From the Doc Side

By Popular Demand…

2008-10-03T12:33:00Z

We often get great feedback about our documentation from our users. Sometimes, it's a friendly head's up of a typo that made its way out into the world (d'oh!). My favorites, though, are when I get to help fulfill a user’s request or search for information by introducing them to a guide they simply weren’t aware existed. Let’s face it, there’s a lot in The Raiser’s Edge, and as such, there are plenty of guides to browse through (and glance over along the way).

So it was often frustrating to get that one request I couldn’t answer so easily: The request for the “one guide” that introduces the user to everything The Raiser’s Edge has to offer. A simple overview, painted in broad strokes, something for a novice user. Of course this was an obvious need—like I said, there’s a lot in The Raiser’s Edge—and the lack of a good answer was always the most frustrating.

So it’s with much pleasure to finally have an answer to that request with The Raiser’s Edge 7 for Beginners. It’s full of great, useful information, ideal for both the new users struggling with the daunting task of having to grasp everything The Raiser’s Edge offers and the experienced users looking to refresh their memories or explore other areas of the program. It’s also unlike any other user guide we provide for The Raiser’s Edge. Here’s an excerpt:

After you use the program for awhile, you will probably discover other navigation features and methods. Use the ones that work best for you. No way of navigating is necessarily right and no way is necessarily wrong; it’s a you say “potayto,” I say “potahto” kind of thing. Well, actually I usually just say “French fries,” but you get the idea.

Written in this humorous, lighthearted, and simplistic style (not to suggest anyone’s a Dummy), it covers the wide range of features available in The Raiser’s Edge, from records to queries, from reports to mail, and everything in between. You can find it here. (And now I can’t wait for the time a user requests the “one guide” that introduces everything The Raiser’s Edge has to offer!)

Pay it Forward

2008-09-23T18:19:00Z

Thursday, I’ll be speaking at a college class about technical editing. It’s one of my favorite things to do. I feel an obligation to my field to pay forward the gift my career has given me. I was one of the lucky ones. I stumbled onto technical writing. I managed to get beyond what I thought the field was and discovered, for a closet geek like me ,that it was a perfect place to balance my love of writing with my love of helping others. But I don’t want current and future generations of students to perpetuate misconceptions about technical communication. So when I am asked to talk about my job, I usually accept. After all, it’s not a hard talk when you speak from experience and a genuine love for the field.

Thursday’s talk is at Atlantic Armstrong State University in Savannah, GA. A connection from grad school created this opportunity. Although the unfun part happens today and tomorrow – creating the dreaded PowerPoint. I’ve tried presentations without PowerPoint but discovered for their sanity and mine we needed something to look at while I talked (and talked) for an hour. Have I ever said I can really talk a lot? Well you should know that by the name of my other blog.

So loquaciousness aside (like my scrabble word?), I’m really looking forward to talking about what I do with students. Invariably it always reminds me just how lucky I am and why I love what I do. How do you pay it forward?

Google's Chrome Comic Book Documentation

2008-09-09T18:56:00Z

The buzz in the online world the past few weeks is about Google's new Internet browser Chrome. In the Technical Communication world, the buzz is around Google's choice to create a help book to explain Chrome. Why the buzz? Well it was done in comic format. I'm not exactly sure why the rest of the Technical Communication world is up in arms. I thought it was a fun play on documentation and not meant to be the complete resource on *how to* use chrome. To understand this momentous project causing all the rage, I naturally turned to our own Blackbaud Technical Writer, Steve Stegelin. Most of you may not know it, but Steve started his career as a cartoonist and technical illustrator. In the meantime he's done some pretty impressive work (on non-Blackbaud hours). Lately, you can find him several places.

Charleston City Paper - Weekly Cartoon, Blotter, Special Covers
SC Statehouse Report - Weekly Cartoon
Illustrated a Book - I'll Be Sober in the Morning: Great Political Comebacks, Putdowns, & Ripostes
And he even generously donates his time to some in-house projects including designing t-shirts, adding illustrative touches to our quarterly company newsletter, and the occasional greeting card.

