STC presents the preliminary schedule of sessions for the 2012 Summit, being held 20–23 May in Rosemont, Illinois. The sessions are listed below in order of date and time, then alphabetically by session title. They include the session title, track, speakers, and description. This list is as of 19 March; see http://summit.stc.org for any changes or additions. All below conference education sessions are included with your registration.
Monday, 21 May
8:30–9:30 AM
Karen McGrane, Adapting Ourselves to Adaptive Content
Track: Content Strategy and Design
Why do we waste time and money creating and recreating content instead of planning for content reuse? Why are we still letting content authors plan where their content will “live” on a Web page? What worked for the desktop Web simply won’t work for mobile. As our design and development processes evolve, our content workflow has to keep up. Karen will talk about how we have to adapt to creating more flexible content.
Ben Woelk and Hannah Morgan, Bulletproofing Your Career Online
Track: Professional Development
What are the 10 key steps to building and securing your online reputation? A security professional and a career sherpa provide their perspectives on how to create an online presence that enhances and promotes your career safely and effectively.
Neil Perlin, Developing for the Unknown
Track: Content Development
Today, we create content for output as online help and PDF. But what about tomorrow? Because we don’t know, it’s increasingly important to create content that’s technically clean, consistent, and maintainable future-proofed. That requires the correct design philosophy and the correct use of control mechanisms—the subject of this presentation.
Lisa Adair, Pat Moell, Michelle Corbin, Rebekka Andersen, Linda Oestreich, and Kelly Schrank, Editing Evaluation Workshop
Track: Content Development
This session offers a 25-minute, one-on-one discussion with an experienced editor who will evaluate your editing of a short document or section of a document. In addition, a written evaluation will be provided.
Multiple Speakers, Education Progression
Track: Progressions
Speakers will present and lead discussions about instructional design and academic topics, including Tutorial Pacing, eLearning Audio Simplified, Practitioner-Student Interaction, Designing Student Projects for the TC BOK, The Learning Resource Metadata Initiative (LRMI), Experiences in Making Experiential Learning Work, and Information Design in Undergraduate Posters.
Leigh White, Taxonomy: Do I Need One?
Track: Content Strategy and Design
A solid taxonomy can be the key to optimizing your content for search, indexing, and gap analysis. It can be your roadmap for the future. Learn what a taxonomy is, how it can benefit you, and how to start developing one.
Richard Hamilton, Why Not DocBook?
Track: Content Delivery
With all the hype about DITA, DocBook sometimes gets forgotten. However, it is still alive, well, and a great choice for many applications, including some that DITA is known for. This talk will make the case for DocBook.
10:00–11:00 AM
David Sommer, Advanced Localization for Technical Communicators
Track: Content Development
This presentation is intended for technical writers and communicators who are involved in the localization process in their organization and would like some clarity on the processes, costs, both hidden and explicit, as well as to learn how they can create more value in their companies by being more involved in the end to end process. The attendee should come away being empowered to take a more proactive role in this process.
Sarah Maddox, Building a Developer Documentation Wiki
Track: Web Design and Development
A wiki for developer documentation: How we designed and built a new site to host the API documentation, tutorials, and toolkits for our development community.
Scott Prentice, Creating ePubs: What’s the Best Tool for Me?
Track: Content Delivery
So you’ve decided that making your documentation available as ePub files is the way to go. But with so many tools available, how do you decide which is best?
Nicky Bleiel, Five+ Ways to Add Interactivity to Online Help
Track: Content Development
Content is king, but adding a measured dose of interactivity to your online Help will increase readability and usability, as well as make it more compelling. This session will demonstrate a number of simple ways to improve your Help, even if you are single sourcing.
Sally Spahn, Connie Kiernan, and Linda Mikkelsen, Information Product Evaluation Workshop
Track: Content Development
Advance sign-up required to receive a 30-minute analysis of your information product by an expert. Your product will be evaluated for organization, style, layout, and use of graphics. Bring your product and supply your own laptop if your information product is in an online format.
