1-00 (March 2000) by Julie Fisher Special Aspects Australia

Looking to the Future

Editor’s Note:
This article summarizes the closing remarks made by its author (who is Vice President of INTECOM) at the end of the Australian Society for Technical Communication conference held in Melbourne, Australia, 12-13 November 1999. Eight members of European and North American INTECOM technical communication societies also made presentations at the conference.

 

Introduction

It is appropriate at the end of this conference to reflect on where our profession has come from and where it is heading in the next century. The origins of the profession go back to the 1950’s in the United States and Great Britain, and the 1960’s in Australia, where the manufacturing and electronics industries employed technical writers. Their principal role was to write manuals and instructions for the use of complex mechanical equipment (Brockmann 1989; Brady 1996). Today the term technical communicator is a more appropriate descriptor as the role has changed to encompass more than just writing.

A number of papers in these proceedings have looked at the history of technical communication. Ron Blicq, arguably the most experienced technical communicator to record his thoughts in these proceedings, reviewed a number of books publis- hed long before the profession achieved the recognition it has today. These early books he told us, some of which were published before the first professional body was established, were about technical writing, i.e. writing technical material for a range of industries. His contribution is important for understanding where the pro-fession came from as it helps us to frame our thoughts of where it is going.

Margaret Mitchell and Greg Baker discussed how information is disseminated in our Federal Parliament and the changes that are taking place as a result of new technology. They suggest that the role of the technical communicator of the future will involve the dissemination of information via the internet.

Tom Warren in his paper described the development of education courses in technical communication. He reflects that the early programs expected the student to have a technical background with the main educational emphasis on teaching technical writing. Today however students are taught to design documents using a variety of mediums and in many cases their education also includes how to design web pages. What are the future roles for technical communicators?

The focus of the following section is on the technical communicator’s role as it relates to computer technology. This is not to deny that technical communicators also work in other areas, but this is the field I am most familiar with.

 

Future Roles

In 1988 Henrietta Nickels Shirk wrote:

"It is now appropriate for technical writers to join force with their colleagues in Computer Science on software development teams and in academia for the purpose of creating new visual and conceptual metaphors for communicating effectively. Technical writers will then become creators of the future rather than reinterpreters of the past."
(Shirk 1988, 322)

Much of what Nickels Shirk said eleven years ago we can see happening today. There are, however, other roles that have also developed that she could not have predicted, as described below.

Members of Development Teams

Little work has been done in the past to determine the extent to which technical communicators have participated in the systems development process. Bresko claims that the reason why so many information systems fail is because: "Systems analysts and software designers with little technical communication orientation remain responsible for activities in which technical communication professionals could successfully parti-cipate"
(Bresko 1995).

Bresko reported that most development teams do not include a technical communicator until the end of the process (Bresko 1995). She concluded that developers would be more willing to include technical communicators if they could be confident of their skills and background in technology.

This research was conducted over ten years ago. Today, as the skills of the technical communicator are becoming more widely known and appreciated, we are seeing technical communicators included as part of development teams. My own research found that, of the twenty developers interviewed, 19 would use a technical communicator again and most could see value in having them involved earlier in the process.

Online Help and Other User Information

The days of the paper manual are numbered, with few systems providing users with hard-copy documentation. It would be reasonable to argue that the writing of all forms of user information, including online help and system and error messages, should be performed by technical communicators. Unfortunately, this is not always the case.

Research conducted over the last two years suggests that between 30% and 40% of all information systems developed have online help written by a non-trained writer (Fisher 1999). Some systems still do not have online help, which partly explains the lower level of involvement of technical communicators. Of greater concern, however, is that the online help for many systems is written by programmers (Fisher 1999).

System and error messages are also an important communication medium for users. Although technical communicators are not commonly used for writing system error messages, it is a role that primarily requires communication skills and a well-developed understanding of the user. Again, the research I conducted suggests few developers use technical communicators to write these important messages. This is, however, slowly changing with more developers recognising that this is a role for the technical communicator (even if it is only an editing role).

April Weiss in her paper pointed out that hypermedia, multimedia and other media are increasingly being used for delivery of user information online. With these new media come a new set of skills and technical communicators are ideally placed to become leaders in the area.

Interface and Web Design

Technical communicators have for some time contributed to the design of the user interface and the skills they have such as layout of information, and the placement and design of graphics and illustrations, is important in this area. The literature provides some evidence of the technical communicators’ contribution, however this contribution is quite subtle, with the role tending to be an advisory one (Pieratti 1995). Authors such as Velte (Velte 1990) claim technical communicators are interface designers on the basis that they are responsible for aspects of the interface such as online help. While we cannot argue that technical communicators are interface designers there is some evidence that technical communicators are moving into the field and making a valuable contribution (Roberts 1995).

There is a growing number of articles in technical communication journals relating to Web site design which is evidence of the growing involvement and interest of technical communicators in this area. Reporting on research they had undertaken, Silker and Gurak (1996) concluded that:

"Technical communicators trained in audience analysis, readability, indexing, and visual comnication are naturals to lead the way in any cor-porate Web page development and in any new, post-Web interfaces and applications."
(Silker and Gurak 1996, 367)

Four of the systems I investigated were Web based and all used a technical communicator. This is a growing and important area for technical communicators, as more businesses choose to go online.

It could be argued that any element of an interface, whether it be for a computer system or a web site, that seeks to communicate information to users is an area where technical communicators should be involved. There is, I believe, a significant role for technical communicators in this area in the future.

 

Concluding thoughts

The technical communicator of the future will need a range of skills, yet they will be skills that are not dissimilar to those they already have. Whilst the skill of writing will continue to be important so will the skills related to communicating information to users via other means. There is an ever growing need for system development teams to include a wide range of experts including technical communicators in the development process and this is starting to be more widely recognised. Technical communicators have the necessary skills to contribute particularly to the usability aspects of information systems. There is little doubt that the future is bright for technical communicators as they embrace the new and emerging communication media of the future.

 

References

Brady, M. (1996).

The Beginnings of Technical Communication. IEEE Professional Communication Society Newsletter 40(5): 1-2.

Bresko, L. L. (1995).

The Need for Technical Communicators on the Software Development Team. Perspectives on the Profession of Technical Communication. M. Flammia. Florida, Society for Technical Communication. 1: 213-217.

Brockmann, J. R. (1989).

A Technical Communication Society Revives in Australia. Journal of the Society for Technical Communication 36(1): 43-44.

Fisher, J. (1999).

Technical communicators and Online Help: The Developers' and Users' Per-spective. Journal of the Society for Technical Communication 46(3): 360-365.

Pieratti, D. D. (1995).

How the Process and Organization Can Help or Hinder Adding Value. Journal of the Society for Technical Communication 42(1): 61-68.

Roberts, S. S. (1995).

The Rhetorical Infrastructure of Technology Transfer as a Source for Professional Growth. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication 38(1): 41-44.

Shirk, H. N. (1988).

Technical Writing's Roots in Computer Science: The Evolution from Technician to Technical Writer. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication 18(4): 305-323.

Silker, C. and L. Gurak (1996).

Technical Communication in Cyberspace: Report of a Qualitative Study. Journal of the Society for Technical Communication 43(3): 357-368.

Velte, C. E. (1990).

Face Up to the Interface. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication 33(3): 115-117.

"transline Deutschland - Übersetzungsdienst für technische Übersetzung"