Enjoy another first-person perspective from the 2013 Summit, this time courtesy of Richard Hamilton.
This year's STC Summit is off to a good start. I arrived Sunday afternoon, so I missed Adobe day, but the word from attendees is that it was a good kick-off.
The highlight of Sunday was, of course, the keynote by David Pogue. Reading his column in the New York Times and seeing him on TV, it's easy to forget that he is one of the most prolific technical writers around.
The main message for me was that technical communication isn't just about describing what's in a product or service. It's about providing clarity and helping people understand what's going on. Pogue's prime example was the Windows 8 Missing Manual book, where he took the technical communicator's job to a new level by naming a feature that Microsoft didn't name (TileWorld, which is his name for the Windows 8 tablet-style interface). He coined the name to help readers understand a confusing interface.
It's relatively easy to write step-by-step instructions for various Windows 8 features, but that does nothing to help people understand that Windows 8 actually has two independent interfaces, both named (by Microsoft) Windows 8.
While naming a feature might seem to go beyond the typical job description for a technical communicator, clarifying a confusing product doesn't. As technical communicators, we need to think beyond description and remember that our job is communication, not description.
Pogue capped things off with a performance of a new song, I'm on Twitter, to the tune of I Feel Pretty. If you haven't seen him perform one of his re-worked songs, go to YouTube and check him out.