Lavadocs

Reflections on presentations from Lavacon and UMN Accessibility Ambassadors

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Welcome to our Lavadocs!

As part of the courses WRIT 4662 and WRIT 5662 Writing with Digital Technologies we watched presentations from LavaCon UX 2020 and the University of Minnesota Accessibility Ambassadors.

We then built this website as part of our exploration of Markdown and static site generators.

• Static site generator: MkDocs
• MkDocs Theme: MkDocs Material
• Print plugin: MkDocs Print Site

Read on to hear our thoughts!

WRIT 4662

Beyond Inclusion: The Importance of Accessible Web Content and Design

Contributed by Kat Shereko

Overview

Companies spend a lot of their marketing dollars researching their users and developing inclusive web content. However, many companies aren’t doing their due diligence of making that content accessible for persons with disabilities. From headlines and form fields, to the use of images and color contact, the majority of websites today are not up to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. In the US, there are 22 million working-age adults with disabilities. That’s an immense number of underserved individuals with a lot of buying power.

In this LavaCon session, Kat Shereko covered:

1. What web accessibility is and how it relates to WCAG
2. The differences between WCAG compliance levels (A, AA, AAA)
3. Where web accessibility overlaps with SEO and UX
4. How to optimize web content for WCAG standards
5. How to make a case for making web content more accessible

Key Takeaways

From this session, I discovered a lot about how inaccessible some web content can be for persons with disabilities. Prior to watching this presentation, I assumed that most web content was up to par with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, but the presenter talked through how a majority of companies utilize their funds to hone in on the inclusivity of their target audience, but lack an overall concentration on those with disabilities. According to the CDC, "61 million adults (26%) in the US live with a disability". This is important to note because if your website content is not compliant with WCAG standards, you may lose users that would otherwise engage with this content. In terms of the differences in compliance levels, their are essentially three tiers:

• A
• AA
• AAA

A level compliance usually refers to those who may not have tried to design their site with persons with disabilities in mind, but still incorporated some of those practices in their content. AA level compliance refers to websites that are legally compliant with the standards, and AAA compliance refers to those who go above-and-beyond in terms of the usability of their content. The general process of meeting these standards involves choosing a level of compliance, auditing content in accordance to these standards, and crafting an accessibility statement. Examples of good compliance with accessibility standards includes the usage of clean, easy-to-follow heading structure, quality Alt Attributes for images, and mobile friendly, keyboard accessible form fields.

Reflection

In general, I found this LavaCon presentation to be very informative. Over the last year or so, I have become increasingly more interested in UX design and content usability, so this video provided me with a lot of insight on this field. Before viewing this presentation, I never really considered how persons with disabilities played a role in content creation and usability. Taking into account how people who are visually impaired and need to use screen readers, or those who are hard of hearing and rely on transcripts for audio visual files is something that is definitely on my radar now. Overall, I really appreciated how in-depth this presentation was, and how easy it was to follow and understand the information that was being presented! Provided here is a link to some additional accessibility videos provided by Nielson Norman Group NNg Videos

LavaCon 2020: Leveraging Technology to Create Training Content

Contributed by Madison Bowes

This page provides a summary of Scott Youngblom's LavaCon presentation in which he explains the value of technological advancements in the field of instructional design.

Here is a link to the presentation.

Overview

By watching this presentation, viewers have a unique opportunity to learn how new technologies are being applied to optimize information delivery in communications fields. As an employee of a major consulting firm that specializes in helping clients optimize information delivery, Scott has experience with augmented reality, virtual reality and intelligent content delivery. To introduce the concept, he gives an overview of current trends in instructional design. There is more demand for unique training solutions than ever before. Companies are eager to find the best way to deliver vital information to their employees in order maintain a stable corporate ecosystem. Demand has increased even more this past year as more companies transition to remote work in response to the pandemic.

Traditionally, web-based and in-person instruction has been used to ensure that employees are well versed about safety, maintenance and standard operating procedures. Currently, most forward-thinking employers are looking to the future where virtual reality technology reigns supreme. When employees have the opportunity to train with 3D technologies and augmented reality, they have a more hands-on experience and are quicker to attain success in their respective fields. Higher retention rates follow an employee's success, as does risk reduction.

Key Takeaways

1. Good training techniques teach employees what to do instead of what to know.
2. Giving employees real life context in an immersive training environment increases the volume and retention of information learned in a shorter amount of time, thereby reducing the number of human errors and maximizing efficiency.
3. Virtual reality simulations allow trainees to practice reacting to dangerous scenarios without putting them in harm's way.

Reflection

In Writing with Digital Technologies, we have explored a variety of highly technical skills and platforms that expand the scope of our skillset as technical communicators. Learning and employing new technologies is a skill that is more specific to our goals in this WRIT 4662 class. Virtual/Augmented Reality technologies offer instructional designers the opportunity to introduce trainees to their work environment with a safe, effective and highly adaptable training tool. Learning how to make the most out of immersive training technologies is a highly technical skill. This learning process is similar to experiences we've had in class. We learned how to employ HTML/CSS and markdown languages to communicate information to our audiences. As technical communicators, our long-term career success depends on our willingness to learn and effectively apply the new tools that emerge in our field.

The Seven Core Skills of Digital Accessibility

With Christina Goodland and Karen Shapiro

Contributed by Gabriel Fink

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Overview

Christina Goodland and Karen Shapiro presented the seven core skills of digital accessibility at the University of Minnesota's Accessibility Ambassadors Monthly Meeting in March 2020. The seven core skills help content creators make content that is accessible to a wider audience, and are transferable to all digital media creation tools. The skills involve using alternative text, contrast, headings, links, lists, tables, as well as video and audio to improve digital content for people with disabilities.

The first skill discussed was using alt text which describes image content. It is great for people with screen readers and visual impairments since alt text provides a succinct description of the image it is attached to.

The use of contrast, which is the difference in brightness between foreground and background, was the second skill. Clear contrast can be helpful for people with colorblindness and shows emphasis on text and images by having elements clearly defined by light and dark.

Third was the usage of headings, which help structure content. They are especially helpful for people with screen readers or learning disabilities. Headers structure content in a way that is easier to understand rather than getting bogged down in a wall of text.

Fourth was links which are how content is connected on the internet. They impact a wide range of people which is why it is important to be descriptive and concise with links. It is also important to only link important content and avoid repetitious links. For example, someone with a screen reader probably does not want to hear the same link over and over again on a page. They also want to know exactly where that link will take them, which is why quality and concise link descriptions are neccessary for accessible content.

The fifth core skill was using lists which organize items into a logical order. They help people that struggle with large blocks of text like people with screen readers, dyslexia, or attention disorders. Numbered lists should be used when order is important and bullets when it is not. Built-in list tools for content creation platforms help make better lists for screen readers since they do not add additional data that could interfere with the program's ability to read the list aloud.

Sixth was using tables which structure data into easily readable visuals. Like lists, tables also help people who struggle with large blocks of text and rely on concise design to provide context for data. For example, using hatched or crosshatched fill colors for graphical data can help people with colorblindness that may not be able to discern between different colors in a graph.

Finally, using audio and video was the last skill which involved captions, transcripts, and descriptions for audio and video content. Captions help people with hearing disabilities and audio descriptions help people with vision impairments. By adding these, audio and video content can reach a wider audience and even help non-native speakers, since reading a language is often easier.

Using all of these skills together is how one can make quality accessible content that is more effective for everyone, not just people with disabilities.

## Key Take-Aways - These skills can be applied to the production of any digital media content. - Many of these skills involve making content readable ofr people with disabilities. - Concise and descriptive design are important for accessibility. - Accessible content helps people without any disabilities as well.

Reflection

I thought the ideas presented in The Seven Core Skills for Digital Accesibility were just good general tenets for information and visual design. Ensuring that videos have subtitles or that images have alt-text are just great ways to improve content anyway. Alt-text might make an image that is unclear easier to understand for everyone. Many of the skills involved readability of text, images, and graphics which is helpful for anyone and always improve content. Digital content that is bogged down with cluttered pages and repetitive information are difficult for anyone to use. I know I have spent my fair share of time running in circles with a bad UI. Digital content with quality visual design is often more satisfying or persuasive for the audience as well.

This presentation reminded me of an article I read last year in The Guardian. It talked about how many people without hearing impairments use subtitles because they are convenient and improve their viewing experience. Personally, I use subtitles to watch things frequently and I am often dissapointed when web-content does not include them. I cannot imagine what it feels like to have a disability and have a large portion of digital content be inaccessible. This presentation just reaffirmed many of the things we focus on in WRIT 4662W. Accessibility was a key concern in our Austin Healy website design since we knew that many people with visual impairments would use the site. Going forward, I will focus on the many other aspects of accessibility in my projects for this class and beyond. Accessibility should be a goal for anyone who creates digital media content, not just for technical communicators.

Documentation Has Value? Prove It.

Contributed by Natalie Gardner

Overview

The LavaCon presentation Documentation Has Value? Prove It by Joe Gelb and Lawrence Orin, discussed the value technical writers bring to organizations. Using data, the speakers were able to advocate for technical writers and prove that technical writers benefit critical business functions for the companies they work for. A main idea of this presentation is that technical writers help people find answers. Technical writers empower customers through the content they produce by providing them with the information they need to use products safely and efficiently. Well-written audience-focused content increases the likelihood of a positive user experience and the subsequent success of a company’s product. To this end, technical writers influence the success of other teams within a company like project management, marketing, sales, and customer support. In other words, the content produced by technical writers has a measurable impact on the entire lifecycle of a company.

The presentation then discussed three different types of data and how technical writers can use data to improve their content and therefore business outcomes. The three types of data mentioned in the presentation were useless data, scorecard data, and actionable data. Useless data is accurate, but does not provide any real value. Scorecard data compares the variable being measured to the industry standard. This type of data is somewhat helpful, but does not facilitate action. Finally, as the name suggests, actionable data has goals associated with it that lead to action. These goals give a company a sense of direction. Technical writers can analyze actionable data related to their content to determine how to better help people find answers to their questions. For example, they can see how many people are clicking on their content after searching a query. This allows technical writers to determine what people are actually looking for so they can incorporate that information into their content. By analyzing actionable data, technical writers can also ensure they are using their resources effectively to produce content that people want and need which will drive efficiencies for the companies they work for.

Key Takeaways

• Technical communicators help people find answers.
• Technical writers have a measurable impact on the entire lifecycle of a company.
• Technical communicators can analyze actionable data to fine tune their content to better serve their audience.
• Technical writers can utilize data to prove their benefit to critical business functions.

Reflection

As a Technical Writing and Communication Major at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, this presentation gave me insight into how valuable technical writers are to the organizations they work for. In my major courses I have learned about the critical tasks technical communicators perform. This presentation extended that knowledge from the classroom with concrete data proving how technical communicators improve business functions within organizations. It is very important that customer-facing content is well-written and audience-focused so that the audience can understand and engage with the content to use products safely and efficiently and ultimately have a positive experience. Overall, this presentation reinforced to me that digital content needs to be customized to the audience in a way that is accessible, readable, engaging and easy for them to understand.

