Session Details

The technical communication landscape is changing rapidly. New tools, techniques, expectations and opportunities are making it necessary to expand the definition of what a technical communicator does and the Society for Technical Communication is at the forefront of communicating these changes to government and industry. Susan Burton, Executive Director of the Society of Technical Communication (STC) will discuss efforts to broaden the definition used by the U.S. government Bureau of Labor Statistics to describe technical communicators and the work they do. She’ll explore the implications of such changes implications, and how the STC is changing to address the changes in the field of technical communication.

Community documentation projects are on the rise and represent many interesting shifts and challenges for technical writers. If you are interested in how community documentation is growing and what the tools and processes are then this session is for you. The session uses the fast growing and innovative FLOSS Manuals as a case study.

FLOSS Manuals was launched in October 2007 as a platform and community dedicated to creating free documentation about free software.

Since that date the technology and the community has gone from strength to strength. The technology has been extended to include many interesting new features and continues to grow. The growth however is determined by demonstrated need mixed with a little speculation to ensure FLOSS Manuals is a platform people can use while at the same time being highly innovative. Recent development cycles have included the implementation of:

• translation workflow tools
• localisation tools for creating FLOSS Manuals in new languages (eg. Farsi)
• print on demand source file creation
• content remix tools

FLOSS Manuals is now moving into developing tools to support our Book Sprints and remote collaboration. Book Sprints are a model we are continually refining which involves bringing writers together in online and in real space to produce unusually high amounts of content in a short period.

In addition to the technology the community is growing and flourishing. We have several hundred contributors and are now the official documentation repository for many free software documentation teams including the well known One Laptop Per Child software projects.

This session will look at the tools, technologies, and community of FLOSS Manuals and investigate where Founder/Manager Adam Hyde believes the emergent free documentation sector is heading.

With Author-it, you can publish directly to a number of sources, easily creating HTML pages from standard content within the Author-it database. However, sometimes you may have specific requirements for your organization, or client, that require customizations. Almost any aspect of the HTML output can be changed. The only limitations are your own knowledge of HTML. Join Char James-Tanny for some great tips and tricks on customizing HTML in this workshop which include: 

• Modifying styles in the underlying CSS
• Customizing the frameset
• Creating and using your own HTML templates
• Using Publishing Profiles to modify theme (for example, for different clients)

Students should bring a laptop preloaded with Author-it. Download a trial version. 

The first hour of this session will be a high level overview of just what CSS means to the modern author and its importance and role in the evolving world of XML based content. Following this overview, specific techniques for controlling the look and feel of Flare published content will be presented. The demonstration will include techniques for using CSS for online and for print publishing with maximum control.

While primarily targeted at using CSS within the MadCap Flare authoring environment this session will also provide a good grounding on general CSS information for authors using any tool chain.

While topic based authoring provides for maximum content reuse, this session will explore the specific techniques for controlling and manipulating content down to the element, paragraph, and even character level. The use of conditional markers, variables, publishing control files and more will all be demonstrated.

This session will be beneficial for both the existing Flare user and to those who are not currently using Flare but want to find out more about this state of the art authoring suite.

Find out why so many authoring teams are switching to topic based authoring for maximum content reuse. This session will explore the concepts of topic based authoring and will showcase the MadCap Flare authoring environment in doing so. The import and conversion of existing content, creation of new content, and the use of XML metadata to control content while publishing will all be demonstrated.

This session will be beneficial for both the existing Flare user and to those who are not currently using Flare but want to find out more about this state of the art authoring suite.

Students should bring a laptop preloaded with Author-it. A trial version can be downloaded at http://www.author-it.com/index.php?page=freetrial

One of the foundations of single sourcing is the ability to reuse the content that you or other authors produce in multiple information products. This approach requires changes in the way that content is produced. Large blocks of content such as chapters are rarely reusable in their entirety between different outputs, however the smaller components that make it up - paragraphs, sections, graphics - may be used in many information products.

Author-it allows you to maximize reuse by creating content in small, independent chunks, then combining and arranging them as needed for the intended output.

