Copyright is owned by the Author of the thesis. Permission is given for a copy to be downloaded by an individual for the purpose of research and private study only. The thesis may not be reproduced elsewhere without the permission of the Author. Technical Communication or Information Design? A New Zealand Perspective A thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Business Studies Alison Reynolds PO Box 40027 Madras St Christchurch Paper No: 114.893 A. Reynolds 2002 2 Table of Contents Page Abstract 4 Introduction 7 Literature review 14 Introduction 15 Trends affecting the development of technical communication 17 • Writing traditions • Technological innovations • Consumerism • Online Information Document design or information design? • Document design • Information design The information design profession • Definitions • Graphic design or technical communication? • A new profession emerges Approaches to information design • Human centred design (HCD) • Macro and micro approaches • Interdisciplinary approaches Summary Methodology Introduction Profile of participants The interviews Materials Procedures Data analysis 17 20 24 29 33 33 35 36 36 38 41 43 43 45 46 51 54 55 56 61 69 70 73 A. Reynolds 2002 Results and analysis Introduction Research problem one Research problem two Research problem three Research problem four Research problem five Summary Conclusions and recommendations Introduction The findings • New Zealand technical communicators are information designers • A broad range of competencies and tasks is demonstrated • Online information redefines roles Recommendations • Statistical information: a New Zealand profile • Training • STC funding for research. Glossary References Appendices Appendix 1: Summary of participants' job tasks Appendix 2: Research project information sheet Appendix 3: Consent form Appendix 4: Contract for transcription of audiotapes Appendix 5: Copy of email to Chairs of STC and NZTWA Appendix 6: Copy of email to sent to all participants 74 75 76 87 94 102 107 108 110 111 111 111 113 115 116 116 117 118 120 123 130 131 134 136 137 138 139 3 A. Reynolds 2002 4 Abstract A. Reynolds 2002 Abstract This research aims to investigate and analyse current trends in New Zealand technical communication. Specifically, it considers how these trends compare to those evident in the United States of America, where 5 the research shows a contemporary paradigm shift occurring from technical communication to information design. The findings of this research show that New Zealand technical communicators do have the core competencies of information designers and that technical communication in New Zealand is, indeed, undergoing a similar change to that happening internationally, especially in the United States of America. The research methodology of this study uses data from two sources: • Current literature on trends in technical communication and information design • A qualitative survey of New Zealand technical communication practitioners. Current literature in the field describes trends that suggest a shift in the core competencies of contemporary technical communicators. This literature largely emerges from an American context. These trends include: • A need for technical communicators to be part of the iterative design process of products and to be user advocates • A change from paper-based documents to online information • The advent of the Internet • The advent of single sourcing and knowledge management computer tools. This study concludes that technical communicators need a broad range of competencies to adapt to the trends described, and that it is no longer adequate for a professional technical communicator to simply be a good A. Reynolds 2002 writer and document designer. However, this study also shows that New Zealand practitioners currently do demonstrate the key competencies of information designers, including highly developed skills in problem solving, planning and managing the process of product development, information management, usability testing, while continuing to carry out the more obvious tasks of technical communication, such as writing, audience analysis and document design. The main difference between the American and New Zealand technical communication trends analysed here is that technical communication in New Zealand is just becoming recognised as a profession, whereas in the States it has existed since World War Two (WW2). Because of this 6 historical difference, it seems that New Zealand practitioners are not bound by traditional job titles as their American counterparts are, and also tend to have position designations that are more readily recognised by clients and users, such as "documentation specialist", or "document developer". To date, no formal research on technical communication or information design has been completed in New Zealand. Further research is recommended then, in order to gain a more detailed profile of practitioners and practices. This research could be used to address areas such as training needs and, more widely, could continue to raise awareness of the profession in New Zealand. Further research should focus on gathering information on the geographical distribution of practitioners, profiling tasks, tools and jobs, analysing salaries, and examining potential academic programme profiles that could meet the needs of potential information designers. A. Reynolds 2002 7 Introduction A. Reynolds 2002 Overview of technical communication trends Introduction Technical communication is just gaining recognition in New Zealand as a profession. This is reflected in the recent establishment of professional associations such as the New Zealand Chapter of the international Society of Technical Communication (STC) in 1995 and the New Zealand Technical Writers' Association in 1997. However, no research has been completed in New Zealand to see if there are any commonalities between the trends occurring here and those happening internationally. Technical communication in America 8 Technical communication as a profession originated in America, and its professional body, the Society of Technical Communication is an American­ based group with over 250,000 members, mostly residing there. The profession has been recognised in America since WW2 and, unlike New Zealand, has a history of technical communication programmes at university level dating back as far as the 1950s. When those graduates describe themselves as technical communicators or technical writers, most people would understand what this means. However, these titles do not have the same recognition in New Zealand. In America, trends and developments in technical communication are well researched and documented. Historically, the profession developed in response to the rise in technology and the increase in scientific endeavours during and after WW2. Technical writers wrote complex documentation, such as instructional manuals and procedures, and were generally male engineers or other professionals attached to the military in some way. This documentation was done at the end of the product development cycle and was designed to be used mainly by highly technical staff, rather than by members of a wider public. Generally these early technical writers wrote paper-based documentation by hand and then had it typed up by assistants. However, during the later A. Reynolds 2002 years of the twentieth century, as technology became more accessible to the public, consumers increasingly began to demand products with adequate supporting documentation. And in response, organisations saw the marketing benefits of providing supporting documents designed with the user in mind. This rise in consumer demand for usable product information, as well as the invention of the personal computer, led to the first major paradigm shift in technical communication in America. In this way, technical writers became technical communicators, finding themselves increasingly responsible for ensuring that documentation was aimed at users' needs rather than being just a "tack-on" at the end of a product's development. So, technical communicators' roles changed and began to include competencies like being able to carry out an audience analysis, designing documents, and being able to use computing tools to produce a variety of information packages to meet users' needs. 