In our cube this morning (yup, I'm the fortunate one who sits with Steve every day), I asked him a few questions about this Google Chrome thing. I wanted to get to the bottom of the hoopla.

Lindsey :
Why is this Google Chrome comic such a big deal?

Steve:
While it's obviously a good bit of marketing gimmickry to promote Chrome, I think it's a great method to explain just what makes it so different from the other browsers out there. Having Scott McCloud use caricatures of the various developers and designers to pass along the message also really helps give it a personal voice, which is a bit of genius, making it less about the corporate Google than about the team of individuals working to make Chrome succeed. With the open source-ness of Chrome, communicating in this way really helps promote its "by the people for the people" message. And as a fan of the comic medium, it's actually quite validating to see the format promoted as such a "legitimate" form of communication by a corporation such as Google.

Lindsey:
Who's Scott McCloud and why should we know him?

Steve:
When I first started reading comics, Scott was the creator of the fun indie comic "Zot!" He's since gone on to become the closest thing comics has to a "resident scholar" on the sequential art form. You may've seen his theses as graphic novels: "Understanding Comics", "Reinventing Comics", and "Making Comics." Each is an entertaining and informative analysis of the comics medium, from the role of the reader, artist, and historian/forecaster. In particular, I think "Understanding Comics" is an invaluable read, not just for comics but for any type of communication of sequence to an audience… I find myself applying some of the thought discussed in that book to my own procedural writing in our user guides, to great effect.

Lindsey:
Are you ready to do the entire Raiser's Edge documentation set in comic form? ;-)

Steve:
LOL. That might take a while…

Here's a sample of the book:

Society for Technical Communication Summit 2008 Reviews

2008-08-27T20:25:00Z

Thought I'd give the rest of my reviews for the STC 2008 Summit now instead of putting it off for another day. I've already given a review on the Trends in User Research panel and discussed my session on Writing as an Asynchronous Conversation. If you'd like to hear more about what I learned in these sessions, leave a comment about which one and I'll write up a separate post detailing what I learned.

Getting Real-World Feedback on Your Information: A Case Study by Kori Bevis, IBM
The only negative about this presentation was the overwhelming hotness of this room which caused everyone to be sleepy. Otherwise, it was full of useful information especially as we consider how to involve more users in our documentation usability projects. Kori did a great job explaining how they implemented a client council in evaluating their new information repository web application.

XML the Easy Way: Moving Your Unstructured Content (Word / FrameMaker) to DITA by Todd Aldous
Wanted to see a presentation on Asessing Accessibility of Websites for Users with Disabilities but the session was canceled because of the sporadic internet connectivity. Totally bummed. Showed up in this session a few minutes late and quickly realized that moving unstructured content is easy if you build a bunch of custom plug-ins for FrameMaker. One of only two sessions I regretted going to at the conference.

Guidelines for Effective Captivate Movies by David S. Locke, Wordsmith
Since we're now using Adobe Captivate to create our video tutorials, I thought it would be good to see what other people in the field had to say about what makes a good captivate movie. The foundation of his message was good but thought some of his time estimates might be exaggerated. I definitely think when you first start creating short videos you can spend a lot of time editing, but after you create a few and set a style you spend less time on the details and more on the content. His core issues of context and control, content, communication, focus, and synchronization were spot on. If more people are interested, I'm sure I could co-write a post with Nikki on what we think are important guidelines for video tutorials and screencasts.

So, You Can Write. But Can you Think? by Dawn Maxson, Dell and Deborah Doyle, Sun Microsystems
I really try to be a nice person so let me just say that this session was a complete waste of time. Nothing valuable learned. Would expound but I'd rather not talk badly about a presentation on a blog. I'm sure they had excellent intentions for this presentation. Better luck next time ladies.

