Mixed Messages

I don’t usually touch on politics in my blog posts – I believe it’s against policy – but I was struck by a recent article where our illustrious PM decided to link the quality of state education with the inability of many to find a entry level job on a production line. As a technical communicator, I think he’s wrong. My reasoning is based both on my own experiences in education and training, and my current professional practice.

I remember preparing for my GCSE English exams. Our English teacher received a missive from the exam board on the subject of ‘structured writing’. There was a whole section on the types of phrases we could use to compare and contrast arguments and introduce points of view, which our teacher dutifully read out to us. They became more florid the further into the list you progressed, perhaps reflecting the fact that a lower-grade student would only be expected to remember the first few. Right at the end was “there is a train of thought that runs...” – by this point the class was in hysterics. There was something about the way that our teacher chose to read that list that let us know it wasn’t to be taken too seriously. She finished with the staunch admonition that were we ever to use such a convoluted phrase to convey “others think...” she would hunt us down one by one.

There is, however, a train of thought that runs to the acceptance of such phrasing (it has taken me 15 years to work that into a piece of writing with an almost straight face). The people who hold this view were taught by the other type of English teacher: the ones who didn’t laugh and snigger at the directives being sent down from those who view having an education as having the ability to show off (or as it is called in the north of England, ‘ponce about’). The adherents of this doctrine write as floridly, passively and with as many synonyms thrown in as possible because they have been taught that this is how the educated communicate. (If you don't believe me, watch the tortuous pursuit of definition that is Prime Minister's Questions.)

Of course, this is how the ‘educated‘ tend to communicate. Lead engineers, managers, and those at CxO level (where x is some function of the business) generally communicate from within their own comfort zone, blissfully unaware that to those outside their circle they may as well be using a foreign language. The manager states “we must be flexible with regards to the future” when planning layoffs; meanwhile the employee is wondering when the new yoga classes are going to start. In another example, the lead design engineer has referred to the same binary function selector as a switch, toggle, selector and lever interchangeably within a single paragraph of emergency shut-down instructions... that are being read whilst the machine in question trundles towards a cliff edge. Both examples mirror political communication a little too well.

The real problem is that job seekers don't know exactly what they need to do to get the job they want because they aren't told in a way they understand. Therefore, the issue is not in the education and training of the many, but the education of the few who think their communications strategy is fit for purpose when attempting to get a message across different levels in society, organisations and processes. In many cases the problem lies with message and sender, not the befuddled receiver. This gap is why technical communicators exist. We work with subject matter experts and transform their message into something that the end user can understand.

Whilst my services as a professional communicator are a valuable commodity, I feel that on this occasion I can distil 25 years of experience as a learner, teacher and technical communicator to help the Prime Minister and anyone else who fancies being a politician or leader of men avoid some often identified pitfalls.

Answer the question being asked

You may be a leading expert on a particular subject, but when someone asks “what happens if I press the big red button?” your answer should go along the lines of “when you press the big red button, X happens.” Your audience do not want to know about why you think red is a nice colour, why X is such a favourable outcome, or how brilliant you were in suggesting to a colleague that they have their secretary open a bidding process to pay a large company – run by a family friend – to subcontract an electrician to install the big red button.

Think about the context of the recipient

I have an emergency bandage. The instructions are in 5 steps. Steps 1 to 4 deal with applying the bandage, and consist of big clear illustrations that can be read under a torch in low light. Step 5 deals with removing the bandage and consists of black text on a grey background. The pictures exist because when your mate is bleeding to death at 2 in the morning, you don't have time to read an essay. There are people in society who – for whatever reason – are bleeding out and are relying on you and your team to get the job done, and they really don't have time for anyone to wade through verbiage.

Short words are the best

This pithy piece of tech-comms wisdom stems from one of your predecessors, but it is true. I'd suggest that "yes" and "no" are two of the short words that might come in useful for answering questions. If people want your life-story or to know what you've been thinking about recently they can call you "Dave" and add you on Facebook.

Andrew

We have ways of making you think!

A good friend of mine is a developer at North 51. Recently we had an interesting discussion about mind control. Not the type of mind control that would let me unleash hordes of hypno-zombies as a tranced and swaying flash-mob at the local Tesco (although having sacrificed last Sunday morning in that edifice of consumerism, I’m not entirely sure someone hasn’t already pulled this off), but rather the kind of mind control that would let me think my pointer across the screen, or these words onto the page.

Whilst even this seems far fetched, headsets like the one pictured here let people play Angry Birds with just the power of their minds. Angry Birds is a fairly simple game, essentially involving the movement of a mouse/pointer and a single click or dragging action (depending on whether you are playing on a PC or a tablet). The fact that the description of the game varies between a tablet and a PC gives some idea of the issues we might face when giving instructions for a user whose interface is their own mind. The cursor in Angry Birds (PC) is a hand, so are people playing the game thinking “I’ll move the mouse around with my hand” or “I’ll move the hand around with my mouse” or even “I’ll move the hand around with my hand via the mouse” (think of your own variant). Any guidance for play-by-brain computing not only has to account for these differences when describing the desired end result but must also cover the thought processes that are involved in reaching it. I have been thinking about how this could work in practice:

You are feeling sleepy

Instructional materials could use techniques from the relaxation or hynotherapy fields to induce a non-cluttered state of mind before operating the game/robot surgeon/share dealing platform. This is not really a new idea. Educators have been springboarding off the work of Soviet scientist Georgi Lozanov to create non-threatening, trance-like language classes filled with baroque music and a brain boosting vibe for decades now, and there’s no reason it could not be coming to technical documentation near you soon.