This workshop introduces you to the features of Author-it that allow your content to be created once and reused in many different places, and to the Conditional strategies you can use to achieve the results you want.

• Strategies for reuse
• Strategies for conditionality
• Embedded topics
• Variables
• Publishing Profiles
• Author-it Xtend

Students should bring a laptop preloaded with Author-it. A trial version can be downloaded at http://www.author-it.com/index.php?page=freetrial
Now you have the basic concepts, it is time to put this into practice and see what Author-it can do! This workshop will take you through the process of planning and building your first Author-it project and will cover:

• Planning for printed and online documentation
• Handling images and graphics
• Defining standards and conventions
• Building the document structure
• Adding content
• Adding graphics
• Reviewing content
• Release states and workflow
• Publishing to print
• Creating a help file

Author-it is one of the world’s most popular component content management (CCM) applications and is used by over 3000 clients throughout the world. Whether you are completely new to the Author-it world, or have simply not used the product for a while, this workshop will step you through the current version and functionality available.

This workshop will cover basic Author-it concepts including:

• Component Content Management—What‘ is it all about and why would I use it?
• Single sourcing my content
• Introduction to the Author-it interface (Ribbons, Tabs, Navigation, Editor)
• Searching in Author-it
• Folder structures
• Author-it objects
• Author-it output formats

The localization technology landscape is changing rapidly, and the pace seems likely to continue. Customers expect improved productivity as these technologies mature, and LSP’s are counting on technology to help them meet those expectations. But have our processes evolved to take advantage of the new potential? Traditional project management is (at its root) cost-based. In contrast, Bob Donaldson will discuss an approach that focuses on overall throughput, maximizing value per unit of time, addressing client demand for shorter turn times and maintaining margin through increased volume.

Attendees can expect to learn about the five-step continuous improvement process derived from the Theory of Constraints:

1. Identify the constraint (Select the best leverage point)
2. Exploit the constraint (Focus the process to gain maximum leverage at that point)
3. Subordinate everything else to the constraint (often involving counter-intuitive choices at other stages of the process)
4. Elevate the constraint (Invest to increase capacity/leverage, further improving throughput)
5. Evaluate the results (when done successfully, the process constraint will have “moved”)

Each of the above steps will be applied to practical problems in localization project management in the context of emerging technologies.

Making the move to modular content involves more than repeatedly chanting “DITA”. It’s a change in approach and a new way of thinking about, creating, managing, and publishing content. And, as you would expect, change brings issues, challenges, and even surprises. In this session, Steve Manning will compare two specific DITA projects he has participated in and describe the issues and challenges faced, from dealing with vendors to wrangling legacy content.

It can be tough to work through the volumes of software vendor marketing and know exactly what products offer. What are the product strengths?  What are the weaknesses? They say the tools “support” DITA ... but what does “support” mean? There’s too much information or there’s too little. In this session, Steve will provide lessons learned from his participation in the creation of the CMS Watch Report, XML and Component Content Management Systems.

What does it take to be successful as a technical communicator? Often we focus on skills and abilities. There is always so much more to learn! But there is another set of factors that are equally important. This interactive session focuses on the relationships, attitudes, and actions that can make all the difference. You will have an opportunity to think about your own experiences and discover ideas to help you move in the direction you want.

Linda Urban has been a technical communicator for over 25 years. When she thinks about what has mattered most when it comes to finding and keeping work, it boils down to these principles:

First: Do good work. Write well. Understand your audiences, and write for them. Know your company’s goals and priorities, and keep them in mind. Care about quality and pay attention to detail.

Second: Build your network. Not the calculated “get out there, meet other people, and exchange information” kind of network, but the day-to-day kind that comes as you work with people and build relationships. Your base for networking is created whenever you work with people. People will remember when you were reliable, when they enjoyed working with you, when you helped them out of a tight spot, when you shared your expertise. They will also remember when you didn’t. Strive to have the kind of interactions you want them to remember.

Third: Keep learning. Build your skills, learn new and better methods, and pursue what interests you.