Learn more about LavaCon Here

Topic Writing Without Borders

Contributed by Jeremy Hawkins

"A practical strategy to applying minimalism and topic based writing to maximize customer satisfaction and team collaboration" ~Liz Fraley and Janice Summers

Overview

Cognition results from our combined abilities to comprehend and retain

Cognition = Comprehend + Retain

Every day, each of us stretches our capacity for content consumption. The average American consumes 11.88 hours of content a day. That is 50 bits per second! Minimalism and topic based writing enables writers to deftly maneuver and capitalize on readers limited attention.

In other words, we must respect the audience's time.

Minimalist Topic Based Authoring requires authors to chunk information. Authors should chunk information into topics that focus on just one of the readers' questions at a time. When we keep topics specific they are easy to reorganize and remain connected yet independent.

Product information typically falls into 3 main kinds of information topics:

1. Concept Explain in order to provide depth of understanding.

2. Reference Information that the reader knows they can look up and therefore don't need to remember.

3. Task How-Tos and other instructional content.

Each topic has the same basic structure - they all have titles, short descriptions, and a body. This triangular structure allows us to make our writing more searchable. As a result, we are left with modules that we can arrange and rearrange however we see fit to match the audiences expectations - like LEGOS!

Key takeaways

Data specs for the average American:

• Hours = 11.88
• Words = 100,000 (23/sec)
• Bytes = 34 GB
• Face-to-Face conversations = 100 mb/sec
• Touch = 11 million bytes/sec
• Conscious Mind = 50 bytes/sec

Imagine your audience and edit, edit, edit to ensure you:

• Remove distractions
• Avoid stating the obvious
• Eliminate long complicated sentences
• Recognize the reader as an active participant

Three main types of topics:

• Concept
• Reference
• Task

Each topic follows the same structure:

• Title
• Short Description
• Body

Benefits of Minimalist Topic Based Authoring

For Audience:

• Readable from search
• Easy to get exact answers
• Higher user satisfaction

For Authors:

• Collaborative Writing
• Easy to manage
• Content sharing

Reflection

The advice described in this LavaCon video is straightforward advice for writers across all genres. Knowing, understanding, and respecting your audience is the first step to successful communication. I like the simple structure Fraley and Summers present, and I believe tasks, concepts and references encompass pretty much all of the topics a typical reader will need.

The really interesting part of the presentation was how it demonstrated the benefits of Minimal Topic Based Authoring for the author. Busting the information we present into smaller chunks, defined by a single question, allows for super flexible and dynamic rearrangements. When we can easily rearrange and reorganize our writing, then it is easier to meet the audience/user with a more tailored display of what they are looking forward to.

I appreciate that the human mind is not at risk of maxing out, but it is vital to remember that the limited bandwidth most of us has does drive a competition for our attention. Minimalism is a fine principle for many aspects of modern life, but writing content stands to benefit exceptionally.

Written with StackEdit.

Accessibility Ambassadors Presentation

Contributed by Megan Lange

Overview of Introduction to Cognitive Accessibility for the Web

The intro to cognitive accessibility video is precisely as described in the title. The presenter, Amy Drayer, covers the basics of making accessible content. They are as follows: 1. Help people understand what things are and how to use them . 2. Help people find what they need. 3. Use clear and understandable content. 4. Help people avoid mistakes or correct them. 5. Help people maintain focus. 6. Ensure processes do not rely on memory. 7. Provide help and support. 8. Support adaptation and personalization.

Drayer uses these 8 objectives as touchtones throughout her presentation. By focusing on these objects Drayer explains how to best design accessible content. Drayer also outlines some of the most common Cognitive functions to take into consideration when designing web-based content. * Short term memory. * Different processing speed capabilities. * Language restrictions that need simple clear words * Social/communication issues needing literal language * Dyscalculia (numerical reference confusion) * Issues keeping or regaining focus * Needed support to minimize errors

For a more in depth introdution to accessibility view the entire presentation here: Intro to Cognitive Accessibility

Key takeaways

Things like plain language, limited and simple text blocks, and easy to navigate webpages not only make sites more accessible, but they are also design aspects we can use to improve usability overall. All of the 8 objectives discussed in this video are actionable and straightforward ways to improve any content. Another useful takeaway was Drayer's emphasis on what cognitive functions are most used when using the web and how they are impacted by inaccessible content.

Reflection

What resonated with me most from "Intro to Cognitive Accessibility" is how common sense a lot of the changes recommended for making websites more accessible end up being. A lot of it would not only make things more accessible for neurodivergent users, but for the entire general userbase. All of the accessibility ambassador videos are useful for alerting us of some simple and important, but oft forgotten changes we can make to improve our content.

Presentation: Intro to Cognitive Accessiblity

Contributed by Dimitri Persaud

Summary

Amy Drayer's presentation on web development from the Accessibility Ambassadors's Monthly Meeting revolved around discussing features that should be implemented to make the web more accessible to those with cognitive impairments/limitations and learning disabilities. There is no "perfect" mind, therefore developing with considerations for cognitive accessibility makes the web a better place for all. Drayer offers eight objectives in designing for cognitive accessibility. These objectives are not a definitive list and may pose some conflicts to standard web practices and each other.

The cognitive accessibility objectives are:

1. Help people understand what things are and how to use them
2. Help people find what they need
3. Use clear and understandable content
4. Help people avoid and correct mistakes
5. Help people maintain focus
6. Ensure processes do not rely on memory
7. Provide help and support
8. Support personalization and adaptation

In designing for cognitive accessibility, we must ensure that the website is clear, easy to understand, and logical. The content, elements, and controls we add should have a clear purpose. These elements should remain static unless the user choses to move them. Webpages should be laid out with a logical hierarchy and broken into chunks with headers to improve readability and scanability. That content should not be overbearing. Websites should also not interrupt the user through means such as popup ads or notifications. When users must perform some task enter an input, the requirements and purposes should be obvious. Users should be able to amend mistakes they have made and be able to review them. User processes should not be heavily reliant on their memory either, such as forcing them to remember previously mentioned info or requiring captchas. The results of a user's actions should be clearly defined so that the user is comfortable with their decision.

As mentioned, there is no definitive list for cognitive accessibility. Furthermore, there are no proper automated tests for cognitive accessibility. Web developers should therefore pay consideration to their users and rely upon user groups to best understand their needs.

Takeaways

• Automated tests are not perfect and should not be relied upon.
• There is no definitive way to design for cognitive accessibility so keep your users in mind.
• Designing with cognitive accessibility in mind ensures a better experience for all.
• Always be straightforward and clear to users.

Reflection

Many of the design elements mentioned in this presentation seem like obvious things to implement, but in retrospect, so many websites do not. In fact, these websites may even willingly implement features that are of direct contradiction to Drayer's cognitive accessibility outline. One example of this, popup ads, serves the only purpose of making the site's owners money. While it is illogical to believe they should not make money, it is also absolutely unnecessary for websites to be running ads as aggressively as they do. Thinking about just how many websites abide by this practice, it makes me realize that the internet is far from being accessible to all. Fortunately, some websites and organizations are making the push to become more accessible to all. Thus, it will be my job as a technical communicator to make sure my contributions to the web lend to this movement.

This presentation further affirms the idea that when we design for average users, we design for no one. In developing for these cases, we develop for a sort of false ideal person that is using the website. Averages are not always representative of a population and can make that population appear to be different than how it actually is. Thus, the website will not be of use to those who lie at the most extreme of cases. However, when we design with those extremes in mind, then we can create a website that works for everyone.

Color Contrast Deep Dive

Contributed by Jen Sanders

Welcome to MarkDownTown

Overview

Color contrast can make or break a user's experience to do a variety of factors. Technical communicators need to keep everyone in mind when choosing colors for their document or website. This includes the general audience, but people who have disabilities that affect their ability to see colors.

Key Takeaways

The contrast ratio is a way to know whether two colors go well together.

Things that can go wrong with bad color contrast

• Plane crash
• Frustrated color-blind customers
• Frustrated non-color-blind customers
• People laugh at your bad color contrast (new google logos are bad)
• Unquantifiable damage to your brand (new google logos are bad)

Reflection

Choosing the right colors is something that I struggle with. Twice I've been working on a project and when I try to show it to someone, all they can focus on is the terrible color choices. Thus I have learned from experience how bad color contrast can distract and frustrate the user, and keep them from experiencing what your website has to offer. Especially in projects for my computer science courses, I always think of colors as an afterthought. I still think it is best to choose colors after you get the darn thing working properly, but you must also code in a way where the colors are easy to tweak.

Click to see colors that go well together

The Personalization Paradox: How Standardized Content Creates Personalized Experiences by Val Swisher

Contributed by Meg Schulte

The video that I enjoyed most from the online collection of LavaCon videos was the one by Val Swisher on what she calls “The Personalization Paradox.” She explained that, to provide each customer with the personalized experience that they want and require to pay for the product, the company must make a standardized site and navigation for the client to find what they are looking for, and it allows for easy updating and content creation.

Overview

What were Val’s main ideas?

The main point of the presentation was that standardization is the tool that allows both personalization and scalability in a company. She argues that this is done by creating small, reusable pieces of content that combine with each other creatively, quickly, and differently for each customer. She states that the emphasis must be on the content itself and then then how it is managed; how the content is delivered is less important.

The way that you can achieve the desired standardization (and therefore personalization and scale) of your content is through a process that Val calls planned development. This is customization within a set of parameters, so a customer gets to choose their own content by selecting from a small set of options, and they then get exactly what they are looking for with a fast delivery.

Key takeaways

What are the key takeaways for technical communicators?

Val laid out some tangible instruction for technical communicators watching the presentation. The first was that you have to focus on content. She stated that people focus on new tools and deliveries much too often and need to re-center their work around their content. Secondly, without personalization—showing the right content to the right person at the right time—you will not provide the customer with what they want and they will not buy from you. Therefore, technical writers must first write good content, and then allow the customer to access it easily. Lastly, she laid out exactly how you can standardize your content by providing a list of standardization dimensions:

Output Types: the category of content you are delivering Components: the units of content that combine to deliver an experience Paragraphs: how you define the tone and voice of your company Sentences: the grammar, style rules, and word combinations that you use Words: terminology management

To standardize your company and deliverables, Val suggests that you create your own standards that fall into each of these categories and ensure that all of your content sticks to those rules. Then, while your content itself varies, it will be easier to produce and easier for the reader to navigate and personalize.

Reflection

How does the presentation extend your work in this class?

This presentation was incredibly interesting to me because of the connections that she made between user experience and standardization. I think that sometimes people think that standardization is the opposite of personalization, but Val argued that it actually is the only way that you can consistently present good content to the people who are looking for it. In many ways, it is exactly what the customer wants to see.