Multiple Speakers, Lightning Talks, Session 1
Track: Lightning Talks
This session features a series of “Lightning Talks”—five-minute talks on topics of interest to technical communicators. Each speaker gets 20 slides, displayed for 15 seconds per slide. Timing is strictly enforced. Expect presentations that are insightful, thought-provoking, humorous, and possibly controversial. Expect to see oratory skills tested, and expect to have fun. See the April Intercom for a full listing of participants.
Colleen Jones, Make Your Content Matter
Track: Content Strategy and Design
Learn how doing content differently will bring you different results. See how a health, a travel, and a finance organization tried a new approach to their content and will never go back to the old one. A health company changed its content from a sales problem into a sales asset. A hotel company transformed editorial content into a mobile touchpoint. A financial company stopped presenting products as a features list and started explaining their value. Learn more about the results of these new approaches—and what had to change behind the scenes along the way. Get inspiration and advice to make your content matter!
Marta Rauch, Mobile Usability Guidelines You Need to Implement Now
Track: User Experience and Accessibility
Jump-start your mobile offerings by learning what you need to do to deliver usable user assistance. Hear an overview of current mobile usability guidelines, and understand key requirements for user assistance on mobile devices, including tablets such as iPad and smartphones such as Android and iPhone.
Liz Gardipee and Kathleen Ruggeri, Project Tracking and Metrics Using SharePoint
Track: People, Project, and Business Management
The speakers explain how, by recording more than 40 pieces of metadata for every project, Rockwell Automation created a unique system in SharePoint that allows them to monitor technical communication projects using a variety of views.
James Conklin, Understanding and Overcoming Resistance to Change
Track: Professional Development
This presentation demonstrates how technical communicators can benefit from seeking to understand why specific groups of people resist new technologies and innovations. Resistance can convey important information about client values and commitments, and thus understanding resistance can help to strengthen the communication strategies implemented by technical communicators.
2:00–3:00 PM
Rahel Anne Bailie, Content Strategy: Changing the Face of a City
Track: Content Strategy and Design
How does a team of content strategists rework a 60,000-page municipal website, to bring it down to a fraction of the size while increasing its effectiveness? This panel discussion discusses the framework for the project, and the processes and tensions that drove the project to a successful launch.
Peter Lubbers, Getting Started with HTML5
Track: Web Design and Development
In this session, Peter will explain why HTML5 is going to have a tremendous impact on technical communication. He will introduce you to the most relevant HTML5 features and show you practical tools, tips, and tricks so you can start using HTML5 in your technical communication projects right away.
Thea Teich, Cheryl Landes, Richard Shrout, Sally Spahn, Ed Marshall, Karen Lane, and Pilar Wyman, Index Evaluation Workshop
Track: Content Development
This session offers a 25-minute, one-on-one discussion with an experienced indexer who will evaluate an index you have created or are currently creating. Indexes are submitted to the coordinator two weeks in advance of the Summit so that the assigned evaluator has ample time to prepare comments.
Leigh White and Mollye Barrett, No Drama: Selecting the Right CMS for You
Track: Content Delivery
Make selecting a CMS a decision without emotion and without vendor hype. Develop a set of requirements, narrow the field of candidates, organize a proof of concept, and evaluate all the results to select a CMS that best fits your team.
Pat Moell, Linda Oestreich, Carol Lamarche, Mary Jo David, Jenifer Servais, and Michelle Corbin, Panel Discussion: Why Technical Editors Are Still Relevant
Track: Content Development
In the Internet age, customers won’t wait for content. Is there room for editors in a world of good enough documentation? How is the role of the editor evolving?
Leah Guren, Tales of Terror: Avoiding Project Disasters
Track: People, Project, and Business Management
New to the field or tackling a new challenge? Learn to avoid these classic blunders (based on true project disasters).
Erica Olmsted-Hawala and Jennifer Romano Bergstrom, Think-Aloud Protocols: Does Age Make a Difference?
