Technical Writing, User Assistance, Information Design
Links for technical writers and others who create technical documentation and software documentation: technical writing, user assistance (UA), technical communication, technical documentation, information design
On this page:
User Experience and Information Design
Structured authoring according to DITA and other standards
Outstanding blogs and podcasts
tcworld Online magazine for international information development. https://www.tcworld.info/e-magazine/ TechWhirl Tech Writer Today Online Magazine Online articles and resources for technical writers and technical communicators. crowdsourceTPC Online community that collects and shares resources in the fields of technical communication, professional communication, and business communication. tekom Selected contributions, mostly from the technical journal „technische kommunikation“, are also accessible to non-members. Documenting APIs: A guide for technical writers and engineers Very comprehensive free course on writing API documentation. https://idratherbewriting.com/learnapidoc/ Technical Writing Courses Two free short online courses on technical writing in general, supplied by Google. The courses cover “the critical basics of technical writing” and “intermediate topics in technical writing”. https://developers.google.com/tech-writing UA Training Provides a collection of excellent presentation slides with a focus on software user assistance. https://uaeurope.com/presentations.html Dozuki Tech Writing Handbook Brief online handbook on the essentials of technical writing. Nicely designed but very not very comprehensive. https://help.dozuki.com/Tech_Writing Online Technical Writing Basic online textbook on technical writing. https://www.prismnet.com/~hcexres/textbook/ Web Writing That Works If you browse a little you can find some good tips here. http://www.webwritingthatworks.com WIKIVERSITY Provides a basic online course in technical writing. |
Windows User Experience Interaction Guidelines Comprehensive guidelines published by Microsoft. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/uxguide/guidelines https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/design/ The Usability Methods Toolbox Brief explanations of the most common methods used in usability testing. Usability.gov Usability basics, methods, templates, guidelines and other resources, provided by U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. UI Style Guides Collection of links to a number of user interface style guides. https://www.experiencedynamics.com/approach/ui-style-guides HCI Bibliography ACM SIGCHI is the special interest group on Computer-Human Interaction of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). They provide a very comprehensive link collection as well as a bibliography database with more than 50000 listed publications. InfoDesign News and links to hundreds of articles and resources on information design. A List Apart Hundreds of comprehensive articles, mainly on web design and web technology. tcworld Online magazine for international information management. Boxes and Arrows Lots of interesting articles on design, including graphic design, interaction design and information architecture. UXmatters Following its motto “Insights and inspiration for the user experience community,” UXmatters provides a wealth of excellent articles on user experience and user assistance. Articles of the Nielsen Norman Group Frequently publishes articles on web usability. For good reasons this probably is the most frequently linked and cited web site in its field. https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ jnd.org Many great essays on product design. The section labeled “In Praise of Good Design” illustrates products that have some special positive characteristic worthy of comment. Userfocus Collection of comprehensive articles on usability and user experience. |
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Here you can purchase copies of international standards. EUR-Lex Free information and downloads on European law, including the Machinery Directive. Provided by the European Union. IBF News News and articles on the topics of CE marking and risk assessment in English and German. |
Docs Like Code Collection of info on the docs-as-code approach of documentation development. MobileRead Popular forums and comprehensive wiki on ebooks. helpinfo Web site dedicated to the Microsoft Help format. |
DITA XML.org The official community and resource for the DITA OASIS standard. Fluid Topics DITA publications DITA specification in webhelp format. Learning DITA Free online learning courses on the basics of DITA. Resources for learning DITA on the Oxygen XML blog (NEW ENTRY) Various links and tips and DITA that can be helpful also if you don’t use Oxygen XML as your editor. https://blog.oxygenxml.com/topics/learnDita.html ditamap Collection of DITA-related information and links. DITA Writer Various DITA-related articles and links. DocBook Originally intended for writing technical documents related to computer hardware and software, but can also be used for other sorts of documentation. http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/ http://sagehill.net/docbookxsl/index.html iiRDS International Standard for intelligent information Request and Delivery. Standard for enabling dynamic information request and delivery. S1000D Specification for technical documentation related to defense systems, civil aviation products, construction industry products, and ship industry products.
Some less well-known or emerging standards and initiatives are: http://projectmallard.org and https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Yelp/Tools |
I’d Rather Be Writing “A blog about the latest trends in technical communication” by Tom Johnson. Cherryleaf Technical Authors Blog Blog on a wide spectrum of topics related to user assistance. http://www.cherryleaf.com/blog/ Scriptorium Publishing Blog and Podcast on technical communication in general but with a focus on technology-related topics. https://www.scriptorium.com/blog/ https://www.scriptorium.com/category/podcast/ Every Page is Page One “Readers can enter anywhere. Is your content ready to receive them?” by Mark Baker. https://everypageispageone.com CyberText Newsletter “Official newsletter and blog of CyberText Consulting: Technical communication specialists.” https://cybertext.wordpress.com Intelligent Information Blog run by tekom with posts from various authors, both in English and in German. https://intelligent-information.blog/en/ ffeathers “A technical writer’s blog” by Sarah Maddox. https://ffeathers.wordpress.com Usable Help “Examining documentation and help systems since 2002” by Gordon Meyer. http://g2meyer.com/usablehelp/ The Techwriting Engineer Blog by Mattias Sander with a focus on MadCap Flare, Lean Management, and Kaizen. http://techwritingengineer.com The Content Wrangler “Content is a business asset worthy of being managed” by Scott Abel. https://thecontentwrangler.com Technical Communication Center „Tipps, Trends und Anleitungen zum technischen Schreiben und zur Kommunikation“, von Ugur Akinci. “Technical Writing & Communication Tips, Trends & Tutorials” by Ugur Akinci. https://www.technicalcommunicationcenter.com Colum's Corner of Cornucopia Blog by by Colum McAndrew. https://www.notcolin.co.uk/search/label/Technical%20Writing I Came, I Saw, I Learned … “The place to share resources, ideas, and general information about Adobe’s Technical Communication Suite applications: RoboHelp, FrameMaker, Captivate, Acrobat, and PhotoShop.” Blog by IconLogic, Inc. TechComm Central by Adobe Blog by Adobe staff and some guest bloggers. https://blog.adobe.com/en/topics/techcomm Docu + Design Daube Various FrameMaker resources. https://www.daube.ch/docu/fmaker00.html ClickStart Various tips on Captivate, CSS, Flare, HTML, dynamic help, and web-based help. Writers of Silicon Valley Podcast on UX writing and content strategy. https://www.writersofsiliconvalley.com Write the Docs Podcast Podcast on a variety of technical communication topics. https://podcast.writethedocs.org Instrktiv's Insane Instructions Show Podcast on “topics related to creating user-friendly and compliant information for use”. |
This page was last updated 09/2022
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