Fourth: Make a contribution. How you choose to contribute will depend on your interests, skills, personality, and time. Be guided by what you enjoy and what gives you satisfaction. Your niche may be participating in a professional organization such as STC, ISTC, or SIGDOC, it may be a special project at work, it may be mentoring friends who show an interest in what you do, or it may be presenting at conferences such as this one. You may be in front of the room, presenting, or behind the scenes. Don’t worry if you don’t like to be in the spotlight. You do not have to be out front to be a valued resource.

Translation and Localization are intrinsically pragmatic endeavours. They also require a good deal of human effort that can be aided by technology. Numerous companies have developed solutions to help themselves, then realized that they were onto a good thing, so they have productized their proprietary solutions for more generalized usage. Well-known localization expert Richard Sikes will paint the background and evolution of three such stories, featuring products for visual software localization, translation workflow, and translation business management, and showing how they are used today.

PASSOLO is a leading software technology for visual software localization. Used worldwide to create software products in many languages, PASSOLO is itself available in several languages. Pass Engineering, a wholly owned subsidiary of SDL International, has automated PASSOLO so as to use itself recursively to build alternate language versions.

At Nero, the manufacturer of popular media creation software that is available in many languages, the localization management team sought, and failed to find, a workflow system to connect Nero’s in-house resources and external service providers that met their needs and desired price point. Deciding that this was a market opportunity, Across GmbH was formed to develop the Across Language Server. Still in use at Nero, the Language Server platform is now available as a mainstream linguistic asset management platform that is continually gaining traction in a highly competitive market.

Several years ago, translation service provider Eurotext approached a neighboring company, EDV-Konzepte, to tailor a system that would manage the business side of translation projects. The resulting application, Plunet BusinessManager, and the company formed to develop it, Plunet GmbH, has increasingly taken on a life of its own, becoming a 100% independent company that has learned from the needs of its customers as it has developed the BusinessManager from a proprietary solution for one company to a customizable solution adopted by a wide palette of clients.

In this hands-on workshop, attendees will discover how to create DITA content using XMetaL Author Enterprise.

Workshop participants will learn how to:

• Use the XMetaL authoring interface
• Author valid DITA task, concept, and reference topics
• Use DITA maps to combine topics and form deliverables
• Create and use reusable content components
• Create links to other topics and external resources
• Reuse content in multiple deliverables
• Publish from XML to HTML, PDF, and other formats

A trial version of XMetaL Author Enterprise will be provided to workshop participants.

There’s more to managing a Web site than selecting the right technologies. Web Operations Management (WOM) is based on the principle that an organization’s Web site is not a project with a clear beginning and an end, but rather an integral operational component. WOM moves Web site management away from daily tasks, mini-projects, and silo’d technology implementations and into the more mature operations arena. It is here where an organization understands what resources it is investing in its Web products and is allowed to manage them in a less reactionary, more strategic manner through the application of traditional business planning and budgeting processes.

Based on extensive experience working with clients in the public and private sector, this tutorial will focus on the fundamentals of Web Operations Management (WOM). Explore these four dimensions of WOM and get practical tips and suggestions for managing Web Operations:

Strategy

* Developing Guiding Principles
* Developing a Mature Web Strategy

Web Governance

* Defining a Governance Framework
* Web Policies
* Web Standards
* Implementing your Governance Framework

Execution

* Key Components of Web Management
* Harnessing your Web stakeholder community
* Web Implementation Oversight

Measurement
* Defining metrics and reporting schema
* Driving Strategy with metrics

The next generation home digital experience is about one essential idea: to deliver more and diverse media-rich content to the consumer by giving consumers access to their digital life when they want it, how they want it and where they want it. This experience revolves around a new generation of television sets, mobile devices, HD and games appliances, wirelessly connected homes as well as a host of set-top box options.