Her ideas from the presentation also help me understand how standardization can assist myself as a content writer. Standardization allows myself to increase the amount of content that I create in a shorter amount of time, which allows “scalability” of my own content. I will use her tips and categories as I move forward with projects in order to make them easier to update in the future and to make them look more cohesive, and therefore easier to navigate by the consumer. Related to this topic, I was able to find an article called [How to standardize communication across your organization] https://www.quill.com/blog/tutorials/how-to-standardize-communication-across-your-organization.html which discusses how you might standardize communications differently for stakeholders with different levels of involvement and different communication needs. I think that this article takes a different approach to standardization than Val, but that they both emphasize its importance and offer ways to provide a customized experience for customers without the limitations of doing it by hand.

A match made in DITA

Contributed by Katie Smrekar

Overview

LavaCon presentation presented by Karen Brothers and Gretyl Kinsey explores how 3M uses structured content through the use of DITA XML. Karen Brothers stressed how technical authors need to focus on both content and formatting which is extremely important to technical communications overall. Brothers discusses how DITA is effective in changing content. A technical writer is able to change specific content across many different documents through the use of DITA. The speakers discuss how to start a pilot project using DITA and Adobe FrameMaker. They chose the content, built the templates, tested the templates and published the content. 3M decided that publishing DITA content through FrameMaker was successful and that 3M can maintain content in DITA. DITA provides reuse and scalability for content. After the pilot project, 3M decided to provide lessons for future DITA use. This pilot project helped 3M to learn that “complexity of layout is much different than complexity of content”, “small does not equal simple”, and “clarify expectations for content creators.”

Key takeaways

Three main takeaways from this presentation for technical communicators is that:

• Content needs to be clear, consistent, and concise which can be achieved using DITA
• Content management helps to separate content from formatting
• DITA is useful in technical communications for editing and reuse purposes

Reflection

This presentation connected with me due to my former role as a Technical Writer intern at Allscripts from May - August 2020 where I learned DITA XML. The formats, or templates, were created using Adobe FrameMaker. When I had worked with DITA XML, I never used templates from Adobe FrameMaker, so I thought it was interesting to see how other companies utilize DITA with other programs. The speakers did mention how DITA XML could be expanded using HTML, InDesign and FrameMaker. I thought it was interesting to see how versatile DITA XML is for structured content. They stressed how both size and scope deeply influence production environments. I think this is interesting to know in terms of Markdown. Overall, I think this presentation gave effective insights.

The Personalization Paradox: How Standardized Content Creates Personalized Experiences

Contributed by Rayna Taylor

Overview

Most companies agree that personalizing the customer experience for each individual user is a necessity for business, yet only a handful have reported that they are actually implementing personalization in their content. Standardized content enables personalized experiences that can satisfy the unique needs of each customer without having to spend lots of time or money to create.

There are three common mistakes that content creators make that inhibit them from creating an efficient, cost-effective personalized experience: * Spending too much time on the delivery and anticipated end results rather than the creation of the content itself * Attempting to use new tools and tactics on the same old content that does not deliver * Attempting to use new paradigms with the same systems, processes, or departments that operate in isolation from others (silos)

Val Swisher, CEO of Content Rules, describes these common mistakes as The Personalization Paradox and further explain why companies seem to fail at incorporating personalization into their customer experience.

In order for a business to overcome these mistakes that cause them to remain stagnant, they must find the sweet spot between personalization, scalability, and standardization. This translates into the creation of small, standardized components that can be mixed and matched on the fly in order to create a personalized experience at scale.

There are 5 dimensions of standardization: 1. Output type: Determines the category of content you are delivering. 2. Components: Independent unit of content that can be combined together to create a unique experience. 3. Paragraphs: Where the voice, tone, and personality of the company is projected in order to build a relationship with the customer. 4. Sentences: Needs to be standardized through the use of a style guide to be able to mix and match content. 5. Words: Terminology management should be set in place so every piece of content uses the same terms to project the same meaning.

Key Takeaways

• Personalization is imperative in order for an enterprise to meet specific customer needs.
• Customers should not feel that they have to search for the content they are looking for.
• Consumers report that personalized content has an impact on whether or not they purchase from a merchant or conduct business with a company.
• Content creators should spend more time focusing on the creation or management of content instead of the end results or delivery.
• In order to personalize, you must standardize a small set of components to choose from that can be combined in different ways for different people and different devices.
• Content should be easy to read, efficient to create, cost-effective to translate.

Reflection

As technical communicators, it is our responsibility to provide content in a way that can be easily accessible and understood by users of all background knowledge levels and types. As we have come to learn during this course, it is essential that we remain adaptable and flexible in our ability to utilize different communication tactics and tools in order to get the job done. This presentation allows us to see the importance of enabling our created content to be flexible and adaptable, similar to ourselves. Efficient communication is key, so having a standardized process that can be personalized based on the demands of the moment can greatly contribute to the desired communication goal.

Written with StackEdit.

UX Writing and Hip Hop: A Love Story

Contributed by Wike Walkusky

Overview

In his presentation "UX Writing and Hip Hop: A Love Story," Mike Walkusky identifies four surprising commonalities between two distinct genres of writing, user experience (UX) and hip hop:

1. Voice
2. Storytelling
3. Collaboration
4. Empathy

Walkusky uses Mint—the product from Intuit that he currently writes content for—and Childish Gambino—an American actor and hip hop artist—to demonstrate those commonalities. Walkusky begins by emphasizing the important of voice in UX writing. Voice dictates who you are as a product/brand. Without a coherent voice, customers may not view your product/brand as authentic, and they'll likely gravitate towards other products/brands that deliver that desired authenticity. For hip hop artists, their voice is what delivers their messages. Their voice includes elements such as their actual delivery and their lyrics. Much like UX writers, hip hop artists must adhere to authenticity and transparency if they want their fans to listen to their message. While authenticity is a core element of a success voice, a product/brand or hip hop artist's voice can change over time, as long as it is done in a thoughtful and organic way.

Through these coherent voices, both UX writers and hip hop artists can tell their stories. The story is what leads the customers and listeners to the end goal. For UX writers, this end goal is generally the sucessful use of a product and/or documentation. For hip hop artists, this end goal is the assimilation of their intended message. Storytelling, then, is an essential component for both genres of writing. Without effective storytelling, UX writers will not reach their intended audiences, and hip hop artists will not have their unique experiences heard by others.

Both genres of writing also require signficant collaboration. Within UX, collaboration occurs between product designers, other writers, and cross-functional teams. Within hip hop, collaboration occurs between producers, other rappers, as well as the fans and media. Collaboration requires mutual respect and trust, and it also enables both UX writers and hip hop artists to create products that they would have otherwise not be able to create alone.

Finally, both UX writing and hip hop emphasize the importance of empathy. Within UX writing, empathy allows writers to better understand their customer needs, meet those customers where they are at, and empower them to make the best decisions for themselves. Within hip hop, the audience can emphathize and understand with the unique perspective of each artist, and the audiences gain insight into situations that they may never experience first-hand.

Key Takeaways

For technical communicators, Walkusky provides a few important takeaways. First, even for something as technical as help documentation for a specific product, audiences want to take part in a conversation. Rather than talking at customers, UX writers (and technical communicators in general) should write in a way to talk with their audience. For Walkusky's work on Mint, this meant creating a more empowering coach voice that leads the audience through a guided conversation about their finances.

Second, technical communicators must thoroughly understand their audience. Depending on the product/brand, audiences will have a unique set of needs, wants, and problems. In order to create documentation that best suits those needs, wants, and problems, technical communicators must engage in thorough research and analysis of all potential audiences. Without proper research and analysis, the product/brand's voice will not be aligned to their audience, and their documentation will ultimately be ineffective. Not only does this deter audiences from engaging with a specific product, but it may also deter audiences from engaging with future products from the same brand.

Finally, technical communicators can change their product/brand's voice; thus, they can change the brand/product itself. Certainly, consistency in voice and messaging is valued by an audience. However, as demonstrated by the examples of Mint and Childish Gambino, voices can effectively evolve as long as the authors are transparent, authentic, and honest towards their audiences. Sometimes, old audiences may be lost in the evolution, but newer audiences can be gained through an effective evolution. If a larger audience is desired, an evolution in voice is often necessary.

Reflection

While watching this presentation, I was immediately reminded of a key message from Redish. When I write for the web, I need to frame my writing as a conversation with my audience. To do that, I need to first understand my audience (empathy) through research, analysis, and the creation of user personas. I need to put myself in my audience's shoes:

• What do they need from my writing?
• What questions will they ask first?
• How would they want their questions to be answered?

By answering these types of questions, I can better facilitate an effective conversation with my writing.

Walkusky's notion of "voice" also reminded me of our work with the Minnesota Austin Healey Club (MAHC). MAHC wanted recommendations for their website redesign, but they also wanted to maintain the club's classic, charming voice in the redesign process. In other words, they wanted to remain authentic to their original audience, but they also wanted to organically update their voice to attract new audiences. I believe Walkusky's emphasis on an organic and authetic evolution of voice makes much more sense when reflecting on our work with MAHC. In future designs, I will remember the importance of voice in building a brand/product identity.

For a long time, I often associated technical communication with relatively dry documentation. That is, until recently, I had no considered the space for my own voice in technical writing. While technical information must be presented clearly, concisely, and professionally, Walkusky's presentation reminded me that a causal tone can be effective, too. Essentially, I am slowly realizing that technical communication and the various genres of writing nested within it all require a dynamic approach to writing. There's no one set of universal standards that defines effective technical communication, and I now realize how much potential there is for creativity in my future work.

UMN Accessibility Ambassadors Presentation Review

Nicholas Van Orsdel - WRIT 4662W

Summary of the Accessible Google Docs Presentation

Amy Drayer, a web developer for the University of Minnesota (UMN) libraries, and Khaled Musa, an academic technologist with the UMN academic technology support services, both presented useful insight into what google docs can be used for as well as what it is limited to. Throughout the presentation, the core focus was on the structure of a document using google docs. Two docs were put together side by side to see the difference structure can have on accessibility while using google docs. The two presenters also touched on useful tools and advice for listeners to use in google docs on their own future projects.

Key takeaways

Throughout the presentation, both speakers presented difference skills that can be extremely useful when using google docs. The three skills I’d like to highlight for key takeaways are the following:

• Headings format
• Color and contrast recommendations
• Header and footnote format

To begin, the biggest takeaway from the suggestions on the format for headings was to bold all headings within documents, and the exact size of the test for each heading style. For example, title headings should be 24pt and second headings should be 18pt. This was interesting to learn, as in the past I had used 24pt font for title headings but only 16pt font for second headings. Second, the advice was given never to rely on color to convey meaning. This was also an aspect that I had used before. The evidence was provided that the meaning behind a color choice may be lost in translation in the document, and I can definitely see the reader thinking of a different connection based on color choice. Thirdly, the presenters proposed that adding automated pagination to the header in a longer document helps the flow of a document. This was also a good tip to use something I haven't in the past.