9 In a similar way, the current technological revolution sparked by the rise of the Internet is responsible for another shift in the way technica I communicators operate. Web-based technologies, for example, are changing the skills technical communicators need to be able to work successfully. Today, organisations like banks and insurance companies can be more widely known for their information products, such as EFT-POS, online banking or interactive Web sites, than for their buildings. As a result, technical communicators now design information that is presented in a range of forms, including online formats, paper-based formats, CD­ ROMs, videotapes and other multimedia products. Consequently, contemporary technical communication practitioners need a broad range of skills that are largely focused on bringing a problem solving approach to communication, rather than being focused on producing discrete product outputs. Overall, the urgent need for understandable A. Reynolds 2002 10 information continues to increase in demand, and consumers expect more performability and usability from product information and the Internet. This is the paradigm shift that has led to a move in America to redefine the profession of technical communication to that of information design. Technical communication in New Zealand Before 1996, research into the field of technical communication in New Zealand was limited. There is scant information available on whether or not the paradigm shifts that have occurred in America are mirrored here, or whether practitioners are moving towards an information design skills' profile in response to the advent of Web-based of information. We do know, however, that the profession of technical communication in New Zealand has become more visible and recognised since about 1999, and that two professional associations for technical communicators have been established. We also know that the demand for training has increased in response to the increasing need for documentation specialists to replace incumbent untrained staff. One indicator of this recent change can be measured by the development and growth in the Graduate Diploma of Technical Communication (GDTC) online programme, offered by the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology (CPIT). Set up in 1996, this programme was initially presented in response to the demand for qualified writing practitioners to work at two of Christchurch's larger technology companies, Tait Electronics and Aoraki Corporation. Up until this time, these companies were actually importing qualified practitioners from America and England to write their product documentation, create their design specifications, and produce their training materials. This proved to be a costly exercise. Today GDTC graduates are in high demand, and at present this demand in Christchurch alone outstrips supply. Similarly, the demand for places in the A. Reynolds 2002 programme has more than doubled in the past two years and entry has become competitive. Enrolments now come from Australia, Canada, America, Japan, Singapore, India and Europe, as well as from New Zealand. Furthermore, the demand for freelance or contract technical communicators continues to increase around New Zealand, to the extent that often these practitioners have to turn away work or expand their businesses to cope with volume demands. The purpose of this study Introduction 11 This research aims to determine current trends in technical communication in New Zealand, and to compare these to trends occurring in America, as identified through the literature. The following research problems and related questions and answers form the basis of this study, along with information gathered from published literature sources. Research problem one: What do New Zealand technical communicators do? The results for this research problem were derived from data collected from the following questions: • How do technical communicators in New Zealand define their job titles? • What tasks do they complete? • How do they spend their day? Research problem two: What are core competencies do technical communicators have, and which do they believe are essential for their roles? The results for this research problem were derived from data collected from the following questions: • What training have they had? • What training would they like to have? A. Reynolds 2002 • What do they believe are the essential skills needed to be a successful practitioner? Research problem three: How have technical communicators' jobs change, and what future changes do they predict? The results for this research problem were derived from data collected from the following questions: 12 • How have technical communicators' roles and tasks changed since they first started in the profession? • What predictions do they have about the future of technical communication? Research problem four: What is the role of computing tools in practitioners' jobs? The results for this research problem were derived from data collected from the following questions: • What computing tools do technical communicators currently use to complete their work? • How did they learn these tools? • What changes in computing tools do practitioners predict? Research problem five: Are New Zealand practitioners following the American trend of redefining their roles as information designers? The results for this research problem were derived from data collected from the following questions: • Do the competencies, roles, tasks, and future predictions of practitioners mirror a paradigm shift to information design? Research Outcomes The results of this research will be used in the following ways: • To promote awareness of the profession in New Zealand through publications and presentations nationally and internationally A. Reynolds 2002 • To give existing practitioners an overview of what their colleagues are doing in New Zealand, as well as fostering more networking and membership of professional associations by giving feedback of the results to members 13 • To ensure the existing Graduate Diploma of Technical Communication at CPIT is meeting the training needs of future practitioners • To determine the potential for a degree in Information Design. A. Reynolds 2002 14 Literature Review A. Reynolds 2002 15 Introduction The impact of rapid technological and scientific change, combined with increased consumer demand for clear and usable product information, has significantly altered the core competencies needed by contemporary technical communicators to carry out their roles successfully. Currently, many technical communicators in America are renaming themselves information designers, reflecting a paradigm shift away from technical communication and towards information design. Technical communication has been an academic discipline in America since the 1950s, and a wide range of academic programmes now exist to train people in the key skill sets of the field. Professional associations have also grown up to support the professional needs of practitioners. The majority of the members of these professional associations, such as the Society of Technical Communication (STC) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE), are based in the US. This review analyses recently published research into the changing profile of technical communication and communicators, and considers what changes have occurred, how these changes originated, and what the future for the discipline is likely to be. The review looks at the concept of information design from a range of angles, and analyses whether the work of technical communicators today is, in fact, more accurately described as information design. The literature in this review is drawn mostly from American research, and is later used to compare similar themes and trends identified as occurring in New Zealand. Much of the literature is sourced from STC publications, which supports and conducts the bulk of current technical communication research. A. Reynolds 2002 Definitions The key terms used in the report are as follows: (please refer to the Glossary section for a more detailed list of definitions). Information design 16 The Information Design Special Interest Group of STC defines information design as: .. . [the application of]. .. traditional and evolving design principles to the process of translating complex, unorganized, or unstructured data into valuable, meaningful information. [It]. .. requires an interdisciplinary approach that combines skills in graphic design, writing and editing, instructional