Review and Discussion of Contemporary How-To Writing

For a long, long time, the writing of procedures followed a common set of best practices. Many of the general principles for writing solutions to problems are timeless. But today’s web-based applications have diverged into dozens of styles of user experiences. With that has come a wide variety of ways to present “Help”.

This session will look at a number of contemporary examples of procedure writing. We can discuss the pros and cons as well as the relative merits and demerits.

We’ll consider:

• Common elements traditional procedure writing

• Emerging forms of procedure writing

• What factors govern the choices we make

Even if you aren’t writing “Help,” this topic is a great review of procedural writing and why we want to use state of the art writing styles due to the changing types of deliverable we are required to deliver content to and the restrictions and opportunities that these devices bring with them.

Join us on Tuesday, February 18th at BlinkUX for this great talk with presenter Joe Welinske.

Location: Blink, 1011 Western Ave., Suite 600, Seattle, WA 98104

Directions: Come into the building and take the elevator to the correct floor (we will post it once our room is assigned). If you come late, text 206.900.1861 for someone to bring the elevator down to the first floor (there will be a sign on the elevator).

Cost:

Members: $10

Non-Members: $15 Light dinner and non-alcoholic drinks will be served.

Presenter: Joe Welinske

Joe Welinske is Blink's Accessibility Director and also the Program Manager for Blink's annual conference ConveyUX and also operates as an independent consultant. For many years, Joe Welinske has been and currently is an instructor in the University of Washington Certificate program, and has been responsible for teaching thousands of technical writers over the course of his career. He has also been the writer or co-writer of several of the most important books in the areas of Online Help and User Assistance.