Track: User Experience and Accessibility
In a usability study of the American FactFinder website, (part of Census.gov) we analyze how age and think-aloud protocol (concurrent and retrospective) relate to usability performance measures of effectiveness, efficiency and subjective satisfaction ratings. We also review the quality of comments participants make when using the different think-aloud protocols.
Russ Unger and Todd Zaki Warfel, Wireframing 101: From Ideas to Communication
Track: Content Strategy and Design
Get a look at the design processes that are practiced by two different designers. One produces static content in detailed wireframes with annotations and the other utilizes functional prototypes to convey meaning to their clients. Learn how to prepare your content for review. Regardless of your end result the core components for creation will be covered by the two designers. Get started on the basics of wireframing and go from there.
3:30–4:30 PM
Tharon Howard, Daniel Liddle, Shawn Stowe, Kimberly Sulak, and Abigail Johnson, Getting Started in Eye Tracking: A Primer
Track: User Experience and Accessibility
This presentation introduces practitioners considering eye tracking to basic principles they need to know before making that leap. Specifically, we cover: 1) types of eye tracking technologies available, 2) fundamental principles of eye movement, 3) methods for displaying data, and 4) issues with calibration.
Michael Opsteegh, Goodbye, Arial and Verdana. Hello, Web Fonts!
Track: Web Design and Development
Web fonts is an emerging technology that enables you, as a designer, to break away from the trappings of such “safe” fonts as Arial and Verdana. Learn how to use alternative typefaces that make your content stand out and promote your brand while your text remains search-engine friendly and screen-reader ready.
Jean-Luc Mazet, Migrating Content: How to Tackle the XML-L10N Beast
Track: Content Delivery
Learn how to guide your team into XML and CMS and how to transition from a legacy system into a state-of-the-art content development and publishing system. You can let the languages get in the way or tame the XML-L10N beast by using tried and true methods and best practices to make this migration smoother.
Jackie Damrau, Karen Baranich, and Jamye Sagan, Training Evaluation Workshop
Track: Education and Training
In this workshop, participants can pre-submit course materials for evaluation by one of our expert instructional designers. Each participant will receive both written and verbal comments on their materials. Comments cover all aspects of instructional design and are aimed to provide strengths and opportunities for improvement.
Lisa Pietrangeli, Translation Technology: MT, TM and Translation Reuse
Track: Content Development
This presentation will explore the differences between Machine Translation (MT), Translation Memory (TM), and Tech Comm industry tools that effectively support Translation Reuse. We’ll discuss how these tools work, how translation companies use them, how translators use them, and how they impact the quality, cost, and timing of your translation projects. Through case studies and examples, you will also learn how to assess which types of tools will best support your translation efforts.
Scott Abel, Turning Technical Documentation into Profit
Track: Content Strategy and Design
By thinking differently about technical documentation, retailers can become leaders in their market. In this session, Scott will explore how one retailer became a publisher of online repair manuals designed to teach “do-it-yourselfers” how to fix things, while selling them the goods they need to do the job. Sales are driven completely by visually engaging, standardized instructional content delivered to the Web, to smartphones, and to mobile devices. Return on investment was no longer a wild guess, directly tied to pieces of content. The strategy is so successful that other retailers of products that require assembly, sometimes break, or need occasional maintenance are clamoring to replicate it.
Ellis Pratt, What Should Technical Communicators Do When Products “Just Work”?
Track: Professional Development
One of the challenges technical communicators face is the sometimes-held belief that “no one reads the manual,” and that the technical documentation budget would be better spent on improving the usability of product itself. We’ll look at how to deal with this belief, and what it means for our future.
Tuesday, 22 May
8:30–9:30 AM
Patricia Boswell, Analytics for Web-Based User Docs
Track: Content Development
Last year Patricia talked about analytics for developer docs. This year, she’ll talk about analytics for user docs. Four new features make analytics the must-have tool for documenters: in-page analytics, content grouping (beta), flow visualization, and SEO optimization. Advanced segments, a great way to get your own insights into your users, will also be covered.