design, human performance technology and human factors (2001, pl0). Technical communication Lay et al. describe technical communication as, " ... information from a subject matter expert (SME) that is translated into knowledge for use by a specific audience to complete a specific task or solve a specific problem ... " (Lay et al., 2000, ppl0-11). Technical writing Lay et al. describe technical writing as, " ... a subset of technical communication that focuses on the production of written documents ... " (Lay et al., 2000, ppl0-11). Documentation Edelman defines documentation as: ... all the shared records of a project or process, such as plans, specifications, analyses, descriptions, instructions or policies ... reports, screens and Web pages .... Education devices encompass[ing] manuals, instructions, training materials, exhibits and marketing materials .. . (2001, pll). A. Reynolds 2002 Outline of the Literature Review The literature review is divided into the following sections: • Trends affecting the development of technical communication • Document design or information design? • The information design profession • Summary. Trends affecting the development of technical communication This study argues that the broad range of core competencies needed by contemporary technical communicators has been determined by the historical development of technology, and the corresponding demand for information. Within this context, four main elements have influenced the development of contemporary technical communication: • Writing traditions • Technological innovations • Consumerism • Online information. Writing traditions One of the key developments in the history of technical communication 17 was the early and continued centrality of writing traditions. The discipline's origins are entirely founded in writing, and the power of these traditions continues to be evident in contemporary technical communication. Schriver (1997) notes that the following three writing traditions have determined the way technical communicators and organisations perceive of, write, and design documents today: • The craft tradition • The rhetorical tradition • The romantic tradition. A. Reynolds 2002 18 The craft tradition This early approach to writing, dominant up until the 1940s, focused on the rules for getting the details of writing correct. Within the craft approach, writing students were taught detailed technical skills that encompassed the minutiae of prescribed grammar and word usage. Writing teachers worked as grammar specialists or "doctors" (Schriver, 1997, p60), or as remedial composition experts on campuses. The lingering influence of this tradition on contemporary technical communication is evident in the on-going view of practitioners as editors or, in Schriver's terms, "grammar doctors" able to come in at the end of a project and run a check over a document's mechanical well-being. By the 1950s, however, this craft tradition no longer offered a broad enough range of skills for practitioners to meet consumers' wider demands for usable information. Consequently, the craft tradition evolved into an increasingly rhetoric-driven form, where a concern for the details of grammar and style remained, but where a revival of the classical notion of rhetoric or persuasion was also evident. The rhetorical tradition Schriver argues that the rhetorical tradition adds three important concepts to that earlier craft tradition: audience, invention and heuristics (Schriver, 1997, pp58-59). She notes that this was a response to an increasingly demanding audience base. She shows that in the second half of the twentieth century, writing teachers moved away from emphasising the mechanics of grammar and spelling, and focused more on encouraging students to consider how the design of their documents might meet the information needs of a specific audience. Indeed, audience need began to determine the way material was, as Schriver describes it, "invented" according to what readers might expect. Consequently, a set of heuristics developed. These were rules for those generic formats expected by audiences. As an example of this, Souther (1997) describes how the A. Reynolds 2002 19 heuristic approach has led to the way that readers now expect to see reports," ... conclusions, summaries and recommendations [are placed] at the beginning of the report because the administrators are most interested in such material ... and [there is] more widespread use of devices such as statements of purpose and background ... " (Souther, cited in Schriver, 1997, p66). From the 1950s onwards, the rhetorical tradition allowed technical writers to build on their skills as grammar doctors and become more audience focused. This marked the first change in the broadening of those core competencies needed to work as a technical communicator, and more importantly indicates a shift towards communication, and away from writing. The rhetorical tradition continues to exert a strong influence on contemporary technical communication The romantic tradition While the craft and rhetorical traditions focus on teaching the right way of thinking about words and readers, the romantic tradition, by contrast, posits that a writer is born and not made. During the 1960s renewed interest in the romantic movement emerged, along with a range of alternative ideas regarding creativity and writing. This tradition holds, as Schriver notes, that " ... writing as an art is essentially a mystery - a journey of self expression that cannot be taught" (Schriver, 1997, p66), and therefore, the focus is more on the creative process of writing and less on the reader's needs. Technical communication's traditional association with inflexible heuristics and regulated genres seems rather oppositional to all of the "chutzpah" of creativity. On the surface then, it appears that this tradition has had little influence on the profession of technical communication today. However, creativity may yet play a part in the paradigm shilt now occurring from technical communication to information design. As information products A. Reynolds 2002 become centred on objects rather than words and begin to move further away from traditional genres, perhaps we are seeing the beginning of a less formal and more romantic or creative approach. Technological innovations 20 The previously discussed writing traditions emerged to support the documentation needs of new information products. And in turn, these changing needs have been determined by the rapid development of new technologies. New technologies and their associated information products have established the task profile of contemporary technical communication and continue to influence the future trends of the profession. As we have seen, technical communication is not a new field. Users of any new technology have always demanded information in some shape or form. Early communications, such as cave paintings and hieroglyphics, were often actually ancient user guides that explained how to use weapons, build pyramids or temples, or follow social and religious rituals. However, later twentieth century innovations in technology and science, as well as a massive increase in consumerism, have redefined the nature and shape of technical communication as a profession. Technical communication did not start to become a recognised profession until after WW2 when advanced weaponry and technical and scientific innovations increased the demand for written instructions. New innovations in consumer products after the war also added to the demand for people who could write clear instructions that the average member of the public could understand and use (Schriver, 1997), and this increasing demand resulted in a shortage of technical writers. In response to this rise in technology and increasing demand for usable information, the first Society of Technical Writers was founded in 1953 in America. As previously noted, up until the 1950s, engineers, especially A. Reynolds 2002 21 those involved in the military, wrote most technical communication. And the role of the writer was based on the craft tradition with writers being seen solely as wordsmiths and editors. Little attention was given to the quality and usability of documents until new innovations and products started becoming more available to the general public. The establishment of the Society of Technical Writers signalled the beginning of a changing professional