Reflection

After watching and reflecting on this presentation, I not only strengthened the prior knowledge I had before watching, but I also learned new tools that I can use in the future. I’m a strong believer that there is always room for improvement, and by reviewing something that I had not reviewed in some time, it most definitely will help with my document creation moving forward. If you want to strengthen your google doc skills, as well as learn new skills, click here to watch the presentation. In the near future, I will most definitely be using the tools that I learned in this presentation to create a more accessible document for any reader.

Accessibility Contribution Draft

Contributed by Liam Vertal

This contribution summarizes and discusses the ideas presented in "Accessible Google Docs"

Overview

High level summary goes here

In general, Google Docs is not a very accessible format and requires a lot of attention to be organized into a readable document. This presentation focused on people who use screen readers, text to speech technology which necessitates language that provides context for readers. The presentation provided examples of unstructured and structured documents and a demonstration of the effects that structuring has on how the document is read by screen readers as well as an advanced structure document with more detailed usage of Google Docs' accessibility features.

Key takeaways

What are the key takeaways for technical communicators?

When it comes to screen-reader accessibility, both structure and content are important. Headers are especially key for establishing context and hierarchy. Since screen readers have trouble skimming unstructured documents it is important that different layers of headers are used to indicate to the reader where they are in relation to the rest of the document. Google Docs itself has various features that improve accessibility, mostly related to the internal formatting of the document, things like page numbers and specified headers.

If I want to understand "table of contents" I think it would make a lot more sense if I understand it from a document structure perspective knowing it's a level three where with an unstructured document that was not clear at all. - Khaled Musa, UMN Academic Technology Support Services

Some other things to note are:

• Header text should be descriptive to indicate position and context
• Links and images should be explicated with text as well
• Writers should avoid using images with text as screen readers cannot understand them
• Images that are included should have alt text descriptions
• Underlines should be saved for links and bold/italics should always be used in context
• Other items like tables are also difficult for screen readers to convey

Reflection

How does the presentation connect with or extend your work in this class?

As I learn more about digital communication and especially the backend work it is important to develop foundational skills that take into account the specific accessibility concerns of various people. Working without these foundational skills makes it difficult to go back and address these concerns later on in development.

This is especially noteworthy when entering a professional context. It is one thing in class but since I am in my senior year I need to be developing the skills I need to be an effective communicator to all audiences.

Leveraging Technology to Create Training Content that Can Make a World of Difference

Contributed by Pong Tay Vue

Overview

Lavacon presentation "Leveraging Technology to Create Training Content that Can Make a World of Difference" presented by Scott Yongblom explores creative training content using new technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and Intelligent Content Delivery as an effective means to reduce costs, increase productivity, and introduce a new, effective learning experience. As a result of the growing technology and business development, training content is vital to improving employee performance, customer satisfaction, consistency, and quality. Traditional methods of training (e.g., in-person training, text, videos, etc.) teaches employees "what to know" and lacks an engaging way of motivating employees to stride to apply what they learn. Whereas, new formats using AR, VR, and 3D interactive methods of training methods provide limitless, immersive experiences that give employees more practical experience to learn "what to do." These new ways of training can result in greater operational efficacy, better cost savings, lower risks, and provide an overall productive learning environment.

Key takeaways

Especially in our current status quo with the pandemic, it is important to note how traditional methods of teaching and training new employees is currently unreliable and unfeasible. As technical communicators, I think it is also vital to consider the variety of ways to conduct and convey information that will best adapt to our current situations. Such explorations of how new content using 3D interaction technology can provide quality training are essential. Three main takeaways from this presentation for technical communicators is that implementing new technology (VR, AR, 3D interactive) can:

• provide a greater production efficacy to meet business goals
• deliver safety measures to mitigate risks and concerns
• establish a dynamic learning platform for gaining hands-on experience

Reflection

Employing new methods of design and technology like AR and VR can provide a better form of training content, and this connects with our class in Writing with Digital Technology because it is a valuable resource and learning material. Learning new training content using AR, VR, or other 3D interactive environments extends further current research that is important to know as technical communicators in our modern world filled with advanced technology. As a digital writer, I think this technology can help others understand information easier and apply it more efficiently. For example, instead of writing word for word instructions for readers, utilizing VR to give users the ability to see the computer parts that they can interact within a virtual world to build from scratch can be much more effective and useful. Overall, I think this presentation gives significant insights into how the implementation of new technology can provide a more valuable platform for training new employees.

Beyond Inclusion: The Importance of Accessible Web Content and Design

Contributed by Sebastian Wells

Overview

Accessibility is the ability to access, perceive, understand, and navigate web content regardless of disability category. While it is vital for disabled individuals, it is equally important for people who use small screens, our aging population, folks with temporary disabilities, and situational limitations.

There are three levels of accessibility conformance outlined in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines: - A: The easiest level of compliance, you put a minimal amount of effort into accessibility. - AA: Your website is legally compliant, effort was put into making the content accessible. - AAA: Accessibility was a priority, you did your absolute best to create an accessible website.

To get started on making your website more accessible, Kat Shereko recommends these three steps: 1. Choose a conformance level.

Start with a goal for your website.

1. Audit a segment of your website.

   If checking your entire website for compliance is overwhelming, audit only one segment to start.

2. Publish an Accessibility Statement.

   Make it clear to your users that accessibility is a goal. Make it easy for them to reach out about accessibility concerns.

It is common to have accessibility issues with headers, images, forms, color, videos, and links. Below are some helpful things to remember about each of these elements.

Headers

• Landing page headers should use: - One < h1 > tag per page. - < h2 > - < h6 > tags to separate ideas and break up heavy copy.

• Headers should flow well when read on their own.

• Header's aren't used for styling or aesthetics.

Images

• There are decorative and non-decorative images. Decorative images don't add to the understanding of the webpage, and don't need description.
• All non-decorative images should be described with an Alt Attribute that incorporates important keywords, fits the rest of the content on the page, and is no more than 140 characters.
• Infographics need to be broken up into accessible chunks that can be described with Alt Attributes, or avoided altogether.

Forms

• All forms should: - Be keyboard accessible. - Be mobile friendly. - Avoid time limits. - Call out "required" fields, i.e "NAME is required" rather than "fill in all required fields". - Use input errors (describe exactly what was input incorrectly).

Color

• Use color: - In combination with shapes and textures. - With sufficient contrast between text, icons, buttons, and background.

Videos

• All videos should: - Include legible captions (think text size, font, color, etc.) - Include transcripts.
• Don't allow auto-play

Links

• Links within text should include: - Use anchor text that's clear outside of context. - Avoid generic copy (e.g "click here"). - Be specific.

Key takeaways

The three WCAG levels of compliance: - A: The easiest level of compliance, you put a minimal amount of effort into accessibility. - AA: Your website is legally compliant, effort was put into making the content accessible. - AAA: Accessibility was a priority, you did your absolute best to create an accessible website.

The three steps to get started on making your website accessible: 1. Choose a conformance level.

Start with a goal for your website.

1. Audit a segment of your website.

   If checking your entire website for compliance is overwhelming, audit only one segment to start.

2. Publish an Accessibility Statement.

   Make it clear to your users that accessibility is a goal. Make it easy for them to reach out about accessibility concerns.

And finally, the common trouble areas when it comes to website accessibility, headers, images, forms, colors, videos, and links. See above for key things to focus on in each area.

Reflection

This presentation provided a great overview of things to keep in mind while writing for the web. I kept the recommendations for headers in mind while writing this summary, and the rest of the recommendations are applicable across various kinds of websites. My notes on this presentation will be useful for the remainder of this class, because making sure what I'm writing is as accessible as I can make it is one of my priorities.

Written with StackEdit.

Color Contrast Deep Dive

Contributed by Jen Sanders

Overview

In Ms. Sanders's presentation "Color Contrast Deep Dive", she takes the audience through various aspects of color contrast. She references the Web Content Accessibility Guidelinesin her presentation. Sanders highlights many aspects of color contrast such as:

1. The Importance of Color Contrast
2. Components of the Theory
3. Visual Elements: Vibration, Texture, and transparency

Key Takeaways

When one thinks of color contrast, a majority of them may not think of it being in a life or death situation. But that is exactly what was happening in the military in the 1940s. Many pilots were loosing their lives due to being unable to control their planes. Originally, the military attributed this to pilot error. They thought that since the cockpit was designed for "the average pilot" it should work for everyone. However, when actually taking a look at the individual pilots, the none of them fit their description. The cockpit was not designed for them and thus they were having issues controlling the plane. It can be seen that when one designs for the average user, it is designed for no one. By not using color contrast in this cockpit design, it benefited nobody. It can be seen that good color contrast benefits everyone, regardless of visual impairment or technological prowess.

In looking at the basics of color contrast, there is a great importance placed on accessibility. In particular, not impairing users due to disability, visual impairment, or color blindness. The overarching theme is wanting to create a good user experience for everyone. The core of color contrast is looking at the ratio between the color of the foreground in contrast to the background. The most common example of this is looking at text. Generally speaking, smaller text needs a higher contrast ratio than larger text.

The overarching visual appeal of the text and how it is perceived can sometimes override whether the color ratio is deemed acceptable. This can be seen in scenario's regarding vibration. Vibration is when color combination creates the appearance of depth or movement. This is most commonly seen with complementary or bright colors. The ideas of textures and transparency are also associated with color contrast and text, especially when that text is juxaposed on a image. Text can be hard to read when it is placed on top of these textured backgrounds. To fix this issue, one can use a callout. This means to have a background color behind the text or transparent layer to darken it. However, using a callout and or, in conjunction with, transparency can be tricky due to the potential issue of automated ratio tools not catching colors that are displayed. This, in turn, can give false positives or negatives in regards to ratio fo the color contrast. That is why it is paramount to look at the overall image and text as a whole when looking at the color contrast, not just the ratio.

Reflection

This course has but a great emphasis on digital literacy and expanding ones digital literacy. This presentation introduced me to tools that I would have otherwise not known about, such as instrument that calculate color ratios automatically. Now, I will be honest in saying that prior to watching this presentation, I was blissfully unaware of color contrast ratio as a concept. I knew about the general idea of color contrast and need for content to be legible for all viewers, regardless on potential visual impairment. However, I did not know that their were actual calculations that could be done do determine this ratio. I would like to think that presentation as a whole has expanded my digital literacy. While I may still struggle with actually implementing color contrast ratio tools in future projects, I am now aware that they exist and their subsequent basic functions. Moreover, my knowledge of the importance of color contrast and the potential consequences of bad contrast has not only on the overall look of the project but real life impacts as well. In regards to the Austin Healy redesign, while my group did not rework the colors that were used in that website, had a color redesign been needed, I now feel more equipped with handling color contrast as a whole.

