won't be able to give you all the juicy details, of course (if you're here, you heard them, and if you're not, you should be), but I hope to give you, the reader, the essence of LavaCon.
Enjoy!
Posts here will include live-blogging from the sessions I attend, day summary posts, post about interesting people and events, and posts with photos from the event. I won't be able to give you all the juicy details, of course (if you're here, you heard them, and if you're not, you should be), but I hope to give you, the reader, the essence of LavaCon.
Enjoy!
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