Fred Sampson's Radio Weblog
a card-carrying member of the reality-based community

 
















Contact Fred:




UXnet


I listen to IT Conversations


iPodderX


Subscribe to "Fred Sampson's Radio Weblog" in Radio UserLand.

Click to see the XML version of this web page.

Click here to send an email to the editor of this weblog.

Electronic Freedom Foundation





















 

 

  Monday, September 1, 2003


Jenny points back at an STC blogger who went searching for technical writing blogs. Guess I'm too much of a technical writer who blogs than a writer of a blog about technical writing. Whatever. No, there are not many of us, in either case.  
4:06:44 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

Can we trust this man to run the country?

Bush drops his dog. The girls look terrified. And why is that one girl not wearing her blue socks? Softball is a team sport, dammit. [Signal vs. Noise]


4:01:19 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

In a humanist technical universe we would all be allowed, even encouraged, to use humor in our books. Michael Bremer (Untechnical Writing, The User Manual Manual) brought plenty of fun to his Maxis game manuals, and talked about it at last year's Writer in the Workplace conference. Gordon points to another example:

Click, drag, smile. It's rare to find a single joke in a technical manual, let alone a whole book with a humorous slant. [Usable Help]


3:59:15 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

The teenager and I bowled two tournaments in Fremont this weekend, spending Saturday night at the Fremont Marriott, which advertised high-speed Internet access. The boy was taken aback to discover that not only were they charging for it ($6.95 for 24 hours, noon to noon), but it came via Cat-5 cable coming out of the wall. How soon they become accustomed to the new and wireless. And no, we didn't pop for the service, since we barely had time to sleep and shower. But the Marriott's staff were quite friendly and very available, so I'd consider it for another stay.


3:50:20 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

The origin of personas. Alan Cooper shares the background of Cooper's personas, but fails to acknowledge the considerable contributions of others to the concept. In particular, Geoffrey Moore describes very clearly the technique of archetypal users working through scenarios in 1991's Crossing the Chasm, and Victor points out other contributors to the technique from within the Bay Area's HCI community. [ia/ - information architecture news]

I've heard several people in the HCI community comment that Cooper's personas are not unique to Cooper, he just managed to market them well. No matter, they're certainly useful if used properly. I've also heard the complaint that in some companies a persona on one day will have characteristics and needs very different from the same persona on another day, which rather defeats the purpose.


3:44:06 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

"Advice to writers: Sometimes you just have to stop writing. Even before you begin." 

Stanislaw J. Lec. [Quotes of the Day]

Which might explain why I do not blog daily. Some days there is just nothing to say, or at least nothing to say well.


3:33:55 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []


Click here to visit the Radio UserLand website. © Copyright 2002-2005 Fred Sampson.
Last update: 5/21/05; 10:19:18 PM.

September 2003
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
  1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28 29 30        
Aug   Oct


Search this site:



Fred's Blogroll





ACLU Safe and Free


What I'm Reading:





The WeatherPixie