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Evolution of Roomba's Virtual Wall instructions

In the not too distant past, I was in love with the Roomba line of household cleaning robots. Over the course of buying several different models, I noticed an instructional evolution taking place, in regards to the on-device help for positioning their Virtual Walls. (A virtual wall uses IR to tell the robot to avoid a certain area.)

It's easy to imagine a narrative for the changing approach. The first model of virtual wall, shown on the left, did not have any built-in documentation. Customers probably weren't looking at the printed manual, so for the 2nd generation (middle) they added usage instructions. It's a beautiful diagram, but it's wordy and detailed. For the 3rd generation, the instructions are simplified and wordless, which allows the product to be sold and used worldwide. Notice too that they're now a part of the door, instead of being printed on the door, which saves a manufacturing step.

Posted: February 24, 2013 link to this item, Tweet this item, respond to this item

A lightweight way to track changes

Lightweight text-only markup tools, such as the popular Markdown, have great promise for a solo or small team of writers. However, using text-based tools usually means giving up some niceties, such as detailed change tracking. CriticMarkup is a fascinating new approach to solving that problem. Your Editor or collaborators indicate their changes using a set of simple notations, then you can render the file to a familiar visual display of strikeouts, inserts, and comments. There's even an option to "accept changes" when you're finished.

If you're a Mac user, also check out Fletcher Penney's excellent MultiMarkdown Composer app, which recently integrated CriticMarkup support.

Posted: February 17, 2013 link to this item, Tweet this item, respond to this item

Unintended consequences of good documentation

Mark Bernstein, writing about the much-discussed death of Aaron Swartz, observes in They Hate Us that making technology easier allows it to be turned against ourselves.

Posted: January 27, 2013 link to this item, Tweet this item, respond to this item

Real world tips, tricks, and tweaks

Everybody loves a good tip, but the Windows 95 Tips, Tricks, and Tweaks site takes it to a whole new level. Go ahead, try not to laugh.

See also Apple Mockumentation

Posted: January 19, 2013 link to this item, Tweet this item, respond to this item

Learning instructional design from a master artist

Will Eisner was a master storyteller and pioneer of sequential art. But it's not as celebrated that he worked on Preventive Maintenance Monthly for the US Army. It was a publication that taught soldiers how to care for their equipment using humorous comic art. I think it's required reading for instructional designers. You can peruse the online archives, but a copy of The Best of Preventive Maintenance Monthly would make a fine and inexpensive professional education gift to yourself.

Posted: January 14, 2013 link to this item, Tweet this item, respond to this item

Overlooking the tech writer forest

The Magazine is a fascinating iPad-only periodical that you should try out. However, in a recent edition Jamelle Bouie wrote And Read All Over with the premise that "An implicit network, not overt racism, keeps tech writing dominated by white men." The absurdity of this premise will be immediately apparent to any technical communicator. "Tech writing" is an occupation whose practitioners are primarily female, up and down the organizational chain.

What Bouie is actually writing about is technical journalism, not the profession of technical writing. And that's a shame because there is a great gender-focused story in this occupation, but some other journalist will have to see past his error and disccover the real story. And I hope that women looking into this field aren't discouraged by this inaccurate, if not sensationalistic, headline.

Posted: January 6, 2013 link to this item, Tweet this item, respond to this item

Get to the point

John Cheese, a writer for Cracked magazine, tweets about recipes that don't get right to the point. Although it's not often recognized, recipes are just another form of instructional design and this aggravation applies across the board. But not to what you write, I'm sure.

Posted: December 30, 2012 link to this item, Tweet this item, respond to this item

Wiki-based Documentation: Tastes Great, Less Filling

The article The Trouble with Delivering Product Documentation in Wikis—and Some Better Alternatives by Paul Wlodarczyk pretty much tells you everything you need to know in its title. Wlodarczyk refers to "some Linked In posts" discussing how to publish documentation using a wiki, and then expresses a view that can be summarized as "wikis are not commercial content management systems." Well, he's right, but in situations where a pricey, hosted service isn't necessary, you might turn to the open source world for working examples of wiki-based documentation. You don't have to look too hard, but TinyMCE, Cisco's Documentation Wiki, or any site using DokuWiki would be a good start.

See also An Example of Wiki-based Instructions.

Posted: December 30, 2012 link to this item, Tweet this item, respond to this item

Is your documentaton meant to be read?

When documentation and help moves to the web, it inevitably picks up attributes that are common to web sites. However, many (if not most) web sites are primarily designed for purposes other than reading. (Advertising and branding are two examples.) Writer Ben Brooks, in The Design of a Site Meant to be Read, examines some popular sites and measures how they treat their content. It's an interesting approach, and you might consider that if it were applied to documentation, how your own publications fare?

Posted: December 22, 2012 link to this item, Tweet this item, respond to this item

The Sketchnote Handbook for Instructional Designers

For some people, computers, math, and public speaking are intimidating subjects. For others, like me, so are art and design. I am enthralled by "sketchnoting"--a visual form of note-taking--practiced by many talent people including my friend George Parker.

I'm pleased to have discovered Mike Rohde's book The Sketchbook Handbook. Aside from my personal interest in the technique, I'm finding it to be a fine example of modern instructional design, too. Like sketchnoting itself, the book is simple and clear. It combines great visual interest with a minimum of words, and expresses complexity in a compelling fashion. It's also encouraging, supportive, and more than a little fun.

Another fascinating aspect is that it's a mixed-media effort. The printed book is fantastic by itself, but there's also an instructional video component and a true sense of community. When was the last time an instruction manual not only told you how to do something, but also urged you to find your own way and do even more? It's a rare thing, indeed.

Posted: December 16, 2012 link to this item, Tweet this item, respond to this item

Before you can RTFM, you must DTFM

The venerable Blondie comic offers up a truism of today's products. You can't read what you don't have.

Posted: December 9, 2012 link to this item, Tweet this item, respond to this item

Verizon's anti-documentation commercial

Verizon asks "Why is it that the most impressive technology also comes with an equally impressive set of...instructions?". By which they mean impressively difficult to understand. View the commercial on YouTube.

Posted: November 25, 2012 link to this item, Tweet this item, respond to this item