consciousness regarding the skills, rights and responsibilities of writers; those providing information to users or audiences with information needs. A further determining factor in the growth of technical communication in the US was the GI Bill that made tertiary education freely available to returned servicemen after WW2. Two million returned servicemen took advantage of these opportunities, and many of these entered engineering programmes. At that time, the only academic programmes that offered technical writing in the curriculum were located in engineering faculties, and these were mostly taught as remedial classes for reluctant engineering students who found themselves somehow having to write. This increase in engineering students who had to complete technical writing courses as part of their studies, as well as the increase in technological and scientific studies, led to a growing post war awareness of the need for technical writers (Staples, 1999). So, as the American domestic technology boomed in the post war years, so too did the demand for trained writers increase and the first "stand alone" technical communication programmes began to be offered. In 1958 the first Masters programme in technical communication was offered at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Staples' study ( 1999) of the history of technical communication describes the changing face and roles of the technical communicator over the past 30 years and notes that in the 1970s the typical technical writer was more than likely an ex-military male writing manuals for English speaking audiences to support complex engineering products. This writer's tools of A. Reynolds 2002 22 trade were a pencil, a typewriter and a note pad. He might also have a college degree and would probably have worked for the same organisation for a long period of time. The core competencies required by this 1970s practitioner were based on Samuel Earle's "four abilities" ( cited in Kynell 1999). These abilities emerged from the rhetorical tradition and were believed to make English more useful for engineers, providing the basis for technical writing curriculums in engineering faculties. The four abilities are: • The ability to write • The ability to describe, in writing, an object not present • The ability to write for different audiences • The ability to give a concept full treatment by demonstrating understanding in writing (cited in Kynell, 1999, p4). However, Staples' historical overview of the profession ( 1999) also suggests that a significant shift away from these four abilities began to occur in the late 1990s. It notes that today, the technical communicator is more likely to be a woman working as a contractor for several companies. She is probably well educated and able to use a wide variety of technical and computing tools. The most important difference between her and her 1970s predecessor, however, is her ability to multi-task using her broad range of skills, which might include writing and editing, project management, researching, usability testing, document design, and the ability to drive a successful business forward. She may also specialise in several different areas of technical communication, such as producing online help, managing international communication projects, maintaining information management systems, or producing environmental communication. Staples' study suggests a change to the profile of the technical communicator away from an emphasis on "technical", and towards an A. Reynolds 2002 23 emphasis on "communicator". And similarly, Davis describes the findings of a "snapshot" survey of technical communication Masters degree students at Mercer University in America (2001, p4) in which the students' undergraduate degrees were predominantly in arts and social sciences, rather than in sciences or technological areas. This again suggests that increasingly, practitioners need to be communicators first and technology experts second. According to Staples, this new technical communicator is trained in a " ... wide base of theory, inquiry, and application ... ", and could " .. . in the face of change responsibly support and even direct the social uses of information and technology ... " (Staples, 1999, p8). It seems that the discipline of technical communication has developed to such an extent that practitioners and academics can now be proactive in setting the trends for the future, rather than having to respond reactively to the needs of product development or engineering faculties. Further to this argument, Hayhoe crystallises the competencies needed by technical communicators as a " ... mastery of communication techniques. Among others, these skills include writing and editing, visual communication, multimedia, document design, audience and task analysis, usability testing of products and documents and interpersonal skills ... " (Hayhoe, 2000, p2). Other core competencies that Hayhoe notes include, knowledge of subject domains, for example, science, medicine, engineering, computing, and knowledge of software tools that can be used for a specific task. In contrast, however, the job descriptions for many technical communicators in contemporary organisations do not yet reflect practitioners' extensive competencies. While documentation is still seen by some organisations as "a tack on", to be rushed through after the product has been completed, technical communicators will continue to regarded as little more than desktop publishers who happen to be able to use A. Reynolds 2002 sophisticated tools such as FrameMaker or RoboHELP or similar (Hayhoe, 2000). 24 The rapid development of technology has meant an increased demand for technical information. Technical communication has grown as a discipline in response to the demand to produce information designed for users of domestic and technical products and services, and the profile of practitioners has also markedly changed. Consumerism The third key influence on the development of technical communication is continuing pressure from consumers for better information. Consumers have not only demanded a change in the style of technical writing, but have also demanded a change to the way in which information is designed. The following section discusses: • Plain language movements • User-centered design. The plain language movement As consumers continued to demand better quality information, their frustration with unreadable documentation increased accordingly. Discussing feature articles published in 1991 from Newsweek, Time and Business Week, Schriver describes the plight of " ... consumers .. . frustrat[ed] with technology that is getting more and more difficult to use, with interfaces that are cumbersome and cluttered and with documents that make readers weep ... " (1997, p147). In response to this growing level of frustration, various plain language movements began to emerge in America, Australia, Britain, Canada and New Zealand (Mazur, 2000), some as early as 1953. Governments in all of these countries supported this movement, and in New Zealand for instance, Parliament created the Law Commission whose duty it was to advise the government on ways in which the law could be made more comprehensible to the people. A. Reynolds 2002 25 The plain language movement, however, is essentially based on the rhetorical and craft writing traditions. Further, many of its tools, such as readability scales, do little else but regulate a document's level of complexity. So for this reason, by the mid-1980s researchers were actually beginning to discredit plain language movements. They were particularly critical of their reliance on reductive readability formulas, "dumbed down" constructions, and excessively truncated sentences. Critics also noted the lack of research available to support plain language's ability to clarify understanding. Schriver ( 1996), for example, argues that rather than focusing on mechanics, or blindly using unproven tests to determine a document's readability, what is really needed to aid comprehension for users is a more holistic focus on the whole process of documentation. Mazur (2000) agrees with Schriver, noting that there is little research to prove the measurable outcomes of a plain language approach. She cites van der Waarde's research of 330 documents, none of which followed the prescribed plain language guidelines, but all of which were still usable. Similarly, Duffy and Kabance (cited in Redish, 