Barrie Byron and Ann Grove, Communication Culture: Resolving Conflict and Leveraging Feedback
Track: Professional Development
Resolving conflict and responding to feedback are core professional survival skills. In our current economy, our ability to master soft skills can be more important than mastery in technical communication and project management skills. Participate in scenario-based negotiations and skill-building exercises to learn how communication culture impacts conflict resolution.
Multiple Speakers, Contracting and Consulting Progression
Track: Progressions
Speakers will present and lead discussions about contracting, consulting, and business management topics. These topics include Mythbusting Just Let the Engineer Write It!, Virtual Partnerships: New Ways of Working, Working Successfully as a Consultant, Is There Anyone Out There? Working Virtually, How to be Famous in Your Profession, Transform a Prospect Meeting into a Signed Contract, and Personal Content Strategy..
Charles Cooper and Ann Rockley, Content Strategy for Reaching Customers Anywhere
Track: Content Strategy and Design
Today’s customers want content anywhere, anytime, and on any device. Designing for multiple devices means designing responsive content, content that adapts to the device and the customer’s needs. This session provides an understanding of the multi-device world and provides guidelines on developing a responsive content strategy.
Robert Armstrong, Don’t Suck at Social Media
Track: Social Media
If you aren’t sure why people are always talking about social media, or just not sure if you’re “doing it right,” this session is for you. We’ll be exposing social media for what it really is, and talking about how to keep from sucking at it.
Val Swisher, Global-Ready Content NOW!
Track: Content Development
We all know that translation costs can quickly get out of control. Thankfully, Val Swisher from Content Rules is here to present eight simple rules you can apply to tame your content and make it cheaper, better, and faster to translate. This fast-moving session is based on Val’s experience working with global 50 technology companies.
Gavin Austin, How Writers Can Thrive in Agile Software Development
Track: People, Project, and Business Management
Many writers are trying to figure out how to meet deadlines, write quality documentation, and stay sane as their software companies switch from the traditional “waterfall” method of development to the popular Agile methodology. Learn strategies and best practices to help you thrive as a writer in an Agile environment.
Alyson Riley and Andrea Ames, Modeling Information Experiences: A Recipe for Consistent Architecture
Track: User Experience and Accessibility
Need to deliver a consistent information experience across a broad set of content, audiences, or business requirements? Learn how user-centered experience modeling can help you deliver world-class information architecture. Explore examples from IBM’s work with abstract models and discover methods for using experience models at the team and enterprise level.
Neale Morison, Open Source Automated Documentation in a Development Environment
Track: Content Delivery
This presentation discusses free, portable tools and techniques for automating documentation in hardware or software development environments.
10:00–11:00 AM
Greg Parikh, Adapt, Innovate, Expand—How to Stay Relevant
Track: People, Project, and Business Management
Technical publications group have sometimes suffered from a lack of respect. This has often led to a company’s decision-makers targeting such groups for downsizing or budget cuts. This session will use real-life examples from a group that has dramatically changed how it is perceived within its company.
Jenna Moore, Building Your Professional Network—Beyond the Social Media Maze
Track: Professional Development
Learn how to create and maintain your professional network by building on your current contacts, meeting new contacts, helping others, and increasing your exposure.
Joe Sokohl, Destroy the Box: Frank Lloyd Wright’s UX Lessons
Track: User Experience and Accessibility
Through three Wright landmarks—Fallingwater, the Pope-Leighy house, and Taliesin West—we investigate inspiration that he brings to experience architects. We’ll look at pictures and principles, exploring analogs to our practice through the elements of context, clients, connections, and construction.
Multiple Speakers, Management Progression
Track: Progressions
Speakers will present and lead discussions about people and project management topics. This session is intended for anyone in a management role or who aspires to do so. These topics include Mentoring 101, Innovate to Motivate, Project Management and Personality Type, Using Meta-Communication to Manage Successful Online Teams, Use Agile Components to Increase Productivity, Growing Influence Beyond Your Department, and Managing More than Tech Comm.
Ami Spencer, Putting the Sexy Back in Tech Comm
Track: Content Strategy and Design
Tech comm has a reputation for being dull and boring. After all, how could a user guide possibly be cool and sexy? But it can. We just have to know how to present necessary information in a way that readers will find not only useful but also attractive.
