March 2009 - Posts
Hello Chatterbox world...
I thought I'd try something new this time around. The WritersUA Conference on Software User Assistance has free wifi in the meeting rooms so I'm going to try a little live blogging. First time for me, so humor me in my stumbles and perhaps some less than interesting updates. Hopefully some will be exciting to follow if not a little interesting. **Note -- read bottom to top for a chronological order of events**
Wednesday
Yay! Presentation finished. Enjoyed talking to people and starting new conversations. It's been a great conference. Off to the final session (including raffle prizes) and then to the airport. It's a late night flight back to the East coast. Only have one request, please be nice to me Delta. Going to a conference has turned me into a bag lady. We'll see if I get scolded or not. Otherwise, it's been a great conference and I've really appreciated the opportunity to learn and take back great information to my team. Maybe someday WritersUA can have me back. Attending and speaking has been a great experience for a technical writer who still feels new to the field after only three years! And thanks Seattle for playing my host for the last five days. It was nice meeting you. However, I'm ready to go home and back to *normal life*. I miss you! :-)
All set up in my session room, lappy (my laptop) is ready to present, but am I?
For lunch, made a quick run (in reality brisk walk in the snow) to Pike Place Market. Picked up a couple dozen doughnuts (they're small). Hope they travel well. Also found Three Girls Bakery where I had the best turkey sandwich ever! Saving half for the airport later. Always thinking about ways to save my company money for the bottom line. Purchase one dinner for 6.85 and make it last for two! :-)
Listened to Charlene's great session on twitter, lots of resources to look over especially because I'd like to expand my use of twitter and make sure it's a relevant work tool. I found it fun to tweet about the session on my mobile, I felt very in the now for once and not two steps behind (at least for the writers ua crowd).
Good morning! Had a great breakfast and eager to hear this session on usability testing. We have a group of technical writers on the Documentation team interested in usability testing, hoping to take back some good information to improve our processes. Admittedly, I am getting nervous/excited for my session @1:30p. Before that though, I'm going on a doughnut treasure hunt. I hear some of the best doughnuts are at the Pike Place Market!
Tuesday
i think after this last session, I'm going to get some good chowder on the waterfront before heading back to my hotel room to practice *lots and lots* before my session tomorrow. Want to do well and provide value in my presentation. However, all I can do is talk from experience. I've learned a lot of lessons from corporate blogging, let's see what my audience thinks of my best practices and benefits!
All of a sudden, I got really cold, maybe Seattle forgot to turn up the thermostat when the temps started dropping. Otherwise it's on to my last session of the day... best practices for embedded user assistance. Hoping it will build upon my last session.
Still unable to check work email. Have bad feeling Friday will be ugly email day where I have to dig myself out. However, session on user assistance in forms is giving me lots of great examples and things to think about. There sure are a lot of really bad forms out there!
Yum, grilled cheese from Beecher's Handmade Cheese shop. A slight case of food coma but I'm on to a session on user assistance in web forms. I'm hoping to learn some more information about good user assistance for web-based application fields.
Time for lunch... going to pike place market to roam around and get my walk on!
In my first breakout session - Docs to Wiki: Redesigning and Restructuring Content. I've been doing some docs to wiki in the last year myself by taking content from structured and unstructured Framemaker to our internal Sharepoint wiki. Wondering if I can learn some new tips today in case we do some more documentation to wiki in the future.
Starting the day with the keynote session on the status of Microsoft in the post-Gates era. It's funny and interesting and I'm wanting to research more about Ray Ozzie and how he's bringing change to the company (including open source?!?) as the chief software architect.
Day 2 of the conference. I think I might have altered the weather pattern in downtown Seattle. I didn't see rain on Sunday or Monday or so far today. Have I brought sunshine from Charleston all the way to the West coast?
Monday
First day at the conference has been great. Will try to review my live
blogging skills and improve my technique before tomorrow. Important
step to remember, charge laptop!
Last session of the day is about techniques for reviewing a user
interface. She presented the session at last year's writersua and I
can't remember if Steve or Denise attended it last year. I hope not
because if that's the case I should hop into another session. She did
give out australian chocolate! Bonus points for including chocolate!
We'll see what I can learn in this session, then I'm off for a walk
outside before retiring for the night. I'm trying to stay on EST time
so the transition back isn't so rough.
Finally found a fueling station, after a great networking lunch, my
next session was on Microsoft Help version 3. The laptop charged while
I attended the session. Then I charged it some more during a break.
Laptops are slow to recharge I'm learning. Also slow, development at
Microsoft. Turns out they made a key design change on Friday and no
demo at the conference.
Up next... I'm off to my first breakout session. I'm attending
one on User-centered Design of Context-sensitive Help. Will have to
give a blog update after the session, my laptop battery needs some
re-charging. Lesson learned, find a fueling station every chance I
get!
I really like what he has to say about how visual communication
can be incorporated by technical communicators, even if you don't have
a cartoonist (luckily BB does!), you can really work on isolation
through sequence. You don't have to put everything into the technical
documentation, just the need to know. Sequence through static images
has similar theory around it as comics.