Stop Wasting Time: Ten Things You Can Do to Make Yourself More Efficient by Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler
Scott really is one of those people best seen live, in person. Funny, on the edge, and willing to call anyone out on any topic. This was a fun presentation full of some great tips, resources, and websites. My favorite of the 10 tips were #7 - tag and share, #4 mashups, and #3 project management tools. You can see his full presentation on slideshare.net, although as I said above, he really is worth the price of admission.

Mining Web 2.0 Content for Enterprise Gold by Michael Priestley, IBM
Do I wish I were as genius as Michael? Yes, yes I do. Michael did a nice job of talking about the relevance of web 2.0 and DITA and making a case for open standard support for web 2.0. I especially appreciated his discussion on how it's getting easier to get content in but harder to get content out because information becomes silo'd, redundant, and harder to reuse. My favorite thing he said in the whole presentation centered on separating the content from the application of which I am a strong advocate. No matter what application you end up using, your content needs to be solid. In this case, advocating more standards for web 2.0 would enable us to create more flexible, powerful content. Definitely had a lot to think about after his presentation and not the least was how I could someday be as super smart as Michael.

Agile Technical Documentation by Jean-Luc Mazet, Hewlett-Packard
Probably my favorite presentation at the conference. Great balance of humor and bursting full of useful information about the hot topic in software development - agile! He did a great job with overview for those newer to this style of content development and yet also gave advice on things to avoid. For example, as technical writers getting away from "owning" pieces of documentation. The team owns the document and together you write content. When you reuse, content becomes stronger. The most encouraging part of the talk was about how writing in agile really empowers writers and when someone struggles, agile enables coaching until improvement happens. I like that idea much better than the sink or swim method. Jean-Luc wrote a great conference paper summarizing his responses. You can find it on the stc.org website.

Engaging Diverse Audiences using Screencasts, Wikis, and Blogs by Gail Chappell and Cindy Church, Sun Microsystems
Theme of this session? Lots of great examples. Because the project Gail and Cindy worked on for Sun Microsystems was under open source, we were able to visually see examples of every part of their project. I particularly liked the information on the screencasts and blogs because those are both things we are doing and will need to evaluate effectiveness soon. Plus, it's nice to hear other companies discussing their integrated approach to help authoring. It's not all about silos of information and user guides. I like thinking about all the ways content can mix and mash and output in different formats depending upon clients needs. And, I heart examples but I think I already mentioned that above. :-)

Secret Social Session (S3) on new Social Media & Networking by Robert Armstrong
An unofficial, underground STC session was published last minute on twitter and a message board and had a pretty good turnout. It was nice to see my other conference twitterers and have some fun talking about the tools. While what we do is not about the tools, it's still fun to learn and hear about what might be coming next. And, I liked the whole underground movement of the social networking at the conference.

Editing Modular Documentation by Michelle Corbin, IBM and Yoel Strimling, Comverse
Last session ended on a good note. One reason to instantly like this session is we were talking about the content (modular documentation) and not about the tool (DITA). One surprise from the session was the number of hands that shot up at the beginning of the presentation of people whose sole job function was a technical editor. Ouch! Wonder if those people see the future coming or not? I don't know if everyone agrees with me but seems like technical communicators need more skills and flexibility in job function than one that puts you in a small box (especially if mainstream documentation goes the way of agile, then I don't see how you can make your job function only editing). Okay, off the soapbox and back to the presentation. The nice thing about the presentation was that it was well organized, provided some overview but not exhausting, and they had advice not just "we did this, then that". It's nice when people can provide best practices because it shows that they've not only done this type of work but thought through the pluses and minuses. Favorite takeaway - edit for usability not reusability. While reusability is key for technical communicator's work efficiency, that doesn't mean it's important for clients. Usability still needs a central role in evaluating technical communication.

All in all, the conference will definitely be a highlight of my 2008 work year. Thanks to Blackbaud for empowering us through training!!!