Enter the Sandman

Sandbox environments are big in the gaming community, and as documentation gets increasingly gamified there’s a lot to be said for blurring the line between the real situation and a simulation. (Pilots do this already, the theory being that in a simulator no-one can hear the passengers screaming, praying or bouncing off the walls.) Yu-kai Chou divides gamification into White Hat (nice) and Black Hat (bad) gamification. A nice happy sandbox environment with all the tips, hints and lessons being presented in a calming and constructive way would blend the best of usability with the logic of well-written instructions and a little bit of Zen.

The future is probably a lot closer than you think on this one, so I’d be really interested to hear from any others (technical communicators or otherwise) who’ve given this fascinating field a bit of thought.

Andrew

Freeze frame violence

My first degree (back when I could afford to study out of interest) was Theology and Religious Studies. I’d told people I was studying this subject because I wanted to be a diplomat, but a big part of it was the traces that previous iterations of civilisation have left scratched, carved and drawn in the world. Look at many temples, or even cave paintings, and the depiction you find is often of violence. It might be a Hanuman carving of a battle against demonic forces (Thailand), a beheading (the Sistine Chapel, Rome) or arrows being launched at galloping animals (cave paintings, France). These artistic portrayals of violence are reminiscent of the rapid cuts and flashes seen in the fight scenes of Raging Bull where the freeze frame is chosen as the most dramatic and telling part of the whole physical sequence.

This was particularly fascinating to me as I’ve always studied some form of martial art. First it was Karate, then fencing at university (I even won a medal for that one), then Mongolian wrestling in China, Taikwondo with the air force in Oman, and most recently boxing. All of these come with books of some description that in many ways mirror their artistic counterparts in that they freeze the action at the most telling moment. An example from an early Aikido manual is given here. In this picture the combatant on the right is defending himself against an armed aggressor. The scene is frozen at the moment of impact. Artistically this is all well and good, but what else can we see from this image that is of use for technical authors?

Capture the moment of impact

I’m reminded of a style guide I recently encountered that stated “When accompanying an instruction with a screenshot, the mouse pointer should be displayed carrying out the task.” In this case the mouse pointer is the right hand as it strikes below the chin.

Decide on sensible minimalism

The defender has stepped in with his left leg and lowered his centre of gravity to make himself more difficult to engage with a long bladed weapon. This is shown without any real need for explanation as any martial artist will tell you, footwork eventually becomes reflex. In the same way there are things that we don’t bother to screenshot or explain in great detail as we assume that if the end user cannot turn their PC on, they’d hardly be reading the manual for a complex system.

Establish documentary conventions for important details

In this drawing, our defender has a single finger hooked at the waist of his attacker to off-balance and drag the swordsman forward onto his strike. This is artistic emphasis: the actual move requires a handful of belt, clothing and man to be grabbed in a fist and bodily hauled towards the defender, but when drawn this would look too much like a second fist striking the target and so the single hooked finger is drawn to emphasis the pulling action. This and other stylistic elements are found again and again in hand drawn martial arts manuals. They are not dissimilar to the refined vocabulary used to describe on-screen processes (interestingly the cursor sometimes morphs into a hand with a single extended digit to reflect an action in much the same way).

Revisiting the Sistine Chapel, we see Goliath’s final moment captured. As anyone who’s ever chopped wood or swung a hammer will tell you, the moment to get right is the top of the swing when all the force and balance and energy is about to be released. David is exemplary: his shoulder is cocked, his wrist open and his whole trunk unwound ready to deliver the blow. Goliath is as good as dead, as if the blade had already completed its gore-punctuated descent. As technical authors, we should aim to capture this exemplary and telling moment as well as the final static outcome in what we write and display.

Andrew

TCUK 2013: A two session preview

We’ve had some good news at Clearly Stated this week. We are both going to be presenting at TCUK in Bristol, which reflects well on our dedication to not only our own development as technical communicators, but the development of technical communication.

For those of you who are interested, we’re offering a slightly more in-depth sneak peak of our sessions at the conference. There is no need for a spoiler alert, but hopefully a bit more insight into the presentations will helps peers reading this blog choose their session at the conference.

When Culture Meets Content (Andrew’s session)

My first role as an author was creating training materials and designing courses for the Royal Air Force of Oman. This presented unique challenges together with the possibility to conduct research. The audience for these materials and courses were entirely male, Omani and Muslim, and I quickly began to notice that the reaction to materials (either my own or commercially published materials) was coloured by the cultural perspective of the students. Through a comparative study, I set out to explore some of the issues documentation and training materials face when being viewed through the middle eastern cultural lens. It is important to note that many of the cultures that are sensitised in some way to the perceived morality of documentation also favour indirect communication and value face. Many of the lessons learnt may help those wishing to position their documentation and services to avoid faux pas.

Managing as a freelance technical communicator (Alison’s session)

‘Managing’ often conjures up images of project plans, performance appraisals and (of course) meetings. Depending on the size of the organisation, one person may fulfil more than one role (as both a project manager and a people manager, for example) but nowhere do the hats pile as high on one head as when running your own small business. Since I started Clearly Stated, I’ve had to manage my workload, my finances (including estimating and quoting), my clients and my employee – and find time to actually do the work I’m being paid to do! The intention is for you to learn from my mistakes, helping you to work smarter, not harder.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Andrew and Alison