Trends in our business: 1997 News & Views Feature Article

by Saul Carliner, Fredrickson Communications, Inc. Originally published in News & Views November, 1997 issue. Copyright 1997 STC-Philadelphia Metro Chapter. For permission to reprint this article, contact the Managing Editor.

What’s happening in our field? What do each of us need to do to keep ahead? As we start the new chapter programming year, consider three views of the state of our field, culled from visits with prospective clients, conferences, seminars, magazines, and meetings of professional organizations over the past several months. Business trends: working together Technical communication, training, and marketing communication are merging. As organizations try to eliminate conflicting messages coming from their marketing, training, and product communications groups and duplicate work among these groups, the three increasingly share assignments. Some organizations have merged these departments; others are forging a closer relationship. These changes are having a profound impact on communication products and techniques. Negative perceptions persist. 64 percent of respondents agreed with this statement "I could write the manuals that accompany computer software as well as the ones I received with the product." In other words, we have a long way to go to build a positive perception of some aspects of our work and our unique skills in this area. Technology trends: focus on the net Although experts agree that the key to effective communication and training is in the design of the content, the hyperbole and confusion associated with technology causes clients to value the ability to produce information with certain authoring tools and the ability to provide clear recommendations on hardware and software investments. The web takes over. (OK, this isn’t news to most of you, but it’s still a significant trend.) Although organizations continue to use other platforms, most information delivery is converging on the web. Publishers of popular authoring tools like Authorware, Director, Doc-to-Help, and RoboHelp are redesigning their software so communication products they produce can be delivered through the web. Training moves to the Internet. Although we’ve known for almost two years that online help would be delivered through browsers, other types of technical information are also moving to the net. Organizations are exploring ways to offer courses through their own intranets or through the Internet. The biggest difference between intranet-based training (IBT) and computer-based training (CBT)--besides the acronym--is that IBT courses allow for two-way communication like chats and email; CBT courses do not. Training on the web also offers complex programming challenges, such as efficiently transferring graphics, video and audio, and providing users with meaningful interaction in a timely manner. Although many people talk about IBT, the actual percentage of courses delivered by the Internet remains low. This should change over the next few years. HDTV changes the communication game. High definition television is a new digital television standard; it will render all existing TV sets obsolete by 2006. But this change means more than a new TV set in your future: as a result of the new standard, all televisions can communicate digitally and can allow web-surfing. Similarly, all PCs will be able to receive and broadcast television signals. (Experts expect computer displays produced in 1998 to have this capability.) This new standard should force the predicted merger of television, computers, and telecommunications to finally happen. This new standard affects delivery options; for the time being, it does not affect our skill base. Design and communication trends: influenced by online and other branches of communication Perhaps the move of information online has created new forms of communication. Perhaps the growing overload of information has caused users to demand less information that provides more valuable guidance. Perhaps downsizing has forced information developers and instructional designers to find more efficient ways of communicating. Whatever the cause, watch out for new means of designing and developing information. Hybrid forms--like wizards and coaches--gain in popularity. Time-pressed users seek instructions that combine training, instructions, and the intelligence of computers. We talk pictures, we deliver words. Although we know that users prefer pictures to text, although we are increasing our visual literacy, and although we now have production tools that help us easily create and deliver graphics, technical communicators primarily use words, rather than pictures, to communicate. Communication techniques become increasingly sophisticated. As marketing communicators play an increasingly strong role in information design and development, we see increasing use of tight writing techniques, arresting visuals, animation, and sound in technical communication products. As trainers play an increasingly strong role in information design and development, we see increasing emphasis on behavioral objectives and evaluation. Instructional design processes become more flexible. Earlier models of our work process have assumed that we work in a static business environment. We estimated entire projects before conducting any analysis. We made plans without seeking the feedback of users. Our experience in the real world suggests we need a more flexible approach. Instructional designer Rob Foshay suggests an instructional design process that more accurately reflects the real world. He suggests estimating projects in phases, building in provisions for change, producing designs iteratively in collaboration with users, and considering clients as co-designers or partners rather than as adversaries. The process can be adapted to technical communication. Closing note Like the weather, trends quickly change and conditions vary by area. If you have observed other trends not noted here, or if your perspectives differ from mine, please contact me.

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Posted November 23, 1997 (rst)