Rise Above the Tools

2008-08-19T19:56:00Z

It’s not about the tools. This is what I always tell myself and this week is a prime example of why it’s more important to rise above the tools and focus on what you’re getting out of it than to focus on mastering the tool. Why you ask?

Well because sometimes, even with your best intentions, tools can do weird things and laugh at you. In those times, you need to be smarter than the tool, or just laugh at yourself and try again tomorrow.

Let me set the scene –
I’m working on generating help files for EE/SIS. We were having an issue with some hypertext markers we use to link one part of the help file to another. I realized I needed to change part of the marker.

Specifically, I wanted to change

gotolink //Ntpd/docs/EA_FE/EE_FE_SIS_777/manuals/…
to
gotolink //Ntpd/docs/EA_FE/EE_FE_SIS_777/Manuals/…

yup, all I wanted to do was change the lowercase m to an uppercase M.

Then, I clicked the Edit Marker button.

What did Adobe FrameMaker do?

It changed Manuals to smanuals. Yup, you read that right, it completely changed a word on me.

smanuals

What in the world? I think I made the god of tools (whom we dubbed Mechanisis) really mad because in all fairness Adobe FrameMaker has been good to me the past few years. This isn’t normal. Software doesn’t usually change words on you. What do you do in these situations (besides make your cube mate laugh at you so hard he was crying)?

You rise above the tool, you fall back on your common sense and experience to remember that you can endure even the strangest of tool interferences. Software is always going to be evolving and changing. Even experts on explaining software have hiccups in the road. It’s what you do to move beyond the problem that makes you successful.

And you know what; today I generated the help file after figuring out a work around. Not only did I overcome the smanuals, but I managed to fix the error we were having with our broken hypertext links.

Call 'em smanuals or manuals, I don’t care as long as I can reach a happy ending.

Klingon Technical Writers

2008-08-15T18:25:00Z

Ok, so if I had to pick one, I’m definitely a Star Wars guy... but Star Trek is still in the mix. Regardless of where you stand, whether it be with the Rebel Alliance or Star Fleet, one thing is true... Klingons are no joke. And as tech writers, they’d be no nonsense in the way they handle their business.

As proof, I present the following list, which I came across back in 1999 and saved because it's awesome. I know it’s been circulated around the web in many forms, altered for various job titles, but here’s the classic tech writer version. BTW -- if you know who wrote this or where it originated, drop a note in the comments and I'll update the post to give credit.

So without further discussion, here are the top 15 things likely to be overheard if you worked with Klingon tech writers:

15. Certification?! Having your hot blood dripping from my glistening blade is all the certification I need!

14. I will return to the homeworld and my documentation will arise triumphant in the STC Documentation Gauntlet, leaving all others drowning in their own dangling modifiers. It will be glorious!!

13. Not returning my review copies by the agreed deadline is a declaration of war! Indeed, it is a good day to die.

12. These specifications are for the weak and timid!!

11. This version of Word is a piece of GAGH! I need the latest version of FrameMaker if I am to do battle with this manual.

10. You cannot really appreciate Dilbert unless you've read it in the original Klingon.

9. Indentation?! I will show you how to indent when I indent your skull!

8. What is this talk of "drafts"? Klingons do not make document "drafts." Our documents escape, leaving a bloody trail of SMEs in their wake!

7. Use of passive voice is for the weak. They will not survive.

6. Proofreading? Klingons do not proofread. Our documents are purified with pain-sticks which cleanses them of impurities and weakness.

5. I have challenged the entire Marketing team to a bat'leth contest! They will not concern us again.

4. A TRUE Klingon warrior riddles his document with bullets, leaving it to beg for mercy.

3. By changing the layout of my manual, you have challenged the honor of my family. Prepare to die!

2. You question the worthiness of my grammar? I should kill you where you stand!

1. Our competitors will know fear and cower before our suite of manuals and online help! Ship it! Ship it and let them flee like the dogs they are!