Tristan Bishop, Surfing the Perfect Storm
Track: Social Media
Communication methods are transforming at an alarming rate. With rapid advances in global, mobile, and social dialog, how can technical writers keep up? This session will explain the fundamental shifts taking place and provide practical instruction on how information developers can prepare, respond, and succeed.
Preran Kumar Kurnool, Technical Writing: New Horizons and Frontiers
Track: Social Media
Changes in technology and user paradigms have had a profound impact on the way Help content is written, delivered, and shared. This session discusses how writers can use the power of data-analytics and social networking to create relevant Help content, engage user communities, and build a business case for themselves.
Sean Brierley, Using Graphics in Real-World Tech Comm
Track: Visual Design
The presentation discusses screen captures, photographs, Web images, illustrations, and logos. Attendees learn which formats are better for deliverables. Topics include rasters, vectors, RGB and CMYK, resolution, and popular software. Attendees will come away with real-world knowledge and techniques that they can immediately apply to graphics in their workplace.
1:00–2:00 PM
Mike Paciello, Delivering Accessible Content With WCAG 2.0
Track: User Experience and Accessibility
Accessible Web content is no longer a simple matter of ensuring images include alternative text! The emergence of HTML5, rich Internet applications, content management systems and mobile platforms have created new accessibility challenges. Learn how the W3C’s WCAG 2.0 are designed to help content producers ensure an accessible user experience.
Todd Zaki Warfel, Design Through Progressive Prototyping
Track: Content Strategy and Design
Todd will show how prototyping with HTML5, CSS3, and jQuery is easier than you think. Whether you’re an HTML novice or presentation-layer pro, you’ll learn a number of practical tips and techniques for prototyping with HTML5, CSS3 and jQuery. You’ll walk away with a number of techniques that will help.
David Sommer, Improving Deliverables by Measuring Translation Quality
Track: Content Development
This presentation will enable those who are involved in the translation process within their organizations to better understand how to control the quality of their translations by implementing an effective method of measuring the output of their translators. In addition, process improvement will be discussed and demonstrated.
James Conklin and George Hayhoe, Making Sense of It All: Analyzing Qualitative Data
Track: Education and Training
This workshop examines the types of data produced in qualitative research and explores a technique for analyzing and interpreting qualitative results. Includes extended workshop activity.
Liz Pohland, Publishing in a New Media Landscape
Track: Content Delivery
This talk will provide an overview of the biggest challenges publishers face as they determine the impact of digital content and technologies (e-books, mobile, iPads, etc.) and strategize for adapting to that impact—evolving into profitable, integrated, and collaborative media publications.
Halcyon Lawrence, Speech Intelligibility: Purpose and Scope in Technical Communication
Track: Content Development
The presentation provides an introduction to speech intelligibility and makes the argument that technical communicators are in a position to provide guidance in the design of audio interactions in technological environments.
Fer O’Neil and Ben Johnson, Using Videos to Enhance “Traditional” Documentation
Track: Visual Design
The way users consume information is becoming increasingly visual. Technical communicators can address this need and increase user satisfaction by creating videos tutorials.
Kathleen Moore, Virtual vs. Local Teams—Communication Success and Failure
Track: Professional Development
We increasingly interact online; we increasingly collaborate across time zones with colleagues who can be near-strangers. Learn project and team factors to help decide when to bond long-distance and when to keep work local.
Multiple Speakers, Writing and Editing Progression
Track: Progressions
Speakers will present and lead discussions about development workflow and topics that include using checklists, writing to support many things such as How to Merge Two Corporate Style Guides, Developing Yourself as a Policies and Procedures Professional, Using Checklists for More Efficient Editing, Selecting Technology to Support your Content Reuse Strategy, It’s All MarComm: A Tech Writer Goes Fluffy, Our Users [Sort of] Help Write Our Documentation, Writing for Global Audiences, Style Guide without Tears, Excellence and No Drama, APIs and SDKs: Breaking into a Specialty Market, and Improving Processes Using Business Transformation Tools..
