Monday, November 1, 2004

Narrative and technical writing Reading through a recent Boxes and Arrows piece, Use of Narrative in Interaction Design, it struck me that here's another opportunity for us technical writers to contribute in designing user experiences. After all, many of us have experience as creative writers, or have degrees in English for which we studied various forms of written communication, including narrative. So we're supremely qualified to write narratives. Indeed, many of us are frustrated (and a few are successful) novelists or screenwriters. So, if narrative is a useful tool in interaction design, technical writers have the skills to be part of the team. Side thought: if scenarios are extensions of personas, then narrative can be seen as an extension of scenarios. Thus, narrative has a place in task analysis. Which is a summary of what's said in the article above. . . Note also how the skills we tech writers frequently take for granted (writing, rhetoric/journalism, narrative) overlap in the mess-of-circles graphic in Luke W's User Experience Design Rationalization, and further connect to video/film, voice, and even business fundamentals. However, I would expect the information design/architecture circle to be a bit closer to writing, but perhaps that's part of the "little ia/Big IA" discussion. Now, wouldn't it be fun if my long-time fantasy of writing sit-coms combined with interaction design for a new career path?!? 9:53:44 AM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

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