How do you like your help?

2008-08-11T21:00:00Z

In the evolution of software help, user assistance content has taken many shapes and forms. The search for the best way to assist you in your every day work processes is an ever changing quest. Long, jargon filled, and confusing technical documentation is hopefully outdated. And hopefully too, the short picture diagrams with confusing instructions. How did we ever figure out how to put furniture together before technical communicators? However, we know that’s not always the case.

Why is it so difficult to make help easy? Well one difficulty is keeping up with how fast software can change but more so it’s about meeting user’s expectations for help in the program. Here are some questions we might struggle with on a daily/monthly/yearly basis –

User Guides -

When you access help, do you want a user guide?
Do you want to see the user guide on the screen side-by-side with the program or do you want to print it out and go page by page?
Do you take notes when you print the manuals?
Do you want a lot of detail or does that take up too much time and paper?
Are you a visual learner? Do we need more or less screen captures?
If we have more, that’s more pages and bigger file sizes.
Do you have the internet bandwidth to download big user guides?
How do we document everything but not overwhelm you with the number of user guides?
Do you learn by area of the program or depending on the process you’re performing?

Help Files -
Or, are you the type of user who doesn’t have the time for printed manuals and you just want your answer now. You want to search through a help file or knowledgebase and get back to doing your work.

If you are this type, how do you search?
Do you want similar information as the user guide or do you want just problem solving information?
Do you need visuals?
Do you need a glossary or index?
How do you want the help to appear in relation to the program?
How do you access the help? Do you want to hit F1 on the keyboard? Need a question mark icon to click? Or do you miss the days of Microsoft Word when that paper clip would pop up trying to guess when you needed help?

General Documentation Questions -
Then there is the multitude of other questions we might ask ourselves:

Do you want other user’s advice on what works or doesn’t work? Kinda like user reviews on store websites.
Do you want to be able to edit the content yourself?
Add a comment?
Do you want to save the documentation so you don’t have to remember it?
Do we need more web 2.0 types of content and how would we manage it?
And even more so, how can we marry the help files, user guides with other efforts in the company like knowledgebase, training, and support?

These are a few questions jumping off the top of my head. If I quizzed other team members, I’m sure this post would become exponentially longer. We do know from our documentation survey you still prefer having user guides. But we then have to manage how your expectations might change now and in the future. If we don’t start preparing now we won’t be ready then.

This topic really struck a note with me recently because a well respected technical communicator in the field decided to publish content for her users in the form of a wiki and stop creating manuals.

I’m interested in seeing how this goes. I’m aware that her audience needs might be radically different than ours but when you’re focused on day-to-day tasks it can be hard to remember to look out and see how our field is trending. I’m not sure what our users will ask of us in the years to come. It’s exciting and I know whatever you expect of us, we’ll do our best to deliver top quality.

Have any opinions?

Meet the Team - John

2008-08-07T18:54:00Z

Name? John Lyons

How long have you been at Blackbaud? 1 year

What technology from the past do you wish would make a comeback? Well, I’m still waiting for one of those hoverboards from the Back to the Future movies. Does that count? It’s not really a comeback since they never existed, but way back when those movies came out, I remember reading that everyone would have one of those things by now.

Favorite part of technical communication? The fact that there is always something new to learn. Whether it’s new features in our programs, ways to tailor documentation to our users’ needs, or the technology behind the programs, there is always plenty to learn. The work environment at Blackbaud is great, and it offers plenty of learning opportunities.

Products you work on? Blackbaud Enterprise CRM and Blackbaud NetCommunity

Other projects you work on? I’ve been working on a consistency project to create a style guide for products on the Infinity platform, and I handle updates to the sample database for The Raiser’s Edge. I’ve also been learning Visual Basic and trying to familiarize myself with VBA and API in The Raiser’s Edge.