2:30–3:30 PM
Beth Lisberg Najberg, Bite the Bullet—Creating Multimodal Presentations
Track: Visual Design
Presentations are more powerful when a theme ties them together. Learn how to select a theme, find images to support that, and integrate diagrams and graphics that tell your story. All without bullet points!
Pamela Kostur, Content Tactics: Putting Your Strategy into Action
Track: Content Strategy and Design
Your strategy is your plan. Your tactics are how you implement that plan. This session shows you how to implement your content strategy, taking it beyond planning and into action with effective tactics. Learn how to use content tactics to ensure that your content strategy delivers as promised.
Katrina Pigusch, Patty Murdock, Sarah Wakefield, and Nicole Dyles, Developing Engaging (and Effective!) Technical Training
Track: Education and Training
Often, technical training consists of pure PowerPoint prison. Research indicates this environment is not an effective method to promote learning. Rather, training becomes more successful when instruction includes a variety of methods, including group discussion and interactive exercises. This session provides strategies to develop effective technical training.
Teresa Stover, Learning Lessons from a Completed Communications Project
Track: People, Project, and Business Management
Now that your technical communication project has launched, you need to conduct a project review. Learn how to conduct a positive, non-threatening lessons-learned or post mortem meeting with your team. Understand the elements of an effective lessons-learned report that can be used to improve future technical communication projects.
Bruce Poropat, Plain Language for the Technical Writer
Track: Content Development
Many government agencies, companies, and institutions face mandates to present content such as regulations, specifications, and instructions in plain language. This presentation explains what that means, and what’s in it for technical writers.
Louellen Coker, Portfolios for Tech Comm Professionals
Track: Professional Development
Your portfolio is your most important tool to show your talents, abilities, and breadth of experience. We’ll discuss different types of portfolios, what types of projects to include, branding through your portfolio, leveraging social media, and using your portfolio to get a job, project or client.
Alan Houser, Understanding Web Technologies
Track: Web Design and Development
With the rapid adoption of HTML5, CSS3, and the proliferation of mobile devices, we’re in the midst of the largest Web revolution since the 1990s. Learn how and why these new Web technologies came to fruition, and how these new technologies are transforming the delivery of TC and other content.
Multiple Speakers, Usability, User Experience, and AccessAbility Progression
Track: Progressions
Several speakers will present and lead discussions about usability and user experience and how these areas relate to technical communication. Topics include Setting up an Eye Tracker System, Recent ISO Standards and Usability Testing, Is 2012 “Accessibility Armageddon” for Technical Communicators?, How to Encourage Good Use of SharePoint, and Card Sort Your Way to Better Information Architecture.
Michael Priestley, Using DITA
Track: Content Delivery
From simple authoring to complex reuse and conditional publishing, DITA provides a standard for industry best practices implemented in a broad range of tools. This session will introduce you to the basic capabilities of DITA, and show how they scale to enterprise-level content challenges, including a preview of IBM’s latest uses of DITA.
4:00–5:00 PM
Samartha Vashishtha and Marta Rauch, Brave New World: Tapping Enterprise Communities
Track: Social Media
Online communities are the new online help. To future-proof your career, it’s time to build your online community skills. We share our experience working with two enterprise communities, and provide strategies, tips, and best practices for success with managing online communities, curating content, and encouraging community participation.
Russ Unger, Guerrilla User Research Methods
Track: User Experience and Accessibility
This session will cover a number of low cost, yet powerful research methods to help you make better data-driven design decisions. You will be provided with a number of techniques for recruiting research participants, performing research on a restrictive time and financial budget, and what to do with your data once you’ve conducted your research.
Andrea Ames, Improving the User Experience by Applying Progressive Information Disclosure
Track: Content Strategy and Design
You know there is more to technical communication than developing traditional deliverables, that the experience need not be discontinuous or redundant, and that you can positively impact product experiences through content. How? Through progressive information disclosure. Learn how to improve users’ experiences using this information architecture and design technique.