LavaCon Presentation

Emalee Yang - WRIT 4662W
Mike Walkusky- UX Writing and Hip Hop: A Love Story

Summary of UX Writing and Hip Hop: A Love Story

Mike Walkusky is a Senior Content Designer for Intuit, Content Strategist for TurboTax, and freelance sports and entertainment journalist. He came up with the topic of his presentation, UX Writing and Hip Hop: A Love Story, as a way to explain his career in an interesting and non-technical manner. By adding diversity to the UX writing space, Walkusky draws connections from his love of Hip Hop to UX writing. More specifically, Walkusky highlights four key elements that both UX writing and Hip Hop utilize in cultivating meaningful connections to an audience:

• voice
• storytelling
• collaboration
• empathy

Key Takeaways

Walkusky provides fun ways to relate to UX writing, in that both Hip Hop and UX writing require a strong understanding of audience. In the presentation, Walkusky elaborates on the element of voice as the brand; whereas UX writers and Hip Hop artists must generate authenticity and trust within their audience. This may require extensive customer research in creating a brand strategy and voice evolution. The element of storytelling includes the process in which UX writers must create content with purpose of guiding audience members through a particular process. The story being told begins at the start of a task and continues to the end of a task that an audience member successfully completes. This is relatable to Hip Hop, in that storytelling is prevalent among lyrical intonations illustrating hardships. Likewise, collaboration is important within Hip Hop and UX writing. Both Hip Hop artists and UX writers must collaborate with various cross-functional teams in creating an efficient product or song. Finally, empathy is highlighted as empowering audience members. The general concept behind empathy is to deliver with the full intent of the audience in mind. Overall, Walkusky provides a creative lens in describing UX writing.

Reflection

I was genuinely intrigued by Walkusky's "love story" between UX writing and Hip Hop. As a fan of the Hip Hop music genre, I greatly appreciated the music video snippets. I also found the four elements (voice, storytelling, collaboration, and empathy) as strong identifying features of an effective UX writer. As a UX writer, I believe it is important to establish the voice of a product in order to create a compelling story within the product. That is, the storytelling component is key in allowing for audience members to fully engage with a product effectively. Additionally, collaboration is vital to a UX writer, of whom must work with various teams to ensure content consistency. Empathy is an interesting and more approachable concept in understanding the audience members. As UX writers, it is important to put yourself in the audiences' shoes when conducting research and solving problems. The overall concept of empathy fully encompasses relationships between UX writers and the audience.

WRIT 4662

WRIT 5662

Bringing the Arts and Humanities to Tech

Presented by: Jonathan Foster, Principal Content Experience Manager with Microsoft

With the growing pervasiveness of AI, not to mention inescapable digital experiences, we need to ensure humanness in what we create and present to the world. For writers and content designers in tech, this means a transformation away from technical writing to content design that focuses on people. Jonathan Foster will share his story of how designing Cortana’s personality led him to an epiphany around why writers from the Arts and Humanities are needed now more than ever.

Contributed by Rorie Anders

Overview

As Jonathan Foster explains, we know that people have the tendency to anthropomorphize objects which often leads to the development of some sort of emotional connection to the object. Additionally, we know or have seen that technology has evolved to creating objects that enable human-like experiences. But, what is often left unknown is how those experiences can affect us. Through his work at Microsoft, Jonathan has focused on designing and exemplifying the concept of personality in his work on Cortana (virtual assistant developed by Microsoft) and Personality Chat for Microsoft's Bot Framework.

According to Jonathan Foster, personality is a lot like voice and tone and he discovered that as a company, Microsoft needed to cultivate a more empathetic relationship through their writing with their customers. It is this emotional response from their customers that they wanted to place a greater focus. It was then that Jonathan realized the need for different talent to build upon these emotional relationships. He believed that artistic people, creative writers, were well-suited for these kinds of challenges, finding ways to connect with someone's mind or heart, and then see how the system responds. Jonathan noted that by building out this group of people that know how to approach this work is the best way to start. Where there head is at is a great starting point to understanding how to treat humans well.

Bottom Line: We need the right talent to do this, and we need to look for it in new places.

Key takeaways & Reflection

For me, a big takeaway from Jonathan's presentation speaks to the importance of establishing the appropriate voice and tone of one's writing as a means of connecting with your target audience. Within Jonathan's presentation, he used the example of Microsoft's "Blue Screen of Death" or the error screen. Most individuals have experienced this screen at some point in their life and feel some sort of dread just by looking at it.

Before, when Microsoft used this screen to indicate an issue with the computer, the writing and presentation of the screen:

• Acted as if the user wasn't present;
• Used the term "crashdump" which means nothing to an everyday user; and
• Placed blame upon the user -- "The end-user manually generated the crashdump."

As Jonathan notes, Microsoft wasn't thinking about people.

So Microsoft decided to take an alternative approach to the issue and redesigned the screen, which ultimately elicited a different experience. * The wording was rephrased to say that the PC was the one that ran into the problem, not the user. * They incorporated a QR code as a means of providing more help and utilized more easy and accessible forms of technical support. * They even threw in a frowny-face emoticon.

Personally, I believe that it is these types of considerations that we, as Technical Communicators, need to factor into our work. Our audience plays a significant role in how we choose to present the information and what kind of experience we want to set up for that user.

I think another key takeaway is the benefit of diversifying one's writing skills and incorporating more creative outlets as writers. Within his presentation, Jonathan showed how Microsoft searches for new talent to join their team and specifically called out the requirement - "Experience writing for instructional, conversational, and storytelling purposes (e.g., creative fiction, playwriting, screenwriting, journalism, interpretative/museum design)". For me, I see this as a way companies can value future candidates who exhibit different skills that can benefit the role, the team, and the company as a whole. I find it as a means of encouragement to not pigeonhole myself and my abilities, and find other ways I can bring value to my work and my team. Additionally, I think this empowers us as students to take creative license in our writings for this (and all) courses. Now is a great time to experiment, learn, and really sharpen those skills that will carry us through in our careers as Technical Communicators.

Resource to Share

Jonathan Foster shared a channel that he and a colleague started on Medium (online open platform) called code:words.

What is code:words? A collective effort focused on elevating and amplifying every aspect of writing in the tech industry including: content design, content strategy, storytelling, documentation, UX, and more. Whether you’re a current, prospective, or aspiring tech writer, this curated effort is created and built by you.

Check out code:words at https://medium.com/words-in-tech/.

Show Me the Money: Build a Powerful Business Case to Get Your Content Projects the Support They Deserve

Contributed to LavaCon 2020 by Matt Reiner of K15t

Overview

In this presentation, Matt Reiner explains how to use common content creation skills to build a business case to secure funding for content projects.

He recommends you know your audience and try to connect with them on things they care about. A common audience for business cases are business leaders, and some things they often care about are:

• Business Impact: How will the project impact the business in a positive way?

• Duplicate Efforts: How will the project help to avoid a duplication of efforts?

• You: How will the project support employees and prevent turnover?

He also suggests you learn the business. You can do this by familiarizing yourself with the organization’s business plan/goals and then framing your business case by how it can aid in their achievement. You can also create an elevator pitch that explains the what and the why of your project, in case you have the opportunity to briefly connect with an organizational leader.

Additionally, Reiner recommends you strategically connect with teams. You can connect with the marketing team to discover ideal moments of receptivity in which to pitch your project, and also to relate your work to the brand and the brand’s messaging at large. You can connect with the sales team in order to relate your project to the sales process and you can connect with the support team to align your project with user requests and feedback.

In order to bring these steps together, collect relevant metrics, be helpful and practical, and finally, assemble your plan. Reiner’s suggested format for a business case can be broken down into eight parts:

• Executive Summary

Summarize what you’re asking for and why.

• SWOT Analysis

List the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

• Business Description

Talk about where the company has been and how it can grow through this effort.

• Marketing Strategy

Lay out how you’re going to share the results of this effort internally and externally once it’s finished.

• Competitors Analysis

Explore the offerings of other organizations and push your unique selling proposition.

• Operations Overview

Share the plan for who will be involved in the effort, what tools they’ll need, and the time commitment needed from each.

• Product Plan

Dive into the nitty gritty of the effort, what it involves, what will change, and lay out the final result.

• Financial Plan

Share costs as far as you understand them and justify them if possible.

Key takeaways

What are the key takeaways for technical communicators?

1. Technical communicators may need to make a case for funding their content projects, even when it’s not the most fun conversation to have. Luckily, the business case creation process can be broken down into manageable steps.

2. A comprehensive business case can be broken down into eight parts: executive summary, SWOT analysis, business description, marketing strategy, competitors analysis, operations overview, product plan, and financial plan.

3. Collaboration is key when it comes to illustrating the value a project has to an organization. The marketing, sales, and support teams can offer important insights into how a project might benefit the organization at large.

Reflection

How does the presentation connect with or extend your work in this class?

The technical communications skills learned in this class will likely require funding, if done in a professional capacity. Whether we like it or not, we may be called upon to justify this funding by creating and presenting a business case. This presentation simplified the business case creation process, and also provided tips for collaborations outside of the communications team.

Who Does What, When: Aligning Content Stakeholders with Clear Roles and Responsibilities

Contributed by Niklas Curle

Overview

Presenter Blaine Kyllo talks about the eternal problem of ownership in content strategy. Who exactly is the owner of a project in a group if no one can agree to take ownership? In his own definition he defines owners as those that need to be involved for the content to be effective. Owners work best when their work is specialized into one area and they aren't stretched thin with multiple responsibilities. Conversely, if no one wants to become the owner then the project won't be completed. This definition obviously must involve than one person, so the scope of ownership expands as well.

With the definition of ownership changed to everyone with a stake in the project, he introduces his method of assigning people roles and responsibilities. It's called a RACI chart:

• R stands for responsible
• A stands for accountable
• C stands for consulted
• I stands for informed.

These are the characteristics that employees have for different tasks, e.g. a person can be the accountable party for a particular task. Down the left side of the chart are the different tasks required for the project, and stretched across the top are the different job titles. An example:

Task	Chef	Owner	Manager	Waiter
Finances		R/A	I
Cooking	R		A	I
Operations		A	R

(Resource: Markdown Guide Extended Syntax)

You then fill in the cells with a letter depending on the employees level of engagement with the task.

Key takeaways

As technical communicators, we work with other teams in our company to develop documentation. It's important that everyone knows their role, otherwise there will be conflict over responsibilities. This presentation talked about a method that can prevent this from occurring and will set the team up for a successful project. Particularly for technical communicators which often have little formal power, this activity can make us more included in the entire project process. For example, before this activity other teams can forget to consult us about a task they were doing which later could lead to a bad outcome. If we were instead identified as consultants for that particular task at the start, we may have been able to remedy the problem come up with a good solution.