How did you get into technical writing? Just lucked out, I guess. After working for newspapers for about 10 years, I decided for the second time that I needed to get out and move to something more technical. (The first attempt was back in 2000 when I started studying computer networking and got the CCNA certification. Unfortunately, I managed to get my certification just as the dotcom bubble was bursting.) Luckily, this time around my sister worked at Blackbaud and passed along my resume. … The paper where I worked just started a “voluntary separation program” to buy out employees, so it seems like switching fields was a pretty good idea.

What's changed about Blackbaud since you've been here? Lots of new faces. I’ve only been here for a year, but even in that short time, it seems like we’ve hired a ton of new people. The ones who are fresh out of college make me feel REALLY old.

What hasn't changed? The great work environment. All jobs have their ups and downs, but the positive work environment at Blackbaud and the great coworkers make a huge difference.

What's one unique thing about you? Nothing really … Although I do have an inordinate number of pink shirts that I actually wear on occasion. My wife buys them and claims to really like pink on me, but I suspect she just gets a kick out of seeing me look silly. However, there might be more to it than that, because even before she started buying all those pink shirts, I had one pink button-up that I’d wear occasionally; maybe a few times a year. When I wore it, I consistently got compliments from female coworkers. A coworker picked up on this and started wearing pink too, and he got the same response. So either women really like pink dress shirts, or they just like when guys look silly. Or maybe both.

Anything else? Well, as much as I like my job, the best thing about working at Blackbaud has nothing to do with work. My favorite perk is a pickup game of basketball with some guys who work here. Twice a week, we play ball before work from 6 to 7 a.m. I’ve been told by more than one person that I’m crazy to get up that early, but it’s really one of the best parts of my week.

Why we need technical communicators?

2008-08-07T14:00:00Z

Saw this funny post on Holly Harkness's technical communication blog Don't Call Me Tina. It's a funny video that Karen Schriver showed at the STC Conference a year ago in Minneapolis. The video explains for itself why the world needs more technical communicators. I think it's pretty funny but then again maybe I wouldn't if it was real. Thanks to Holly for passing on the video. And if you think it's funny, don't forget to high five your technical communicators for saving you from the likes of Rockwell Automation.

The Rockwell Automation video can be seen on YouTube.

Video Tutorials Debut in the Blackbaud NetCommunity Help File

2008-08-06T13:44:00Z

Does this sound familiar? A coworker sends an email asking you to explain how to do something. You begin your reply, feverishly typing out the necessary steps and details. Half a page later it dawns on you -- it would be easier for both of you if you simply walked over and showed them what you're trying to describe.

Welcome to Tech Writer World! We often face this dilemma when trying to describe a complex process using static text and images. Since we don't have the ability to drop by our users' desks to explain in person, we're happy to announce that we now have the next best thing -- video tutorials! Video tutorials are short demonstrations you watch in a browser that show and explain how to do something in the program.

Our first video tutorial, Processing Individual Signup Requests in The Raiser's Edge, debuts in the Blackbaud NetCommunity 5.5 help files. Let us know what you think and we'd love suggestions for other processes in Blackbaud programs you would like us to address in future tutorials.

Screencasts aka Video Tutorials in the Help Mix

2008-08-05T22:11:00Z

Recently, Denise Kadilak wrapped up a series of blog posts that explored the cool help functionality we’re building into our next generation applications. To top it off, she just posted an excellent screencast on BBLabs that guides you through the nuts and bolts. If you’re not familiar with screencasts, they’re basically guided UI videos with audio narration.

A few members of the doc team, including Lindsey Robbins, Nikki Tremann and Denise have been exploring the possibilities of producing screencasts to publish along with our other help content. And as you can see from Denise’s example, the exploration was a success. Moving forward, we intend to use screencasts where it makes sense but we won’t overuse them. They’re effective at communicating in a visual way that'll benefit users trying to complete more complex processes… but they’re overkill for more intuitive tasks. We've also decided to call our screencasts "video tutorials," which clearly communicates the purpose to users who may be unfamiliar with the screencast terminology.