Multiple Speakers, Professional Development Progression
Track: Progressions
Speakers will present/lead discussions about topics to help you further your career. Some of these topics are also referred to as soft skills. Topics include the 5 C’s of Managing Your Presence, Keeping Your Job on Track during Life Transitions, Building the New Resume, Tips and Tricks for Communicating with Remote Teams, Clutch and Cool Tech Comm, Break It! A Methodology for INSTANT Innovation, Greatly Exceeds Expectations, Empowering Yourself to Empower Your Organization, and Expanding Your Sphere of Influence.
Geri Rebstock, Reactive Writing Techniques for Retaining and Rewarding Users
Track: Content Development
Much of the content currently available to our users is produced by user communities, bloggers, and support professionals reacting to specific, urgent problems. Compare those writers’ reactive approach with the preemptive, comprehensive approach professional technical writers take, and learn techniques for merging the two approaches to improve your users’ experience.
Sharon Jendrisak and Jennifer Beaujon, Technical Writing Meets Instructional Design
Track: Education and Training
This presentation will talk about how technical writing and instructional design are not as different as they appear to be, and hear about a company that understands how a person can perform both functions effectively. We will also talk about how to transition between technical writing and instructional design.
Steve Jong, What is Certification?
Track: Professional Development
Are you certifiable? Join us for a frank discussion about your future and the future of our profession with members of the STC Certification Commission. Learn how STC certification will transform our profession and how you can join the ranks of our professional, certified workforce by becoming a Certified Professional Technical Communicator™.
Wednesday, 23 May
8:30–9:30 AM
Patrick DiMichele, Create Meaningful Online Experiences
Track: User Experience and Accessibility
What makes one website memorable and another wholly forgettable? What drives you to return to a site repeatedly? The answers are often surprising and decidedly low-tech. We’ll examine the concepts and intentions driving several compelling online experiences with a focus on uncovering ideas worth putting to work at your organization.
Zoe Mickley Gillenwater, CSS3, Media Queries, and Responsive Design
Track: Web Design and Development
It’s no longer practical or possible to build different sites for all of the different devices that your users may visit your sites with. The ways people view Web pages is more diverse than ever before. We’ll explore a new feature of CSS3 called media queries.
Rob Hanna, Exploring the Information Ecosystem
Track: Content Strategy and Design
Take a journey into the information ecosystem where you will discover how structured information lives within your organization. Content is all around you—in places you may least expect. It exhibits predictable properties and behaviors that will help you capture and classify information for better management of your content.
Jurgen Muthig, Functional Design: Developing a Standard That Fits Your Needs
Track: Content Development
The Functional Design Method is based on a useful linguistic approach that guides you in defining all the rules which are necessary for consistent documentation. And if you work with DITA, it helps you develop an authoring guide which guarantees that DITA can keep its promises.
Joe Welinske, Mobile App Design—The Language of Tiny and Touch
Track: Content Strategy and Design
The rapidly increasing popularity of smartphones and tablets has even corporate enterprise applications developers scrambling to go mobile. We can definitely play a role in the creation of effective mobile apps through our knowledge of language. Key areas of involvement include working with user interface text and embracing the new mobile vocabulary.
Kai Weber, Pattern Recognition for Technical Communicators
Track: Content Development
Pattern recognition is an essential mental strategy for acquiring and disseminating knowledge, though most of us are not aware of it. When applied consciously, technical communicators can employ pattern recognition processes to develop effective documentation more efficiently and help readers orient themselves.
10:00–11:00 AM
Karen Murri, Body Work: Rebuilding Documentation Car Wrecks
Track: Content Development
When handed a documentation wreck, can you make it run? Rebuilding poorly written content is both art and skill. Learn to salvage useful content out of mangled heaps of text.
Kristi Leach, From TechComm to UX: Are You a Designer?
Track: User Experience and Accessibility
Tell (and believe) the story of your transition! Learn to assess your transferable skills, position yourself in the local market, and hold your head high in pursuit of UX jobs.
