Well, communicate
Technical writers have morphed from “writers” to “communicators” of technical content.
In some ways, a technical communicator is a translator. In many cases, we take the words of subject-matter experts and consider how those words can be changed or reformatted to be accessible to more people.
The steps
Learning their subject: Knowing and understanding the details of a project ensures legitimacy, and subject-matter experts (SMEs) will recognize when a writer needs to learn their topic. So, research into an area is key to understanding what must be said and how to separate jargon from necessary technical information.
Interpret the material. Often, coming to a topic as a lay reader is an advantage. Clarifying questions about subject matter can highlight different ways to communicate information, or they may inform other mediums for conveying a subject.
Consideration of the audience. A relationship is constructed first by understanding who will be consuming the technical communicator's work. The audience may be narrow and concentrated, but it may also be broad. Even narrow genres, such as highly focused scientific fields, will need to consider accessibility, culture, and language differences.
Decide on a communication strategy. Here lie the stormy seas of technical communication. We, as a society, are moving from written to visual communication. Information consumers are taking in is shorter and fast-paced. Information design is the holy grail of a technical communicator's work. It can communicate explicitly and subliminally, hitting multiple learning pathways at once.
Circling back: Did your product work for its intended audience? Identifying gaps in a communication methodology will force the technical communicator to grow. Understanding mistakes is where we grow with culture, technology, and the technical writing community.
But, imagery
We are visual creatures, and although the amount of our communication that is nonverbal is argued about, consensus says it’s over half. As our virtual presence grows, so does our reliance on “seeing” information.
All of these images display stairs, but do they communicate the same thing? To some, they may be
What about this page? It’s pretty stark and clinical. What if it looked like THIS instead.