Spring is in the air and there certainly is a lot going on, both in digital communications and in the world generally. Our love for new technology continues but that brings new considerations to bear, such as cybersecurity and privacy issues. Meanwhile, economic and political uncertainty is affecting businesses everywhere.
In this new VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) world, making predictions is tricky but here are some of the trends happening in the areas in which we recruit and train, from techcomm to content strategy. Growth in these areas brings the need for both recruitment and training in new skills – so we’ll be watching developments closely.
- Information 4.0 – in response to Industry 4.0 and the rise of automation, cloud computing and the Internet of Things (IoT), new information ecosystems will develop as Information 4.0, and this will influence how we manage the interactions of IoT, AI, big data and more in the world of technical communication.
- Growth of APIs – this will lead to API documentation becoming a highly in-demand skill in techcomm in Europe, following on to the US.
- Docs as code – treating documentation as code is increasingly common, especially in agile-managed projects. As content is seen more and more often as code, UX issues will also be considered at this level. Both content developers and UX designers with start to learn and use code as an integral part of their work.
- All-encompassing CMS – different types of content management systems, for the Web or intranet for example, will merge from being very specific to all-encompassing enterprise systems that manage all kinds of digital content. They’ll manage more than words because the programming language doesn’t matter anymore.
- Metadata moves on from markup – metadata will be viewed less as a markup language and more as part of the code. This will bring developers and content into even closer cooperation in the documentation cycle, streamlining the process.
- Agile adoption – Agile processes will be used more and more often as the standard techcomm process flow (even though they are not entirely synced with development).
- AR goes mainstream – augmented reality and mixed reality will begin coming out onto the market for general use in a big way. This is a huge opportunity for digital content. Virtual reality is still a ways off of the mass market but watch this space.
- Infosecurity – the current political climate will provoke a surge in interest in internet privacy issues (finally!). Data breaches and cybersecurity issues are on the rise – and in a number of cases, the risks are arising through IoT devices. With the IoT coming onto the mass market, there will be a need for content development and that will provoke hiring.
- Video marketing – videos are already becoming commonplace in digital marketing. While it may cost more initially, like structured authoring, it will provide higher ROI and see more adoption.
- Content keywords – when you type ‘content strategy trends’ into Google, all of the responses won’t be for ‘content marketing’. (OK, maybe not.)
Image: (CC0 Public Domain) Pixabay
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CJ Walker
