Intercom: June 2009

Intercom, the magazine of the Society for Technical Communication, is published to provide examples and applications of technical communication that will promote its readers' professional development.

The June 2009 issue focuses on usability.

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The Complete June 2009 Issue

Feature Articles

Usability in Context-sensitive Help: Re-imagining the Ordinary to Provide More Business Value [ FREE! ]

By: Theresa Putkey, Senior Member

According to Putkey, context-sensitive help is a practical way to cut down on customer support expenses and add more value to documentation. By providing more complex, context-sensitive help, the usability of the help increases while call center phone calls decrease.

Bringing Help to the Forefront: Strategies to Increase the Usability of Your Software User Assistance and Your Product

By: Nicoletta A. Bleiel, Senior Member

Bleiel makes the case for embedded help as one of the most effective ways to integrate help within an interface. Although it can be difficult, Bleiel illustrates a way to “elegantly implement and map embedded help.”

Writing Questions That Are Easy to Answer

By: Caroline Jarrett, Associate Fellow

Have you ever found it difficult to fill out a seemingly simple form? Jarrett explains how to create questions that are easy to understand and accessible by all, focusing on details, the difference between prompts and fully formed questions, questions that need more explanation, and other aspects.

Returning Language to the Spotlight: The Interdependence of Usability and Words

By: Geoffrey Marnell, Member

As Marnell says in this article about the importance of language in usability, “Writing is what most of us do most of the time.” He argues that optimal word choices, good sentence structure, and general readability are the basics that comprise usability.

Making Content Understandable: Inherent Usability in Plain Language

By: Thom Haller

Using an example from his personal life, Haller shows how government writing should be simplified to ensure that a reader can understand government documents. He also discusses the importance of passing the Brayley Bill, the plain language bill.

Finding Usability in Workplace Culture

By: Jacob E. McCarthy, Member, and William Hart-Davidson

The authors give a detailed account of their assignment to create a content management system (CMS) for a large office and how paying close attention to workplace culture and behavior affected their design of an effective CMS.

Departments

F.Y.I.

F.Y.I.

Check here for upcoming events of interest to technical communicators.

My Job

Touch Screens: From Seemingly Impossible to Increasingly Common

By: Ken Schatzke, Senior Member

Are touch screens a thing of the future or a technology that is becoming more commonplace? Ken Schatzke, an employee of SMART Technologies, discusses the work he has done to make touch screens a present-day device.

Society Pages

Society Pages [ FREE! ]

And the winner is … Check out the STC election result for 2009–2010 and also see how you, or someone you nominate, can run for office in 2010.

Columns

Information Design

The Limitations of Mental Models [ FREE! ]

By: Geoffrey J.S. Hart, Fellow

As human beings, we create conceptual models that enable us to understand the complex world around us. Hart believes that information designers should understand mental models as a tool for creating the best possible communications.