1993) found that short words and sentences used in documents could lead to improved readability scores, but did not necessarily make information easier to understand. For the critics of plain language theories, it is the over-reliance on readability formulas that is the most problematic feature of this movement. Formulas including the Gunning Fog Index and the Flesch Test, predict the educational level a person needs to have in order to understand a given piece of written information. Arguably, readability formulas provide a quick reminder to writers to choose words carefully. However, in a broader sense, they fail to take into account of the wider usability concerns of a document. Critical concepts, such as the influence of design, accuracy of information, appropriateness of tone, and context in which users will interact with the information, are left untouched by the blunt instrument of the readability scale. And worse, these formulas also assume that the same A. Reynolds 2002 26 meaning exists in the text for all readers (Redish, 1993). Further, it cannot be overlooked that readability scales are designed and used for materials written in English by English speakers. They neither take into account, then, the global context of most contemporary communication contexts, nor the fact that in professions such as medicine, long Latinate terms may be needed in order to achieve an appropriate level of accuracy for the target audience. In part, Mazur (2000) defends the plain language movement, describing its more recent approach to readability formulas as less pervasive, and discussing the work of later plain language proponents, such as Cuts and Baldwin (1999). However, Mazur also criticises plain language approaches for an over zealous adherence to the heuristics of grammatical correctness and document design. Recent research supports the notion that the creation of successful or usable information is achieved by doing more than simply focusing on word size or sentence length. Campbell ( 1999) notes that reader comprehension was improved in a New Zealand study of the readability of bank documents rewritten in plain language. However, the rates of recall also surveyed indicated that readers in the study still did not really understand what they had read. Despite this, however, Campbell asserts that the plain language changes made to the documents were a worthwhile improvement on the originals (Campbell, 1999, p9). While the plain language movement can offer contemporary technical communicators a reasonable theoretical starting point for thinking about users' needs, clearly, contemporary practitioners do require a much broader and more complex framework than this movement alone can offer. Users now expect knowledge as well as information, and while improving the comprehension levels of documents is helpful, it is only a small part in the overall process of creating usable information. A. Reynolds 2002 27 User-centred design By the 1990s, technical communication in the US was recognised as a profession in its own right, and more importantly, was beginning to be a critical element within the product development process. The ascendancy of the technical communicator into the centre of development practice was driven along by the continuous demand from consumers for usable and understandable information. As well, highly competitive market conditions meant that good information itself became a key selling point for products and was, in fact, part of the overall marketing strategy. Many organisations began to see the value of having a trained technical communicator on their staff, and they also started to realise the high costs of not developing documentation as part of a product's life cycle and as part of usability testing. Interestingly, as Redish notes, 80% of costs that incur once a product is released are due to "unforeseen" user requirements and the costs of changes are 60- 100% greater after the product has been released (Redish, 2000). Over the last two decades, the largest market for technical communication products has changed from experts to non-experts and electronic products have flooded the market place. As Hayhoe explains it: " .. . over the past 20 years, the ability to communicate clearly to non experts using a variety of media and information types has emerged as the hallmark of technical communication excellence" (Hayhoe, 2000, p2). Furthermore, this continued shift from expert to non-expert has meant that selling these products increasingly depends on bundling them together with effective and attractive instructional information. This seems to be the key element in a new phase of "user-centered design". Alan Cooper, from Apple (cited in Barnum, 2001, p3), describes this transformation in the user population as the "democratization of consumer power". In effect, the advent of the "silicon brain" in computing systems has made previously A. Reynolds 2002 hidden information or services easily accessible to untrained amateurs, who now no longer rely on experts to do the work for them. 28 One obvious example of this is seen in the proliferation of automatic teller machines (ATMs) that are slowly but surely replacing bank clerks. As well, Cooper goes on to describe the way that many people now prefer shopping online via e-commerce transactions rather than dealing with the "real thing" at the mall. However, he warns, " ... if [a] Web site is a barrier to the successful completion of the sale, business will be lost..." (Barnum, 2001, pl0), while Binstock says that consumers will always move to another Web site if the one they are using is not clear in its functionality, " ... 27% of all Web transactions are abandoned at the payment screen" ( cited in Barnum, pl0). Clearly, it is no longer good enough for product developers to blame their customers for any problems with the comprehension of their supporting information. Rather, users' needs must play an important part at all stages of the product development process. Technical communicators, then, increasingly need to operate as user advocates in this process; voices for these emerging categories of non-expert users, who simply want to successfully utilise the tools and techniques now essential to modern existence. Some critics believe, however, that technical communication has been more reactive than proactive in responding to these changes to user demands and user profiles (Carliner 2001; Hayhoe 2000; Davis 2001; Shirk 1988). Shirk, for example, calls on technical communicators to create change rather than constantly wanting to reinterpret the past: "It is now appropriate for technical writers to join forces with their colleagues in Computer Science, on software development teams, and in academia for the purpose of creating new visual and conceptual metaphors for communicating effectively" (Shirk 1988, cited in Fisher, 1999, p2). A. Reynolds 2002 29 As consumers have demanded usable information, this pressure has made it crucial for technical communicators to create user-oriented information throughout the product development cycle. Online Information Introduction Online information is the fourth key influence on the development and future of technical communication. Users want information and products that are intuitive to their needs, and they want to be able to access this information as and when they need it. Online technology means that information is becoming increasingly more accessible, and easier to store and disseminate than ever before. This section discusses: • The growth of online information • Single sourcing • Future developments. The growth of online information In a recent article, Sless (2001) describes the ways in which contemporary culture is rapidly becoming information based, and how the relationship between an organisation and its public is more informational than ever before. As Sless describes it, " .. . moving, processing and transforming information ... " (Sless, 2001, p2) is often the only visible evidence we have that organisations, such as banks, credit card companies, electricity providers or insurance groups, actually do exist. And while traditional manufacturing companies continue to rely on paper-based information products, such as instructions and manuals, to ensure that their products can be used appropriately, our wider reality is become increasingly online. In Australia over 40% of the workforce is employed in positions that involve information activities (Sless, 2001, p2), and this figure continues to grow. Albers argues that the challenge for technical communicators in the new millennium will be to recognise and manage the fact that users really do not want data; they want knowledge (Albers, 2000). In this sense, A. Reynolds 2002 users will continue to demand information that enables them to learn, to solve problems and to carry out tasks in their real world situations. They will want well-designed information that is "actionable", and can be accessed easily in a clear and usable format (Sless, 2001). To meet user demands for accessibility and usability, these writers point to the on line environment as the most likely means of delivering information. 