Reflection

This might be a stretch, but I thought back to learning HTML elements and how every structural and semantic representation imaginable has an element for that purpose. If you use elements the right way, your document will be better because it is more accessible and editable. Just like how determining the different responsibilities in the RACI chart leads to a clear web of relationships and a better final product, if you apply elements in HTML the right way the content can be understood by more people and makes editing easier.

A RACI chart is similar to an audience analysis in that you have to identify the relevant stakeholders and their role. Some people can be identified as the primary audience and are considered vital stakeholders in the project, so if their needs aren't met the project is considered a failure. This can be directly compared to the people in the RACI chart that have the Accountable responsibility. Blaine mentioned how there should always be one person accountable for each task. Otherwise, the entire project can collapse. Other parties are less important and only need to be informed but they still need to be included in the project's design.

Smarter Content in Weird Places

Presented by: Bill Swallow, Director of Operations at Scriptorium

Contributed by: Sandra Dekoum

Overview

Presenter Bill Swallow discusses smart content, which is essentially XML or structured content that has metadata as a component. This smart content allows a more creative way of writing, managing, and using content. The focal point of the presentation was a discussion of content as an asset rather than just a final product. According to Swallow, when content is viewed as an asset, developers can then find smarter ways to create, manage, and deliver content.

What makes content smart?

• Unconventional structures—not traditional topics-based authoring approach to content development
• Innovative approach to metadata—moves beyond traditional approaches to metadata such as audience or method of delivery towards more meaningful definitions that allow content to be used in an equally meaningful way
• Engineering with content—authoring content to maximize current and future needs

What is the history of smart content and where is it now?

Swallow provides a brief historical overview of how smart content came to be with efficiency being the key motivator. Early on, content developers began exploring:

• Separation of content and form
• Single-sourcing
• Topic-based authoring
• Content reuse

Presently, there is a shift away from this emphasis on efficiency towards content as an asset and how it can be maximized, personalized with metadata, and ultimately how its delivered. In this way, smarter content becomes more valuable due to its ability to be used in a variety of applications.

What are some weird applications of smart content?

While smart content has traditionally been used to develop technical content, groups outside of technical communication are applying smart content in different ways, using meaningful metadata to maximize their content.

• IT departments—system integration of content and real-time information exchange
• Marketing—content authoring in portals or centralized repositories and structured content for rebranding
• Educational content—eLearning deliverables, instructor and training manuals, assessments, reference guides
• Product development—electronics, machinery labeling and machine touch interfaces, everyday products
• Chatbots—metadata used as “food for the bots” to meet specific user needs

Key Takeaways & Reflection

"The perception of content as a valued asset that has countless applications is not limited to just tech."

As the presentation highlighted, the use of smarter content is not limited to the field of technical communication or even to technology for that matter. Smarter content is expanding into areas such as healthcare, insurance, finance and accounting. To keep up with this expansion, technical communicators should adopt a view of content as an asset, authoring it in a way that maximizes its potential use in these varied arenas. This connects with lessons learned in WRIT 5662 in terms of having a critical eye for how content is authored for use and reuse. It extends these lessons learned in WRIT 5662 in terms of the application of content into areas outside of the technical communication.

Amy Drayer's Intro to Cognitive Accessibility

Contributed by Katie Elder

Cognitive accessibility covers intellectual disabilities, learning disabilities, reading disabilities, and some developmental disabilities.

Overview

Amy Drayer gives a presentation on cognitive accessibility, which not many of us think about but is important in web page and information design. She emphasizes that there is no right type of mind or neurocognitive functioning, just as there is no right gender, race, or culture. And, if we are to design and communicate in a manner to include cognitive accessibility, then we need to make sure to include users with cognitive and learning disabilities in the usability and testing groups.

The cognitive process - receiving information, processing it, and then actioning based on the results - has a number of possible restrictions that need to be considered. These are:

• short term memory
• different processing speed capabilities
• language restrictions
• social and communications issues needing literal language
• issues keeping or regaining focus
• dyscalculia

Drayer provides eight objectives for designing and communicating information to an audience that may have these restrictions.

• Help people understand what things are and how to use them.
• Help people find what they need.
• Use clear and understandable content.
• Help people avoid mistakes and correct them if needed.
• Help people maintain focus.
• Ensure processes do not rely on memory
• Provide help and support.
• Support adaptation and personalization.

And as an extra tip, make website changes incrementally instead of doing a complete overhaul all at once.

Takeaways

When we as technical communicators design web pages and graphics and communicate and layout information, we must consider that there is no "average" user. Designing for an "average" user is designing for someone who doesn't exist, and it leaves a lot of people out and unable to access or get through the information.

Keeping things simple and obvious increases accessibility to information for everyone; i.e., using a consistent visual design, using common symbols such as a phone icon, an envelope for email, or a lowercase i for information, and keeping language as literal as possible.

Standard website features can be barriers for accessibility, such as requiring complex passwords from memory, CAPTCHA images, and pop-up ads. All those mild annoyances like voice menus on phone calls or web pages that shift around with their ads can become real problems and turn-offs for those users with disabilities.

Reflections

Now that I've gone through a few of these accessibility presentations, I wish I had seen them before we did the client project. The super polished, modern look I was thinking of probably wouldn't have been the best thing to jump to. I wrote those recommendations because I was making the mistake of using myself and users like me as the standard. I thought, "I don't have a problem with this much change, so it's fine."

If I were to try again, I would recommend more gradual changes over time, likely starting with the missing information that was needed and clear contact information. I would have recommended mimicking the original design as much as possible, especially in the form of a sidebar for navigation instead of a horizontal one. Perhaps an email of the intended changes that could be sent out beforehand would be helpful as well. The site definitely could be more modern, but usability and accessibility are also needed features.

When I work in technical communication in the future, I need to remember that I am communicating with a diverse human race. When I design for accessibility, I design for effectiveness.

Always be Documenting: Effective Technical Writing in a Continuous Integration (CI) Environment

Erik Rask

Team Coordinator/Information Architect - Paligo

Contributed by Mary Frances Hull

Overview

In this presentation, you will learn: 1. How to adapt when product development changes processes. 2. Useful terms and concepts that will help you understand and contribute to the development conversation. 3. An example of how to leverage metadata from the source code of products.

Erik describes how for a long time, technical writers have been able to share a starting point and a deadline when working in parallel with development teams. With the evolution of a more agile product release cycle though, working in parallel is no longer the norm. This may create stress if the technical writers try to stick to a waterfall process for their documentation while development is using an agile method.

The following terms are used to identify decisions in an agile environment. For example, a product is usually built on a branch or a tag. Understanding these terms can be helpful for writers as they interact with developers and the devops teams.

Key Terms + continuous integration - getting new changes into the product quickly. + continuous deployment - rolling out changes as they happen. + agile - continuous integration, deployment, and release. + release - a stamped and approved version, bundled and ready to be used. + commits - small changes to code. + repository - consists of a bunch of files, organized as on a file system with a series of commits that detail what changed, when and by whom. In short, a history of changes. + branches - are similar to parallel histories; the code exists in different states at different times. One branch may be the main branch. and another branch may be a feature branch where a bug is being worked on without disturbing the main branch. + merges - the difference between the two branches are reconciled and the merged branch contains everything that was in both branches. + tags - are labeling points in Git history. Tagging is generally used to capture a point in history that is used for a marked version release. + pipelines - events that are triggered when code is committed.

Erik demonstrated how metadata can be used in projects and how a workflow pipeline can then be created to pick up the correct metadata at the correct time. In this example, Erik used yang2doc to create DocBook content yang files. The code used in this presentation can be reviewed here: https://gitlab.com/lifeunleaded/yang2doc

Erik showed how updating and committing a file in GitLab, triggered a CI pipeline to convert the yang files to DocBooks and finally publish the HTML to the GitLab hosted pages.

Key Takeaways

This presentation shows you how technical writers can create documentation to align with the CI working environment without having to go to the engineers all the time for information. It gives you an idea of what kind of manual work can be offloaded by building documentation into the existing devops processes. It provides you with a set of key concepts and words that allows you to lead a conversation with the development and engineering teams.

To recap, to create the documentation pipeline, you will need three key pieces: 1. Find the metadata and/or ask the developers if there is a spot for it in their code. 2. Once you have the metadata, you can build XML out of it. Oftentimes, developers will provide the XML for you if they know what you want. 3. Now that you have the XML metadata, agree on where it will be stored and how it will be named so you can build a documentation pipeline to utilize it.

You might be used to documentation as a fixed process where user documentation is created after the product or feature is released. However, now technical writers can utilize the automation process from the devops world. By utilizing this automation process, documentation can be delivered to the end-user on time versus after the fact.

Reflection

I found this presentation to be very relevant in today's agile development world. Knowing the terms used in the agile environment will make it easier to have discussions with the development teams. Having worked with CI pipelines before, it was easy for me to follow along with Erik's presentation, but he also did an excellent job of stepping through a real-world example. It was interesting to see the process using pipelines to create real-time documentation as quickly as a feature is changed. Having a documentation pipeline, allows for automated documentation to be available at all times and up-to-date without any manual steps other than the initial setup of the pipeline. I look forward to using this process myself in the near future.

Who Does What, When:

aligning content stakeholders with clear roles and responsibilities

Presented by: Blaine Kyllo, Content Strategist at Content Strategy Inc

Contributed by: Maxine Kobinski, Student at the University of Minnesota

Overview

In his presentation, Blaine Kyllo equates content ownership to an orchestral performance. The composer created the music, but the orchestra has individual performers working together and a conductor keeping them in time. He asks "Who owns what?", and how is it coordinated? Brian Kyllo opens with

Who cares? Your audiences, your users, don't really care who owns it.

Kyllo asserts that identifying a content owner in your organization is a "fool's errand"

In an organization, noone can agree on who the owner is, and there will always be disagreements. The best way to define ownership is that the company owns the content, and different aspects of content are coordinated into the final product.

Kyllo reveals that a great way of defining that coordination of effort to create, distribute, and manage content is through a RACI chart (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed), which defines the level of engagement one has for each task going into content creation. When each role and task is defined, each member of the Orchestra knows their part, and when to come in so that they are in sync with their team. Though the tool is not meant to point out breaks in role ownership, creating a RACI chart for a product such as a website, book, magazine, etc. can show where you need to implement communication strategies between positions with the same role in the chart, or show that there may be someone missing that should be Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, or Informed.

To learn more about how to create a RACI chart, [click here] (https://racichart.org/)

Key Takeaways

Kyllo identifies a best practice for each letter of the RACI acronym. * Responsibility: * "One or more people need to be responsible for doing the work" * Accountability: * "Only one person is accountable, and there should always be one A for each task * Consulted: * "Several team members may be consulted. This is two-way communication * Informed: * "Several team members may be informed. Communication is one-way.

These best practices act as guidelines to identify and create RACI charts for your teams/organizations. The definition of each letter of the acronym can give employees their personal sheet music to know when and where to come in to produce the final product (webpage, book, magazine, etc.).