"That's the beauty of sequence" It helps you focus on one thing at a
time instead of worrying about steps 14, 15, 16, 17 when you're still
on step 2. Interesitng thoughts from Scott so far! He's a genius about
visual communication especially in way comics can relay facts and not
just tell a story.
Paraphrasing here - comics help you "focus the mind on only what it needs to know now..."
Keynote is more of a Q&A than a traditional presentation. Scott's
giving the background of Google Chrome and how he got there.
Ready for the keynote speaker, Scott McCloud. Joe Welinske, President
of WritersUA, is doing the introduction. I think he just said 323
attendees are here.
Conference begins! Picked up my packet easy peazy. For being a presenter, they even gave me a nice box of chocolates. Breakfast was a deluxe continental breakfast. I tried to fill up so I didn't have to worry too much about eating the rest of the day. TIme to focus!
Sunday
Sunday was a
taste of Seattle. I did some sightseeing including the Space Needle and
a walk along the waterfront. I even took a ferry boat ride. I enjoyed
seeing the city my favorite way... walking! Only thing not accomplished
was a visit to the Pike Place market. My hotel is pretty close so I'm
thinking i'll take several trips over the next three days. I even
bought a rain coat here! I'm thinking it will come in handy (according
to the weather forecasts). Overall an awesome day to get settled in and
learn what Seattle is like. Favorite thing, the city is pretty chill
and not crowded. Seattle is relaxed despite the abundance of coffee
shops everywhere. I'm anxious to try a few espressos here and there.
Tomorrow, the conference starts.
I’m sitting in the Altanta airport right now waiting for my flight to Seattle. It’s a bustle of activity but I’m too excited about where I’m going to notice. Chatterbox is headed to Seattle for the WritersUA Conference on Software User Assistance – Better UX through Better UA.
I’ll be attending sessions from Sunday, March 29 to Wednesday, April 1st. I’m geeked to be going and among the 45 awesome presenters is yours truly. Yup, that’s right, I’ll have my own session Wednesday talking about my experiences writing this blog and for From the Doc Side blog. I definitely think it’s valuable for user assistance professionals to be involved in the blog world and I’m honored to share my lessons learned and best practices with my peers.
The focus of the conference will be the following user assistance areas:
- Emerging Technologies
- Emerging Skills
- Technology Updates
- Design Strategies
- Tool Techniques
- Content Development
- Open Standards
- Special Interest
The keynote speaker is Scott McCloud who will be speaking about his experiences with the Google Chrome Comic and Visual Communication in general. One of my teammates has been begging to be an assistant at my session just for the chance to hear him speak… to say I’m feeling lucky to go is an understatement.
Here’s the overview on my session –
Lessons Learned in Corporate Blogging
Lindsey Robbins, Blackbaud Inc.
Wednesday 1:30 - 2:45pm
This session examines the corporate blogging environment and how to benefit from establishing your personal identity alongside your company brand. We'll discuss the benefits of blogging for the user assistance specialist as well as the challenges of writing for your company. We'll examine audience analysis, social media efforts, and SEO and what they can mean for your user assistance team. The session will provide examples of my work authoring three corporate blogs and include details on the benefits realized thus far.
— YOU WILL LEARN —
* How to use social media to promote your blog
* How to create ongoing conversations with users and peers
* Best practices for group blogging
* Best practices for individual blogging
* Personal benefits of choosing to blog
* Value of blogging for corporate transparency
Wish me luck. I’ll try to report from the conference on twitter and later on here. It’s always fun to learn, challenge what you know, and take back lessons learned to your team. Who knew blogging would take an East coast girl all the way to the West coast!
Once and a while I find a cool, small detail about a tool or website that makes a huge difference to me – so much so, I feel the need to share. I especially appreciate them when they save me steps and time! Here are eight to get you started...
1. Merge Contacts in Gmail.
Gmail made me happy in early February when they announced several changes to Gmail contacts. This little tip will help you if you use Gmail for professional or personal reasons. When I discovered this new feature, I was relieved! I can recall too many experiences trying to update contacts who appear more than once in my Contacts list. I wanted to combine them and had a frustrating time with copy/paste because it would say a contact already existed with that information. Now, you can just select as many contacts as you want and click Merge these [ ] contacts in the far right pane. Sweet!
2. Multiple Attachment Selection in Gmail.
The other small feature from Gmail making me happy now is the ability to select multiple items for upload to an email in Gmail. Instead of painfully adding an attachment one at a time to the email form, you can now select multiple and watch them upload with progress bars.
3. TripIt Application for LinkedIn.
A professional colleague sent me a request for TripIt. Not only did I discover a fun site for tracking travel but I also discovered it integrated well as an application on LinkedIn. I love how it can update your network updates so people know when you are traveling for business. Could be an especially helpful tool for meeting up with colleagues you are “linked” to but hardly ever see!
