Resources on Technical Writing, User Assistance, Information Design

The British/Irish Society of Indexers provides a number of articles on indexing user manuals (go to “Advice for authors > Advice to technical authors”). There’s also a corresponding usability study available (go to “About indexing > Usability of indexes”).

https://www.indexers.org.uk

Windows User Experience Interaction Guidelines

Comprehensive guidelines published by Microsoft.

https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop/design

The Usability Methods Toolbox

Brief explanations of the most common methods used in usability testing.

http://usability.jameshom.com

UsabilityNet

Some good information and downloads, especially on usability engineering methods. Funded by the European Union.

http://www.usabilitynet.org

Usability Institute

Provides a collection of usability examples and checklists.

http://www.usabilityinstitute.com

Usability.gov

Usability basics, methods, templates, guidelines and other resources, provided by U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.

https://www.usability.gov

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.

http://www.hcibib.org

InfoDesign

News and links to hundreds of articles and resources on information design.

http://www.informationdesign.org

A List Apart

Hundreds of comprehensive articles, mainly on web design and web technology.

https://alistapart.com

tcworld

Online magazine for international information management.

http://www.tcworld.info

Boxes and Arrows

Lots of interesting articles on design, including graphic design, interaction design and information architecture.

http://boxesandarrows.com

User Interface Engineering

Provides a large collection of excellent, detailed articles.

https://www.uie.com

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.

https://www.uxmatters.com

Articles of the Nielsen Norman Group

Frequently published 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/

Don Norman jnd we bsite

Dozens of great essays on product design. The section labeled “In Praise of Good Design” illustrates products that have some special positive characteristic worthy of comment.

http://www.jnd.org

Userfocus

Collection of comprehensive articles on usability and user experience.

https://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/

International Organization for Standardization (ISO)

Here you can purchase copies of international standards.

https://www.iso.org

EUR-Lex

Free information and downloads on European law, including the Machinery Directive. Provided by the European Union.

http://eur-lex.europa.eu

javahelp

The official web site for the JavaHelp system.

https://javaee.github.io/javahelp/

Oracle Help Technologies

Oracle’s web site on Oracle Help for Java and Oracle Help for the web.

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/index-083946.html

Docs Like Code

Collection of info on the docs-as-code approach of documentation development.

https://www.docslikecode.com

MobileRead

Popular forums and comprehensive wiki on ebooks.

https://www.mobileread.com

helpinfo

Web site dedicated to Microsoft Help.

http://www.help-info.de

DITA XML.org

The official community and resource for the DITA OASIS standard.

http://dita.xml.org

Fluid Topics DITA publications

DITA specification in webhelp format.

https://dita.fluidtopics.com

Learning DITA

Free online learning courses on the basics of DITA.

http://www.learningdita.com

ditamap

Collection of DITA-related information and links.

http://www.ditamap.com

DITA Writer

Various DITA-related articles and links.

http://www.ditawriter.com

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://www.docbook.org

http://sagehill.net/docbookxsl/index.html

S1000D

Specification for technical documentation related to defense systems, civil aviation products, construction industry products, and ship industry products.

http://public.s1000d.org

PI-Mod

Information model for plant construction and mechanical engineering (and others).

http://www.pi-mod.de

Some less well-known or emerging standards and initiatives are:

http://projectmallard.org and https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Yelp/Tools

http://www.omanual.org

http://spfe.info

I’d Rather Be Writing

“A blog about the latest trends in technical communication” by Tom Johnson.

http://idratherbewriting.com

Cherryleaf Technical Authors Blog

Blog on a wide spectrum of topics related to user assistance.

http://www.cherryleaf.com/blog/

Scriptorium Publishing

Blog on technical communication in general but with a focus on technology-related topics.

https://www.scriptorium.com/blog/

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://www.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.

http://thecontentwrangler.com

Technical Communication Center

“Technical Writing & Communication Tips, Trends & Tutorials” by Ugur Akinci.

http://www.technicalcommunicationcenter.com

The m-Learning Revolution Blog

Blog by by RJ Jacquez.

http://rjacquez.com

The Cooper Journal

“A blog about design, business and the world we live in.” By Cooper.

https://www.cooper.com/journal/

Flare for Programmers

“Programming, scripting, and automating with Madcap Flare projects and outputs”. By Thomas Tregner.

http://tregner.com/flare-blog/

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.

http://iconlogic.blogs.com

TechComm Central by Adobe

Blog by Adobe staff and some guest bloggers.

https://blogs.adobe.com/techcomm/

Docu + Design Daube

Various FrameMaker resources.

http://www.daube.ch/docu/fmaker00.html

ClickStart

Various tips on Captivate, CSS, Flare, HTML, dynamic help, and web-based help.

http://www.clickstart.net/?page_id=30

A Flare for Help

“Helping you use MadCap Flare effectively.” Blog by Laura Johnson.

http://www.flareforhelp.com

HELP ESSENTIALS blog

Blog concentrating on Adobe RoboHelp.

https://www.helpessentials.com/blog/