Mary Knepper and Chance Longo, How Personality Type Affects Negotiating Style and Tone
Track: Professional Development
As crafts-persons, technical communicators need to be aware of how personality type triggers a negotiating style, which controls tone. Tone can skew the reader’s acceptance of the communication in a desired or entirely undesirable direction. Inappropriate tone in email, for example, can scuttle months of solid work.
Joe Gollner, Intelligent Content Strategies
Track: Content Strategy and Design
This session will introduce the basic principles behind intelligent content and explain how it can be used to dramatically improve business processes. An array of case studies will be used to illustrate how intelligent content is designed, created, managed, and leveraged.
Multiple Speakers, Lightning Talks, Session 2
Track: Lightning Talks
This session features a series of “Lightning Talks”—five-minute talks on topics of interest to technical communicators. Each speaker gets 20 slides, displayed for 15 seconds per slide. Timing is strictly enforced. Expect presentations that are insightful, thought-provoking, humorous, and possibly controversial. Expect to see oratory skills tested, and expect to have fun. See the April Intercom for a full listing of participants.
Judith Glick-Smith, The TC’s Role in Developing High Reliability Organizations
Track: Professional Development
High reliability organizations (HRO) organize for high performance where the potential for error is high. Technical communication is a critical component for appropriate decision making in HROs. This presentation uses the results of Dr. Glick-Smith’s doctoral research to illustrate how TCs can be instrumental in facilitating the development of effective HROs.
11:30 AM–12:30 PM
Stephen Anderson, A Pleasure Doing Business
Track: User Experience and Accessibility
What makes something emotionally engaging? Is there a place for delight in business applications? Find out as we redesign a familiar business tool using ideas from behavioral economics, neuroscience, and game mechanics. During this session, Stephen P. Anderson guides you through specific examples of sites who’ve designed serendipity, arousal, rewards, and other seductive elements into their applications, especially during the post-signup period, when it’s so easy to lose people. He’ll demonstrate how to engage your users through a process of playful discovery, which is vital whether you make consumer applications or design for the corporate environment.
Neil Perlin, Beyond the Bleeding Edge
Track: Content Strategy and Design
As technical communication becomes increasingly technical, and as the pace of change accelerates, it’s important for technical communicators to stay informed about new technologies, tools, and trends. That’s the job of Beyond the Bleeding Edge, a session that provides an early warning system for STC members.
Elizabeth Reese, Collaboration in Decentralized Culture: Developing a Single Voice for Microsoft
Track: People, Project, and Business Management
After seven years, Microsoft is releasing a new version of the Microsoft Manual of Style. Join the managing editor of this project to learn how a virtual team collaborates across business groups to determine and drive corporate-wide standards, track emerging language trends, get stakeholder buy-in, and publish an industry-standard resource.
Lucille Mazo, Correlation between Educators’ Communication and Learning Styles
Track: Education and Training
How do educators apply their communication and learning styles when engaged in the three stages of a lesson: development, delivery, debriefing? Learn how information regarding the correlations between these two styles can be used to guide educators in developing successful and creative lesson plans and lessons.
Steve Jong, How Do I Become Certified?
Track: Professional Development
So we’ve determined that you’re certifiable. Now find out how. Members of the STC Certification Commission will walk you through the process and describe what we will be evaluating through a series of practical submissions to our team of independent evaluators. Interested participants should consider attending the information session on Tuesday, What is Certification?
John Kohl, Introduction to Global English
Track: Content Development
This session gives you a thorough introduction to guidelines that should be followed by all technical writers and editors, but especially those whose content will be translated/read by non-native speakers of English. Abundant examples will illustrate how the Global English guidelines can eliminate ambiguities and improve readability.
Ruth Thaler-Carter and Judith Shenouda, Launching Your Tech Communication Business—Both Sides Now
Track: People, Project, and Business Management
As employers have to do more with less money and fewer people, the opportunities increase for technical communicators who yearn to escape the corporate environment and launch their own businesses. Find out what it takes to launch a successful tech communication business or a one-person venture.