Reflection

I believe that this presentation reflects how things have gone with group work in the class so far instinctually. Professor Card mentioned in one of his weekly videos that the groups that tended to do better at their proposal projects were ones where a "Project Manager" type-role made role definitions clear and goals for the next deliverable. This RACI tool could be used in lieu of a project manager for any future group projects, to identify each deliverable of a project and separate out work fairly between each member of the group.

Overall, I am excited to see how this could be useful both in class and in my current work environment, especially since the move to the work from home life can confuse a lot of role ownership due to the ease of proximity no longer naturally revealing roles for final products.

Topic Writing Without Borders

LavaCon Presentation Recap - Ciara Kohlhagen

To view the presentation, LavaCon 2020 registrants can visit lavacon.org/2020.

Presentation Overview

In the age of information overload - think minimalism.

Speakers Janice Summers and Liz Fraley, in their presentation Topic Writing Without Borders, lay out the harsh realities of capturing readers' attention.

On average, the typical American consumes 11.88 hours of content per day and is exposed to 100,000 words.

If that seems like an impossible amount of content to retain, that's because it is! Content creators are constantly fighting attention demands and must work to deliver complex information in an easily consumable way. That is where minimalism and topic-based authoring can help.

Minimalism and topic-based authoring go hand-in-hand. Each emphasizes the need for organization and clarity, and together they show how pairing concise chunks of information together, called 'topics', can ease the reader's search process. Once topics are assembled uniformly, content creators can then easily configure them in different ways to address their audience's unique needs. Ultimately, simplifying and organizing content into searchable topics can help to reduce stress and provide a more positive user experience for readers of all interest and expertise levels.

Key Takeaways

• Know Who You are Writing To - Understanding your audience is the foundation of creating topics. Go beyond demographics to truly understand what your reader is trying to achieve, what problems they are trying to solve, and how they arrived there. These insights can help content creators make the reader's journey easier and more intuitive.

• Edit, Edit, Edit - Minimalism requires editing. When looking at your content, consider how you can remove complications and save the reader's time by not stating the obvious. This allows them to get to the information they are looking for faster.

• Create a Strong Structure - When each topic follows the same structure they can be seamlessly reused and updated. Often the structure includes a title, for scanning, a short description, which provides more context clues, and a body, that goes deeper into the topic.

• Streamline your Content - Most reader needs can be covered in three kinds of information topics: concept, reference, and task.

  • Concept: Definitions you may need to explain to provide a greater depth of understanding
  • Reference: Information that is easily looked up when needed, but doesn't need to be kept in the reader's head
  • Task: Simple, focused how-to's that are quickly located

Reflection

At the heart of minimalism and topic-based authoring, is the goal of meeting user needs. Adapting content to your audience has likewise shown up throughout our journey towards advancing our own digital literacy. From conducting needs analyses to designing intuitive wireframes, we have been unknowingly applying these principles to create streamlined experiences and to help users accomplish tasks. Even Markdown, the lightweight language I am writing this reflection in, emphasizes simplicity, organization, and versatility.

These are principles that anyone, even those outside of a technical communication role, can apply to their work and everyday lives. So before you share out a lengthy Google Doc to colleagues or respond to an email with a lot of technical jargon, consider:

Who is this content really for and is it simplified to meet their needs?

Speakers

Janice Summers     CEO, Single-Sourcing Solutions

Liz Fraley         Strategic Consultant Sales and Operations, Single-Sourcing Solutions

Kat Shereko's "Beyond Inclusion: The Importance of Accessible Web Content and Design"

Contributed by Brian Le Lay

Overview

In this LavaCon on-demand presentation, Kat Shereko (Organic Team Lead for Portent) discusses how companies might begin to optimize their content for accessible user experiences.

Shereko makes the case that by designing accessible content, companies make their products and services available to a range of users with disabilities, as well as users experiencing situational/temporary limitations. Shereko suggests that companies begin by choosing a desired conformance level, performing a content audit, and publishing an accessibility statement.

Finally, Shereko presents accessibility fundamentals assured to optimize the user experience.

Key Takeaways

Content strategists interested in creating accessible user experiences should:

1. Set clear accessibility goals. Content creators should identify current areas for improvement with respect to WCAG conformance levels and begin to work toward making those improvements.

2. Publish an accessibility statement. Content creators should consider publishing an accessibility statement. The accessibility statement articulates and demonstrates the company's commitment to creating an accessible user experience.

3. Account for accessibility in design decisions. Content creators should be aware of how design decisions might affect accessibility. For example, the decision to skip a heading level may achieve the desired font size, but it creates a less accessible user experience for screen reader users.

Reflection

Shereko's presentation is sure to raise content strategists' awareness of accessibility as a key consideration.

In WRIT 5662 "Writing with Digital Technologies," we have discussed the affordances and constraints of mass market content management systems. The default design styles imposed by these systems (as Shereko alluded to) raise for me a broader set of concerns regarding accessibility.

In particular, I'm wondering how mass market CMS' might be remade to encourage accessible design decisions. At a minimum, such systems might alter the default styles to avoid inaccessible workarounds, but this approach alone may be insufficient given the wide range of design preferences and brand guidelines that might lead content strategists to deviate from the defaults. I could imagine an interactive CMS system that provides immediate accessibility feedback to the designer.

Standardized Content Creates Personalized Experiences

Contributed by Nicole McCoy

This presentation was given by Valerie Swisher, CEO of Content Rules, Inc., and streamed by the LavaCon Content Strategy Conference in October, 2020. Check out Content Rules to learn more about where Valerie contributes her expert knowledge, or browse their resources for more information about content strategy.

Overview

This presentation from Valerie Swisher provided an easy way to understand the concept of standardization and personalization. Valerie’s definition of personalization is: “delivering the right content, to the right person, at the right time, on the right device, in the right language. It’s delivering what someone needs, where they are, when they need it, nothing more, nothing less.”

Valerie then discussed the paradox regarding personalization and standardization, and elaborated on how it’s actually possible to bridge the gap. She mentioned that “you can’t create independent content for every single person,” but if users have choices you allow them to have a more personalized experience. As a user “you personalize your experience because you have selected from a small set of standardized small components.”

The Personalization Paradox:

• To personalize, you must standardize
• You can’t create independent content for every single person
• You need a balance between standardization and personalization
• Consider a housing analogy. Apartment units are typically standardized, vs. custom built homes.
• Consider further, a planned community development. In a planned community homes are customized within a set of parameters.
• You can choose specifics from a limited set. “You personalize your experience because you have selected from a small set of standardized small components”
• Each component can be mixed and matched.
• Each component is scalable to personalize.

Key takeaways

As technical communicators the Personalization Paradox enforces the notion that we always need to keep our audience in mind when creating content, but we have to keep ourselves and organizations in mind by also standardizing the content. Having a personalized experience as a user can go a long way, as suggested by Valerie when she stated that 86% of customers said that a personalized experience made an impact on their buying decisions.

However, having standardized and organized content as a technical communicator can also impact the efficiency and potential ease of use for rework of content for future uses. Valerie said, “in order to create nimble reusable pieces of content that can be combined, on the fly, in different ways for different people and different devices, you must standardize everything about the content.” If we can understand the Personalization Paradox correctly, then we all win in the end.

Reflection

Valerie’s explanation of the Personalization Paradox, especially using the housing metaphor, was very useful when considering a way to personalize a user’s experience, while still maintaining a level of standardization within an organization. As someone new to the field of technical communication, understanding the value of both personalization and standardization is valuable to keep in mind when moving forward in the workplace. It is valuable knowledge that appears to make a large impact for the entire organization and user - seems very important to me!

The Personalization Paradox: How Standardized Content Creates Personalized Experiences

Overview

This presentation was given by Val Swisher of Content Rules, Inc.

Her presentation focused on the idea that most companies now are looking to make the content of their websites personalized, but that they don't know the right way to do it. She said that personalized experiences deliver the right content, to the right person, at the right time, on the right device, in the language of their choice. Her personalization paradox, then, is that in order to personalize something, you need to standardize it. It sounds counter intuitive, but the way she explained it really made sense.

Key takeaways

When talking about standardization in content, Val had 5 Dimensions she talked about. They were:

*Output types *Components *Paragraphs *Sentences *Words Then she went on to define each of her dimensions.

*The output type determines the category of content you are delivering *The component is an independent unit of content that can be combined with other components to deliver an experience *The paragraph is where you define the tone and voice of your company In the sentences is where grammar and style rules govern how words are combined *Words (terminology) is standardized so every piece of content you create uses the same terms to mean the same thing

Her final piece of advice, which was the most important message from her presentation, was that you must standardize everything about the content. It's the easiest, and most cost-effective, way to personalize content.

[Visit GitHub!] (www.github.com)

Reflection

I'm continuing to have trouble switching my brain to "computer language" from "spoken/written language".In Val's presentation, when she mentions that one of the ways we can personalize websites is by giving the client the information in the "language" of their choice, I'm still thinking about spoken language, not computer language. Remember all the trouble I had at the beginning of the semester with the Clark article, and understanding how content can be stored separately from styles? Well, that's finally making more sense to me now. Val's presentation helped with that understanding. If we want to personalize things for a client, it is much more cost effective for us if we have our content standardized, and the only way we can do that is if we store content and styles separately.

Who Does What, When: Aligning Content Stakeholders with Clear Roles and Responsibilities

Contributed by Lauren Milly

Overview

In Blaine's presentation we learned about RACI charts. RACI stands for: * Responsible: who is responsbile for completing the task or making the decision * Accountable: who is accountable for the project overall or who must review and sign off on deliverables * Consulted: who needs to be consulted to provide input on a task * Informed: who needs to be kept informed on the projects progress

To use a RACI chart, create a table with tasks that need to be completed for your project by row. Then, in your columns assign out all of the various roles that are invovled throughout the lifecycle of your project. Next, go through each task and assign a letter for each role to indicate whether that person is responsbile, accountable, to be consulted, or to be informed.

For example a RACI chart could look like this: | Task | Writer | Editor | SME | Project Manager | |---|---|---|---|---| |Create Project Plan | I | I | I | R | |Draft Outline | R | C | C | I | |Revisons | C | R | I | I |

You can learn more and see another example of a RACI chart here.

But why are RACI charts important? I discuss that in the Takeaways section below.

Takeaways

1. Instead of arbitrary assigning an owner to a project Blaine would have you ask, "Who needs to be involved in the content to be effective?"
2. RACI charts are a key tool to help you and your team answer this question and manage the expectations around your projects.
3. RACI charts are best when all roles are included in the creation of the chart, to ensure buy-in from all those involved

Reflection

My previous employer was utilizing RACI charts, particularly, within my department and we were seeing some great strides being made with them. Essentially there was some confusion, pushback, and churn over some of the tasks we as project team needed to complete on our client projects. Our internal team was made up of a project manager, a business consultant, a technical consultant, a test manager, and a test analyst. Our management team create a RACI document of all the tasks we typically complete on a project and had each team go through the RACI chart and fill it out from their understanding of who was responsible for each task. It was very interesting when we all went through our charts together! Overall, we generally agreed on most of the tasks and the tasks that we didn't agree on there tended to be some confusion over exactly what the task entailed. A handful we all disagreed on, but because we used the RACI chart we were able to see where the breakdown was occuring and we were able to start discussing why specific roles should be responsible vs consulted.