30 Ring (2000, pl) goes further and predicts that soon the bulk of information will only be available online, and that paper-based manuals will rarely be used. The future of technical communication, Ring believes, will be driven by the increased use of the Internet, local radio links, e-books and DVDs, and the accessing of service organisations' information, such as banking products, online. Ring suggests that the greatest changes to come for technical communicators will be the movement of technical details and product handling instructions online, and the restriction of paper information to short hard-copy instructions such as warnings. Information products will require few if any words because DVDs and animation will provide all the visual information needed. Ring believes the new breed of technical communicators will come from backgrounds in game design, 3D animation, and television and video production. Help design and knowledge management technologies are also important online information developments. Many users, long having given up on paper manuals, are now demanding dynamic online help to provide information and instructions. Online help systems are now being designed to help users at various levels of competency and tutorials and guides are available that are specifically targeted to meet individual user needs (Carliner, 2000a). Single sourcing Increasingly, single sourcing, or writing information once and using it many times in many different forms, is defining the future for technical A. Reynolds 2002 31 communication. Knowledge management, or " ... the efforts to capture, store, transform and disseminate information in a useful context within an organisation ... " (Carliner, 2000a, p13), is progressively driven by new XML or mark-up language products that enable single sourcing. Rackley (2001, pp189-200) believes that single sourcing and e-publishing are the cause of a profound paradigm shift in technical communication currently taking place. With single sourcing, technical communicators are moving further away from those older craft and rhetoric traditions of the profession and closer to alternative ways of conceptualising information. One example of this change is evident in the growing application of information modelling now used during the planning and development process of some documentation. Modelling can be used to plan and create customised materials from a single source of data, and from there, be put on line and made available for any designated user to select in whichever form they desire. In such online or single sourced documentation, information elements are " ... referenced into the document for reuse or drawn from a database ... " (Rackley, 2001, p189), rather than created from traditional genre elements, such as chapters or report sections. This means " ... information elements (objects) can be identified for use in one output or another and reused where appropriate" (Rackley, 2001, p191). For instance, information about company procedures can be accessed from a single data source via the Internet, or downloaded as a document file, or used as staff training material. Advances in single source XML software, such as FrameMaker, AuthorWare, Doc-to-Help, RoboHELP, HDK, and Authorlt, are making this " ... just in time information based on user needs .. . " a contemporary reality (Rackley, 2001, pl 91). Future developments What about the future? Carliner (2000a) is optimistic about the role of the technical communicator in the future. He believes most world economies will continue to experience growth in knowledge industries, and this growth A. Reynolds 2002 will fuel a demand for practitioners able to create usable products, information, and associated materials. Already in America, the need for technical communicators outstrips supply, and salaries have increased accordingly. However, Carliner also warns that technical communicators " ... who fail to develop expertise in ... design and analysis, tools, project management and the use of media - will find their career opportunities increasingly limited even if the demand for technical communication remains strong" (2000a, p14 ). 32 Ubiquitous computing is an innovation that Zimmerman predicts will increasingly determine the future role of the technical communicator. Ubiquitous computing " ... offers the user a world in which everything is a medium, because everything is or contains a computing device ... " (Zimmerman, 2001, p3). Such devices already exist in the form of palm pilots, online instructions, or in the warnings and mechanical data read­ outs in cars. But to work successfully, this information needs to be invisible, seamless, and fit the task so well that, in fact, it becomes part of the product itself. In other words, information products must become increasingly intuitive to their users' needs. Noted technology commentator Nicholas Necroponte has also asserted that paper-based instruction manuals are obsolete and that intuitive machines make the best instructors: "Appliances of tomorrow should come with no printed instructions whatsoever (except This Side Up). The 'warranty' should be sent electronically by the appliance itself, once it feels it has been satisfactorily installed" (Necroponte, 1995, cited in Zimmerman, 2001, p215). It is this notion of the so-called "feeling machine" that will be at the centre of the radical tomorrow to come. Under these terms, the technical communicator will be, more than ever, the interface between product and user, charged with the task of "teaching" machines to understand and meet human needs. A. Reynolds 2002 Document design or information design? Introduction 33 So far, an overview of the trends that have affected the profession shows that "technical communication" is fast becoming an inappropriate descriptor of the core competencies of the contemporary practitioner. Technical communicators are now sought after in many industries beyond the strictly technical, working in fields as diverse as marketing, training, usability testing, pharmaceuticals, environmental resource management, project management, education and finance (Frick, 2000). So, just as "technical writing" became subsumed as just one competency in a wider set of competencies, so too is technical communication itself fast becoming a subset of another discipline, that of information design. The following section of this literature review discusses two related disciplines that could offer a new professional profile to technical communication, and whose titles may themselves reflect the broader range of skills required by technical communicators now and in the future: • Document Design • Information Design Document design Schriver (1997) believes that the discipline of document design encompasses the core competencies that technical communication practitioners now need to be successful in their roles. She defines document design as, "The field concerned with creating texts (broadly defined) that integrate words and pictures in ways that help people achieve their specific goals for using texts at home or at school, or work" (Schriver, 1997, plO). Schriver argues that document design is a more appropriate discipline area for technical communication to align with, even if historically, it has been a rather rule-centred subset of technical communication. She notes that since the late 198Os, document design has moved markedly away from an association with purely text-based documents, and has been more concerned with examining the integral A. Reynolds 2002 34 relationship between information and design. Schriver suggests that advances in technology, digital animation and the Internet have effectively fused key technical writing skills with those skills