In the very near future we hope to have additional video tutorials to share… I know Nikki has a BBNC video tutorial in the works that covers processing individual sign-up requests in RE. Hopefully, we can publish that soon so you can take a look and let us know what you think. In the meantime, drop a comment and let us know what processes you'd like to see made into video tutorials.

BTW – We’re using Adobe Captivate to create our video tutorials.

UPDATE :: Nikki's BBNC video tutorial is posted here. You'll have to log in to view it.

Extra!! Extra!! Read All About It!!

2008-08-04T19:38:00Z

BBNC 5.5 USER GUIDES POSTED!!

Greetings! With the BBNC 5.5 release, the documentation team is proud to announce that a new set of BBNC user guides has been released! New user guides include the Website Design Guide, Team Fundraising Guide, and the User Networking Guide. In addition, we posted a FAQ for your fundraiser team captains. The FAQ includes details about how to use the participant dashboard. We recommend you save the pdf and email it to your team captains.

To manage the list of guides, we updated the BBNC user guide page on our website. Now, after you click Blackbaud NetCommunity on the User Guides page, a BBNC “flavor” page appears. What BBNC flavor do you need? That depends on the Blackbaud product you integrate with BBNC. The four options are BBNC for RE, BBNC for BBEC, OCC for EE, and OCC for SIS (if that is not enough acronyms for you, I can go on…).

After you click the BBNC “flavor”, the entire set of user guides appear for that version of BBNC.

The list of user guides is listed below. For a guide that appears on each page, such as the Website Design Guide, the user guide is specific to the version you need. To clarify, the Website Design Guide that appears on the BBEC for RE page does not contain help content for OCC parts. OCC information is specific to the user guide pages EE or SIS.

Blackbaud NetCommunity Configuration Overview
Blackbaud NetCommunity Installation Guide
Program Basics Guide
Website Design Guide
Email Guide
Administration Guide
Chapter Management Guide
Team Fundraising Guide
Team Fundraiser Dashboard FAQ
Personal Page Management Guide
User Networking Guide
Blackbaud NetCommunity & The Raiser’s Edge Integration Guide
Blackbaud NetCommunity & Blackbaud Enterprise Integration Guide
NetConnection Installation Guide
Online Campus Community Update and New Features Guide
Online Campus Community &The Education Edge Integration Guide
Online Campus Community & Blackbaud Student Information System Integration Guide

Enjoy!! We hope you love what you see. These user guides are now broken out by topics and better organized. For you, our hope is this provides a way for you find the BBNC help content you need faster and successfully.

So, who needs a BB acronym test….?

Trends in User Research Review

2008-08-04T14:59:00Z

Conference: STC Summit 2008
Session: Trends in User Research
Panel: Jean Anderson, Todd Zaki Warfel, Ginny Redish, Whitney Quesenbery, Karen Bachmann (moderator)

I heard four main questions during the Q&A panel session:

1. How do I show value?
Answer – Back up your desire to do research with examples of past success. Fresh in the field with no past successes (yet), find examples of success from your colleagues in the field.

2. People in company use usability terms but don't know what they mean.
Answer – Don’t use your usability terms. Instead, use your process terms. Explain what you will be doing. For example, explain what an ethnography is and what you hope to gain by doing it. Then you won’t be discussing terms and wondering if the people in your company really understand what you will be doing.

3. How long do your usability projects take?
Answer – Doesn’t necessarily need to take a long time. Panel responded that they are able to get to what client needs and complete research very quickly. In order to do that, they go quickly to the questions:

Why?
What Do They Hope to Change?
What are the issues?
What are customer support, professional services, etc hearing?

4. What's New or BIG in the field?
Answer – Agile (scrum teams), Prototypes, Ethnographic based methods (but not strict), One-on-One interviews (because surveys tell you “what” but one-on-one tell you “why”), be flexible & combine techniques, use user forums, and remote usability tools.