I think it is important to understand that while a RACI chart is a great tool it is not something that can be created and used in a bubble. My previous experience shows that it is a great tool to help teams get aligned so I think it is very important that all teams are included in the process of creating the RACI chart. Also, I thought Blaine's question, “Who needs to be involved in the content to be effective” is a great question that not all organizations think of and as a technical communicator I think we should start asking this of our organizations when they do not.

Beyond Inclusion: The Importance of Accessible Web Content and Design

Contributed by Rachel Naegele

Overview

This presentation covers the basics of web accessibility and how we can approach this concept in practice. Web accessibility is defined as the ability to access, perceive, understand, and navigate web content regardless of disability category. Some categories of disability include: *visual *auditory *motor *cognitive

Key Takeaways

In this presentation we learn that 15% of the global population lives with a disability and 26% of the United States population lives with a disability. These people are woefully underserved in the web environment and there are many simple ways to make the web more accessible to this group. From only using one header tag per page to making sure to use alt-attributes for images, technical communicators can design with accessibility in mind. The World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) developed the WCAG international standard for accessibility. There are three levels of conformance: *A (lowest) *AA (mid-range) *AAA (highest) We can choose a conformance level, audit a segment of a site for compliance, and then publish an accessibility statement so that visitors know what to expect from the site.Learn more about WCAG standards here!

Reflection

This presentation provoked much thought about how I can go about designing content in the future. It furthers my interest in audience analysis and learning about disabilities in general so I can better predict how to serve those audiences in my professional life. Being aware of folks who use small screens, the aging population, folks with temporary disabilities, and those with situational limitations were groups that I had previously not considered in as much depth, so I am thankful that this presentation brought these to my attention.

Reflecting on Accessibility in Content Design

Contributed by Sybil Scott

Presentation Overview

Kat Shereko's presentation at the 2020 Lavacon was titled Beyond Inclusion: The Importance of Accessibile Web Content and Design. She presented a lot of information clearly and concisely, covering types of disabilities, levels of compliance according to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), and best practices for several common issues, including

• Headers
• Images
• Forms
• Color
• Video
• Links

She also offered steps for approaching accessiblity on one's own website:

1. Choose a level of conformance
2. Audit one segment of your website at a time
3. Publish an accessibility statement

Takeaways

I've come across accessibility in several of my technical communications courses and it always feels like an afterthought, as if the advice is: design your website and then audit it for accessibility.

What I learned from this presentation is that many of the elements of accessibility overlap with or are woven into the principles of good information design, such as using a logical header structure, having sufficient color contrast between elements, and avoiding generic link language such as "click here."

There is, therefore, no need to think in terms of "design, then audit." Considering accessiblity while designing is not only more efficient than auditing afteward, but can actually aid in creating content that ensures the best experience for every user, regardless of ability/disability.

Bigger and Better: Scaling DITA Content in a Brave New World

**Contributed to Lavacon 2020 by Peggy Sanchez **

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Overview

This talk explores the challenges and opportunities preseneted when your team is tasked with migrating between DITA content systems.

Peggy uses the metaphor of a home move to guide onsiderations for such a process, namely:

• How much will it cost?
• Will your stuff fit?
• What will you take?
• How do you get it there?
• When do you have to be out?
• How long do the animals take to become familiar with the new home? (i.e. the humans using the new content environment)

Peggy's presentation takes each of those questions in turn, and highlights the general sorts of choices that make the transition process smoother.

---

Key Takeaways

In general, this talk emphasizes how important long-term planning can be in aiding in this kind of transition. The house move model is used effectively to capture the intimate and complicated nature of this sort of change in workflow. I would point to three major points of emphasis that are applicable to various projects:

1. Over communicate, especially within your team
2. Know both systems as much as possible
3. Think longitudinally at every step

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Reflection

How does the presentation connect with or extend your work in this class?

I think this talk resonated with some of our lessons about agility. We've discussed numerous tools that suit different purposes for digital writing, and while tinkering with each has been fun and enlightening, the major lesson really has been that we need to be able to think deeply about our content in order to make it useful regardless of the toolset we're using. I think this talk, with its discussion of finding commonality and translatability between systems, captures a very direct application of that kind of thinking.

Welcome to MkDocs

For full documentation visit mkdocs.org.

WRIT 5662 Lightweight Docs Assignment

I began my journey into markdown with Dr. Card's GitHub website, which gave me a comprehensive overview of how and why it is used. Next, I watched a few tutorials on LinkedIn Learning to gain knowledge about specific features that I was unfamiliar with, such as links, images and line breaks. I was unable to get the blockquotes to work in MkDocs, but it works when I plug it into StackEdit. What shall one do when beleaguered by such trivialities?

LavaCon 2020 Summary

I thought that there was a very diverse lineup of presentations to choose from. There were even topics that I had never thought of before. Some presentations used real world examples with practical implementation whereas others focused on theory. Personally, I found value in both! I did watch one presentation that was a bit too informal where I tuned out after five minutes. I felt that the speaker was not prepared or should've just read from a script. I'm guessing this was just an isolated incidence, considering the other three presentations I watched were very insightful.

Presentation 1: Topic Writing Without Borders

Summarized by the one and only Cal U'Ren

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Overview

This presentation reiterated that people are bombarded with more information than ever before each day. The average person is hit with approximately 105,000 words a day. That’s 23 words every second in a twelve-hour day which adds up to roughly 34 gigabytes of data. The writer's goal is to capitalize on the user’s 50 bits per second. If you are legally obligated to share certain information, then jargon and complex sentences are acceptable, but otherwise try to avoid them. People should know when they’re about to engage with dense material.

---

Key Takeaways

A writer’s goal is to capitalize on the user’s 50 bits per second.

"No one is going to sit there and read your manual from cover to cover. People are going to come at it from all different kinds of angles to tap into what they need to get on with their life.

Cognition = comprehend + retain

Say more with less:

• Remove distractions
• Avoid stating the obvious
• Eliminate long complicated sentences
• Remember that the reader is an active participant

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Reflection

This presentation connected with a bunch of the Redish text in regards to user accessibility and usefulness. They both gave identical advice in many instances, especially for visual design and how to structure headers and lists in a way that didn't detract from comprehension. The LavaCon presenters were adamant that users do not inherently value your work and they were cynical about users' motives as well. They felt that content creators should assume people are lazy or are overwhelmed with information each day. They used this notion as the foundation for their argument to implore technical communicators to make their content stand out. Redish did much of the same, but implored us to use strong rhetorical components and website design, so as not to inhibit the user experience. Since users are given so much content, it's imperative that you don't shoot yourself in the foot.

Slide on Minimalist Topic Based Authoring

Presentation 2: Beyond Inclusion: The Importance of Accessible Web Content and Design

Summarized by yours truly, Cal U'Ren

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Overview

The majority of websites are not Web Content Accessibility Guideline (WCAG) compliant. This is problematic since there are 22 million working-age adults in the US with disabilities. That’s an immense number of underserved individuals with a lot of buying power. There are also many people who would benefit from WCAG compliance outside of the disabled:

• People who use small screens
• Aging population
• Folks with temporary disabilities
• Situational limitations (Examples: bright sunlight, contrasting colors)

Why is Accessibility Important?

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Key Takeaways

When tackling WCAG compliance, the speaker recommended a few parameters to work around. Here is the “getting started” with accessibility checklist.

• Choose a conformance level
• Audit a segment of your website
• Publish an accessibility statement

A few simple suggestions from “Beyond Inclusion: The Importance of Accessible Web Content and Design” that every web designer could easily implement.

• Create “alt attributes” that are appropriate
• Have enough contrast between backgrounds, buttons and texts. Don’t hamper the user experience. Meet the standards for accessibility.
• Video: Don’t allow auto-play
• Links: Avoid “click here” and “learn more” - similar advice to our Redish readings!
• Be specific: Use anchor text that’s clear outside of context

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Reflection

This extends our previous work with the MN Healey Club and their unique user group containing old people with poor eyesight and low technological literacy. Our group discussed how this impacted web design but did not approach the issue with WCAG guidelines in mind. In fact, we had no idea they even existed, which seems to be the real issue. Knowing which standard of WCAG compliance we hoped to achieve would've been a strong goal to work towards from the inception of our project. It also would've made a huge difference for all of the Club's users! I believe WCAG compliance should've been something that was discussed in Dr. Card's initial meeting with Daphne to establish parameters for us as we worked. I'm not sure how to make WCAG guidelines more prominent in technical communication, but it seems that it could only help.

Presentation 3: Building Content, Building Success

Summarized by your dear companion Cal U'Ren

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Overview

This presentation followed the National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCR). The organization is based in Florida and describes itself as effectively the gold standard in construction education and certification. Global demand drove them to consider how they were publishing. All sorts of markets desperately needed their information to bring discipline and predictability to their trades.

“This is non trivial. It’s good that someone does it and that someone does it well.” - Joe Gollner, the keynote speaker.

Through these investments, NCCR is trying to get ahead of the curve by developing processes that introduce a lightweight CMS that delivers process facilitation and asset revision control. They needed to be more nimble and to be able to adapt with a lightweight approach to content management.

NCCR's lightweight CMS infrastructure

• Git repository
• Cloud Digital Asset Management (DAM) platform

For a visual representation, check out Joe Gollner's Flowchart.

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Key Takeaways

The global market is increasingly demanding more output, making production and automation more important than ever. This forces organizations to scale up and requires them to be more nimble and adapt. Large companies cannot be siloed; they need a lightweight approach to content management. Through these investments, NCCR is trying to get ahead of the curve by developing processes that deliver strong facilitation and asset revision control. Similarly sized organizations in disparate industries would be served well by following a similar approach. Joe Gollner, the speaker, sums it up well: “Shorter cycles, better adaptation, faster delivery.”

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Reflection

NCCR's approach to content management demonstrates the value behind using the correct tools for specific tasks. Frequently, we use what is familiar or convenient, yet there are countless digital tools that are best suited for what people need to accomplish. In this class, I've learned how different coding languages can enhance website design. By blending knowledge of different languages into one final product you have more freedom to implement content in a rhetorical manner. You are no longer limited in how you present information, which is crucial for user credibility and usefulness. For example, diving right into Adobe XD before consulting with users might not be a sound approach. You also might want to build a website's structure through markdown first, before transitioning to HTML, thus saving yourself a significant chunk of time. If there are lots of tables, lists or other elements that necessitate time, then you want to use the tools that streamline your workflow.

WRIT 5662