traditionally associated with design. Despite Schriver's support of this holistic approach to document design, she does not advocate a change of title from technical communication to information design, "Some designers of paper, online, or video artifacts prefer the term 'information design' because they view themselves as creators of information structures rather than of documents" (Schriver, 1997, p6). She believes that information design as a discipline is too closely aligned with the early communication theories of Shannon and Weaver to be completely appropriate as a professional designation. Shannon and Weaver's theories, where communication is viewed as an essentially linear transfer of information from sender to receiver, are too simplistic in Schriver's view. Citing Schutte and Steinberg (1983), she argues that the Shannon and Weaver model posits a passive audience who simply soak up information like sponges and do not interact with it in any other way. Information design to Schriver implies an information product that is packaged and shipped off to an audience who receive it and carry out its instructions without further thought. Schriver argues for a more constructionist approach to information design, in which the actual design of a document becomes a complex interaction between the user and the writer or designer. The reader is an active agent throughout this process, and " ... expert practitioners distinguish themselves by skillfully selecting, structuring and emphasizing content with the readers' needs in focus ... " (Schriver, 1997, pll). Throughout this process it is assumed that careful audience analysis and usability testing has already established users' needs. Consequently, Schriver believes that the title for what technical communicators do needs to reflect a more complex A. Reynolds 2002 combination of the visual with the written, and must also reflect the interactive and user-focused context of this process as a whole. Information design 35 In contrast to Schriver, Carliner suggests that information design provides a useful framework from which technical communication could readily broaden its designated field. However, he argues that document design alone is too limited as a discipline to represent what technical communicators actually do. Carliner describes document design as being based on the following equation: "Content + writing style + layout = document design" (Carliner, 2000b, p562), and asks where the user and the content plan figure in this formula? According to Carliner, the notion of information design looks at the bigger picture: " ... what problem is the client trying to solve, what can they bring into play to address the problem and how does this solution support the larger business situation?" (Carliner, 2001, p562). Within this same argument, Sless (2001) suggests that document design and information design are, in fact, synonymous. And more recently, Schriver herself has shown some doubt using about the term document design: Several years ago, I employed the term document design to describe the field broadly concerned with integrating words and pictures in ways that helped people carry out their goals for engaging with content. Although document design fit the situation at the time, a more inclusive term would capture what is going on today (Schriver, 2001, p7). It seems that Schriver is right when she now says that document design is not an inclusive enough term for technical communication, because it does not represent the broader competencies needed in the contemporary manifestation of the profession. A. Reynolds 2002 The information design profession Introduction 36 Since 1999, there has been a growing tendency for American technical communicators to change their professional designations to that of "information designers". Carliner (2001, p156) cites an unpublished survey conducted in 1997 of STC members that found that 50% of respondents would prefer to call their work "information design and development", while only 38% said they would prefer to call it "technical communication". The popularity of this change is also reflected in the growth of the STC Special Interest Group (SIG) concerned with information design. Membership of this group has reached over three thousand since it was founded in 1997. This section of the literature review examines the discipline of information design as follows: • Definitions • Graphic design or technical communication? • A new profession emerges • Approaches to information design. Definitions Information design has, until recent years, been the domain of graphic designers and, by and large, it has been heavily based on Kepes' 1944 premise that: "Visual language can convey facts and ideas in a wider and deeper range than almost any other means of communication" (Kepes, 1944, cited in Sless, 2001, p3). More latterly, the term "information design" was coined by the founders of the Information design journal, first published in Britain in 1979, in order to " .. . consolidate a community of interest - an invisible college - that had emerged in the 70's among a number of designers, teachers and researchers" (Mazur, 1999, p2). The International Institute for Information Design (IIID) also reflects the influence of graphic design in its definition: A. Reynolds 2002 37 The defining, planning and shaping of the contents of a message and the environments is presented in with the intention of achieving particular objectives in relation to the needs of users. At this point of the development 111D is concerned with the design of visual information but it could in the future include the design of other than a visual one (2001, p3). And, while the 111D acknowledges that one of its aims is to use the potential of graphic information to reduce global social and cultural barriers, its definition does not seem to adequately address the fact that in order to achieve these aims, this emerging profession will require a more interdisciplinary or holistic approach than a visual or graphic focus allows. In contrast, the following definitions seem to offer a refreshingly holistic approach to this area, representing contemporary information design in a way that values " .. . efficiency and effectiveness at accomplishing the communicative purpose" (Horn, 1999, p16). The first of these definitions comes from the STC and offers a definition that is inclusive of many disciplines . ... information design applies traditional and evolving design principles to the process of translating complex, unorganized, or unstructured data into valuable, meaningful information. The practice of information design requires an interdisciplinary approach that combines skills in graphic design, writing and editing, instructional design, human performance technology and human factors. (The Information Design Special Interest Group of STC, 2001, pl0). This approach suggests that technical communicators will continue to move into areas that have not traditionally been their domain, including projects such as public signage and government forms. The second definition that interests us here comes from the Information Design Network (ION). For this group, information design is about the clear and effective presentation of information that comes out of a multi­ disciplinary approach encompassing the skills of design, writing, psychology, communication and cultural studies. This definition suggests A. Reynolds 2002 38 that information design can be used wherever complex information needs to be made more comprehensible. The third definition that helps to shed light on this issue is Saul Carliner's: "Information design is a problem solving discipline that considers more than appearance but also the underlying structure of the solution of a communication problem and its anticipated reception by users." (2000b, p563). Carliner's definition, then, focuses squarely on the problem solving approach that must be the focus of contemporary information design. Graphic design or technical communication? As some of the definitions discussed above reveal, the graphic design approach still holds some dominance in information design today. Much that is written outside of the STC framework continues to focus on the importance of making information look good. Examples of this thinking include Sch neck's comments ( 1999) on the "architecture of information" in insurance data, where the argument is established for multimedia programmes