Impressions of the Session:

Go and do usability testing, don’t worry about the details.
The value of any Q&A depends on the questions being asked. I can tell people are still relatively new to usability based on the first half of the questions in the session.
Don’t waste time. Go straight to the “why?” and then figure out what you need to do user research on.
One of the great values of listening to a panel is hearing some of their success stories. It’s then not as much about takeaways but rather hearing how other user research is successful. It’s encouraging.
It’s the same for user research as it is for fundraising. Just ask. Ask people if they want to participate in your research. Don’t make it more complicated.
Formal is not necessary. I think I could have a whole discussion on whether user research needs to be formal but I like the idea that you uncover the problem, figure out the best combination of user research required, and then go complete it. There isn’t any wasted time or dragging feet.

Also, they shared a great resource they found helpful on slideshare.net. It’s a presentation on How to Be a UX Team of One by Leah Buley at the 2008 IA Summit in Miami, Florida.
http://www.slideshare.net/ugleah/how-to-be-a-ux-team-of-one

Jumpcut - Online Video Editing Tool

2008-07-28T13:50:00Z

Now that our team’s Docs Day 2008 (team training day) is over, I can start sharing all the fun surprises I had for them in my presentation. I presented on my trip to the Society for Technical Communication Summit in June. I’ll be posting reviews on each presentation I went to as I promised in an earlier post. In the meantime, I wanted to share a fun new tool I used for the lunch time entertainment.

I found this site – Jumpcut http://www.jumpcut.com

Jumpcut is a website that makes adding, editing, and sharing video online easy. In 2006, the company was acquired by Yahoo but I don't think it's taken away from this fun, feature rich site. For me, the easy to use editing part was the reason I chose this site. I had embarrassing footage of me doing the Rocky impersonation in Philadelphia and wanted to add the Gonna Fly Now music to create a silly video of me for my team to laugh at. Then when I started playing on the site it was easy to add photos, more music, and transitions. The only issue I came across was trying to figure out how to transition the music. Also cool, people can remix your video or you can give them permission to edit. The features are all easy to use and the learning curve isn’t that steep. In the end, you have a **free** video you can share with others.

At risk of further embarrassment, I’ll post the video here. Warning – it is 8 minutes long! (I got a little out of control). Also, in the beginning I was making fun of the opening session by posting a picture of each person who presented something before the keynote speaker. It just went on and on! Once you get past those though, it’s all pictures of how much fun I had in Philly.

Enjoy a good laugh on me!

Meet the Team - Justin W.

2008-07-23T12:51:00Z

Name? Justin Ward

(Editior's Note - Sometimes we just call him Ward. We don't want to confuse him with Baden, our other Justin).

How long have you been at Blackbaud? 10 years

What technology from the past do you wish would make a comeback? Trap doors and revolving bookcases.

Which technology do you wish would go away forever? Caller ID. When I was in middle school I enjoyed making prank phone calls. Now, your name and number are displayed so the person you're calling knows exactly who it is, even with a disguised voice. Bummer. Thanks to Caller ID, the prank phone call is a dying art.

Favorite part of technical communication? I’m constantly learning new things, and I like the notion that what I do will help the end user with his job.

Products you Work On? Financial Edge, Education Edge, Blackbaud Student Information System, and ResearchPoint

Other projects you Work On? Usability projects

How did you get into technical writing? My college advisor pointed me in this direction, and after two years working for a newspaper, I made the move.

What's changed about Blackbaud since you've been here? Location, CEOs, cafeteria vendors, healthcare plan, just to name a few.

What hasn't changed? My NEO photo and my cube mate.

What's one unique thing about you? I’ve been to Vegas seven times and hit every casino from Fremont to Mandalay. What’s unique about that? After seven trips I’ve won significantly more than I’ve lost. I own that city!