4. Subscribe to Facebook Status Updates in a Feed Aggregator.
I don’t ever feel like I can keep up with my Facebook friends status updates. They just happen too quickly in real time. Then, one day I discovered you can actually subscribe to a feed of your friends’ status updates. On the top menu bar, click Friends. In the far left column, under Subscribe, click Friends’ Status Feed. This will give you the feed address to plug into your favorite blog aggregator or you can add to Google Reader like I do. Now, when I have time I can scroll through updates quickly and respond to the ones I feel worthy. This is especially helpful to fast readers who’d rather scroll quickly and spend more time writing goofy messages on friends’ walls or getting back to my “real” work.
**Additional suggestion** Subscribe to your LinkedIn Network Updates in your feed aggregator as well.
5. Blackberry CallsBlocker Application.
A great app for you crackberry addicts. You can now block unwanted calls on your phone using CallsBlocker. I haven’t tried this one out yet but it came highly recommended from Geek Speak Steve. Seems like I might have some R&D (research & development) in my near future.
6. Use Picnik to Edit Photos Online.
Picnik is a great site I recommend in my sidebar sites section. It's an online picture editing application. I love it because it gives me enough editing options for free without having to buy an expensive application with too many options. Now, the site is even more improved. You can open and save your photos from Flickr, Facebook, Myspace, Photobucket, Picasa, Webs, and Webshots, all within Picnik.
7. Check Your @Replies on Twitter.
Some people you aren’t following reply to your tweets. You might not be ready to follow them just yet but it’s important to regularly check your replies to make sure you don’t forget to respond. It’s a newer feature on Twitter but one that’s been on my Blackberry Twitter app for some time now.
8. Googlify Your Smart Phone!
Have a new smart phone? Or just have a smart phone that you never added all the awesome Google applications? (Because we all know Google makes some amazing free tools to make our lives easier!) Best place to start for adding Google applications is a website by Google (Google Mobile) that helps you find and download all the available applications for your phone. For example, my super awesome pink blackberry can download the Google Mobile App, Search, Maps, Gmail, Sync, Reader, Calendar, and more!
Hope you have fun with these tips and find that can help at least a little! 
Well have no fear, because Scrim is here! Scrim is a wonderful new tool that masks your email address from the spam bots that scour the internet to find an email to send their "spicy meat" to. Think of Scrim as Tinyurl for your email address (why didn't I think of this?), you simply enter in your email address and let Scrim do its business. After it works its magic, you get a URL that a user will have to click on and correctly select the captcha to reveal your email address. I created a fake email address for fun (ieatspamforbreakfast@fakemail.com) and this is what Scrim created: http://scr.im/15b.
Oh yea, did i mention you get 12 characters to create your own link? Unfortunately, if you already created a randomly generated link for your email address you are stuck with it. So now place your email address freely on the web and let Scrim do the spam fighting for you.
Your brand reputation (either personal or professional) is an important aspect of your business. Being "in the know" about what people are saying about your brand is important. Unfortunately, branding is not like the world of glitz and glamour where any publicity is good publicity.
For instance, you may be one of the top players in professional baseball, a role model for kids, and yet admit to taking steroids to gain a professional advantage. While when Alex Rodriguez took the drugs, they were not banned by Major League Baseball, he still tarnished his reputation and that of the sport. It's the same for organizations. If you are a financial institution and you require assistance to maintain your ability to do business, it does not project stability. You may scare your current and potential customers away. General Motors is the same. People are concerned about buying cars from a brand that may no longer exist in a few years. Branding is sensitive to public opinion. These examples show how your brand can be severely damaged or even ruined.
In the always competitive market of business, you may want to know what your competitors are doing. You may want to know what people have to say about your products and services. You may want to find out how you can improve. Or, you may just want the opportunity to reach out to your customers.
Enter Google Alerts! Google Alerts is a great tool that will send you an alert (you set up) whenever any of your search criteria is mentioned on the Internet. Pretty simple right? By being constantly vigilant about what is being said, you can stay current with damage control, be aware of what people like and dislike, improve your products, or maintain a close watch on your competitors. You can set up alerts for anything your heart desires including watching the news for when the iPhone goes open source (I can dream!).
Twitter is
another great resource for monitoring your brand. With nearly six
million unique visitors a month (according to compete.com), you can
assume the number of active users is massive. Those active users
represent current customers or potential customers. They also represent
a powerful social network who can spread information instantly to a
domino network. Reach out to them and be aware. Practice listening and
responding to feedback even when it's bad. Acknowledge potential for
improvement if needed. You don't have to be perfect, just transparent,
honest, and willing to improve. Besides developing a network of
followers, you can
search Twitter for key information. As well,
Monitter is a great site for seeing real time tweets of your key words. Enter in up to three key words on the page and see a live stream of what people are saying. A great resource if you want live feedback.
With Google Alerts and Twitter, why waste time crawling the
web to see what people have to say. Instead, spend the time wisely listening and then use it to improve your brand, your products, and your services. Afterwards, you can reap in the praise and rewards. When that happens, you can come back and thank me. 
Co-Authored By: Lindsey Robbins