to display graphics at the expense of words, while Jacobsen (1999) believes information design is all about graphic and architectural theory simply applied wholesale to design products. Indeed, many companies in America who advertise themselves as information designers have a strong graphics focus. In the same way, academic programmes in information design, such as the bachelor's degree programme offered at the Coventry School of Art and Design, England, also focus heavily on graphic design. There, technical communication is offered as a separate course. Malarden University in Sweden has a strong reputation for its information design courses, but these are located in the Product Design faculty. By contrast, Bentley College in America offers a programme that includes human factors in information design, e-commerce usability and elements of visual design and user documentation. A. Reynolds 2002 39 Wurman (1989 cited in Carliner 2001, p157) initiated a more multi­ disciplinary focus in the field of information design. Wurman, originally an architect, likened his new profession to that of architecture. Organisations, Wurman asserts, should hire designers to design the structure of information just as they hire architects to design buildings. Already adopted by graphic design, library (information) science, usability and ergonomics communities, this architecturally based model is now being taken up by some in the technical communication field. Surprisingly, key theorist and passionate advocate of graphic information design Edward Tufte (1990), believes that graphic designers have too much "real estate" on the computer screen. "The only reason people come to your site is to get information - not to admire your design. Programmers have the most control over space, then marketers and then graphic designers and finally content developers." Tufte calls this trend "content free design" (cited in Wyatt, 1999, pplS0l-1502). According to Tufte (1990), new technological mediums delivering "information artifacts" need a combination of words and visual design to produce multimedia packages, CD-ROMS, interactive online training etc., as well as traditional hard copy manuals and documents. The research surveyed within technical communication contexts generally agrees that a balance of good design and content is vital for information design. It shows that it is no longer enough to be a wordsmith, or a graphic designer, or technical specialist; an information designer must be prepared to be in control of the complete information process. The trend for technical communicators to redefine their roles as information designers appears to be a logical step to take as the profession adapts to meet rapid changes in technology and in audiences' needs for information. Delivering understandable, useful and timely information efficiently is the core business for technical communicators. As Cooper argues, information designers will be: A. Reynolds 2002 40 ... a new class of professional interaction designers who design the way software behaves by developing a precise description of users and what they wish to accomplish .... Technical communicators are ideal candidates for these new professional roles, able to participate knowledgeably in a development process that starts with user needs and ends with engineering (Cooper cited in Zimmerman 2001, p6). Similarly, Hayhoe (1998, plSS) states that technical communicators must become " ... masters of words, pictures and other media we employ in the information products we create for our users". Likewise, Carliner (2000) believes there is a renewed interest in content now that so many people have Web sites. He suggests that it is not so much writing or design that makes for quality content, but rather " ... the usefulness of information to the target audience" (Carliner, 2000a, p14). And Hackos (2000) too has noted a move in focus from tools to content. She adds that technical communicators are now expected to add value to organisations and products through innovative approaches and cost savings implemented at the design stage. She argues that information designers now add value by ensuring the design and content are part of a seamless package for users. Information design studies carried out by technical communicators such as Zimmerman and Schultz (2000) show the development of interest in the profession. Their study investigated whether or not information designers could create a document that would reduce the numbers of errors caused by incomplete data on forms used in a breast cancer-screening programme. The study compared the original form, designed by computer systems analysts, with one using the design principles of Schriver, Kostlenick and Roberts. Form users said the original had too many words, too many technical terms and not enough space. The information designers redesigned the form by capturing users in action, and then reproduced a form that out-performed the original significantly, and thus improved the accuracy of the information on the database. A. Reynolds 2002 41 Another study by Sless (2001, ppl-16) describes how the redesign of an Australian Telstra bill reduced the number of complaints that related to the design of the bill from 47% to 4%. This study concludes that information designers should be responsible for designing rule systems for the production of customised information. Meanwhile other practitioners and educators also agree that design must not overshadow information content. Wurman (1998, cited in Carliner, 2001a) agrees that it is important to make complex information clear and that design should be used to create maximum understanding, while Neilson (1999), a usability expert, stresses the importance of content in Web design, "Ultimately, users visit your website for its content. The design is there to allow people access to the content" (Neilson, 1999, p99). A new profession emerges While information design appears to be a popular title to represent the newly formed identity of technical communicators, it is not yet a fully integrated profession encompassing all of the contributing disciplines. It is important to consider what has forced many technical communicators to think of information design as a more appropriate descriptor for their roles. Mazur ( 1999) believes the Internet is responsible for bringing information design into focus. Since there has been an uncontrolled rush to "web" information (Sless, 1999), users have come to expect less text and more visuals, quickly and efficiently. This rapid development in technology and the corresponding increase in information products has meant that technical communicators are no longer just wordsmiths; graphic designers are no longer just creators of attractive visuals; and usability experts are no longer just product testers. Rather, all strands of the information process must combine within the practitioner to ensure that information products are usable and efficient in solving communication problems. A. Reynolds 2002 42 Not surprisingly, tensions have arisen among the various strands encompassed within the designation "information design" that have resulted mostly from the " .. . clash of different ideologies or value positions that have grown up in the course of solving particular problems and have been extended to use beyond their original boundary" (Horn, 1999, pp24- 25). Carliner (2001, p159) describes a great disparity between disciplines and aptly points out that, " .. . usability experts are from Mars, graphic designers are from Venus". If these disciplines are so disparate though, is there a central unifier that can bring them together as a new profession? Horn's diagram (Figure 2.1 over) shows the diversity of interests and disciplines that are beginning to determine the shape of the new profession of information design ( 1999, p18). Central to all of these contributing disciplines, as Horn shows, is the development of a strong research base founded on cognitive science. Cognitive science research draws on the parent disciplines of computer science, linguistics, neuroscience, philosophy and psychology, and is arguably an ideal unifying influence for the profession, as many of the communication problems encountered within its scope require a similar interdisciplinary, problem solving approach, particularly with regards to the analysis of human and artificial intelligence. A. 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