The world of technical communication is changing fast, so what are the key changes and trends that you need to know? Find out what leading technical authors and commentators in the #techcomm field think via the links below. For fun, and because last week’s Congility 2013 conference highlighted the issue of dull content in tech comm, we put the trends to music.
1. I get so emotional, baby
#techcomm trends: Technical writing as an emotional experience
Larry Kunz talks about the growing audience need to feel more connected when reading technical communications: “Increasingly, the best technical writing evokes these (emotional) responses. The boost in confidence. The sense of belonging. The feeling of trust – that someone cares about the reader and the reader’s circumstances.” He continues the series with four other posts on tech comm trends around cross-team collaboration in producing technical content, the role of content strategy in turning content into a business asset, technical writing for mobile devices and the less-than-perfect nature of agile content.
2. Harder, faster, better, stronger
Top 6 tech comm trends for 2013
Or ‘More more more’ for older tech writers. In January, Kai Weber wrote up Scriptorium’s annual Webcast: Trends in technical communication, 2013. The six developments for 2013 cover rising expectations around faster speed of delivery, why the PDF is here to stay, adaptive content for mobile documentation, mobile’s driving influence, more localisation requirements and dynamic content as a service (not a dead-end set of static print pages).
3. Help me if you can
How Things Will Be in Tech Comm … After the Singularity?
Tom Johnson speculates on the future of of help and also outlines how Wordpress is a disruptive technology that is changing users’ expectations and, as a consequence, influencing the field of tech comm.
4. Hit me, baby, one more time
Content re-use is becoming key in technical writing as the number of channels and platforms increase, and users access technical help in different ways. On Adobe blog, Tony Self of Hyperwrite shares his thoughts on various levels of re-use.
5. Wind of change
The future of technical writing (infographic)
A lovely chart giving an overview of trends and forecasts in technical writing, from collaborative and conversational authoring to new aptitudes technical writers will need to migrate to cloud computing. (Click graphic to view larger original.)
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