As communications, broadcast media and broadband entertainment are continuing to converge, a major shift has begun in the connected home environment. The integration of the television experience with the complete power of the new end user technologies, from broadband to mobile, opens the door to not only an exclusive world of entertainment and information, it brings a next generation idea of full consumer interactivity within diverse mobile experiences. Personalized television and mobile will forever change the consumer entertainment landscape and will open the door to a consumer with more and greater control over his or her environment.

As a mobile Internet pioneer, ACCESS has helped to develop and deliver technologies that have brought the Internet to a new generation of mobile devices and consumers. In this presentation, David “Lefty” Schlesinger will discuss the future of the mobile and beyond-PC markets, the next generation home digital experience and how this will affect the consumer in the era of convergence.

Social media is being used every day by numerous people throughout the world. Business is starting to take heed of this emerging method of communication. Social media is rapidly becoming a strong method of marketing, allowing customers and companies to engage in a dialog (instead of the standard company-to-customer methods).

Established technical communicators can learn about the various social media, their benefits and drawback, how they are currently being used, and how they are changing the face of communication. Attendees will also learn how some companies are using social media for internal communication, how this is a burgeoning method of clear communication, and how it creates a dialog between all levels of employees, from executives to managers to staff. Attendees will learn how technical communicators can help facilitate this type of communication to the benefit of their colleagues and their companies.

All the written content we create must have some sort of structure. Whether it’s straightforward data like population or crop production statistics, or more semantically rich information such as a corporate handbook or a biography, selecting an appropriate framework increases the odds that people will find it useful. Structure also imposes limits on how information can be used and viewed.

This presentation describes the five basic information structures, and explores ways that we can combine multiple structures to make information useful in more ways, and to open up new viewpoints for seeing the information.

This session is appropriate for documentation project managers, editors, and technical writers.

You’ve identified the document’s goal, analyzed your audience, and gathered your resources. You’ve outlined, written, and re-written, reviewed, spell-checked, and proofread. You’ve done everything you know to make sure you document meets requirements, that it attains the goal that you or your organization has set for it.

But can you be confident it will reach that goal? You can be if you take the next step: testing.

This presentation will explain the benefits of document testing, and outline four methodologies that anyone can implement to test their documentation. This session is appropriate for documentation project managers, editors, and technical writers.

The session will provide guidance and resources to help attendees create their own documentation testing programs. This will help improve the usability of their documentation, leading in turn to reduced customer service calls, increased customer satisfaction, and preventing costly rewrite and republish efforts.

Many of us fall into academic-speak when creating technical content, even for an English-only audience. The problems are multiplied by the number of target languages your work is localized into. Would you rather “deploy identified resources throughout the enterprise” or “use existing staff throughout the company?” Some extremely simple exercises and common sense can help you transform your content in order to leverage more existing work and avoid unnecessary expenses when sharing your message with an international, multi-lingual audience.

Preparing content for a global audience, (especially in multi-lingual form) involves 3 main areas: (a) text content and tone, (b) appropriate use of photographs and artwork and (c) flexible, non distracting layout and “containers.”

Whether your message is communicated via Web or Help based files, or paper/PDF based documentation, this presentation will cover the essential skills you and your team need to master.

• Find out how Martha Stewart, infomercials and a few good blogs can help you convey an effective message in as few words as possible.
• Learn how to shift gears to address an international audience while creating content. Surprisingly, this is a skill that you already have; you just need to be reminded to use it.
• Learn the dirty dozen of basic “no no’s” in English to avoid creating ambiguous content that can be translated multiple ways. Discover why English may give you a dozen ways to say something that can only be expressed one or two ways in a target language.
• Learn how to avoid “traffic jams” with text flow in translated, target language web pages or documents. There are hidden format and layout traps that can make matching page breaks to English originals nearly impossible.
• Some web page and document layout designs are just plain bad when it comes to anything beyond English. Found out what they are and how to avoid them.
• Discover how to use “neutral” yet effective images that will support your message and not offend other cultures.

Whether you want to make visually compelling, more effective content for an English-only audience, or have your content optimized for a broad, multi-lingual, global audience, this session is for you!

In today’s competitive business environment, training professionals are under constant pressure to deliver more training, in greater quantities, and in less time.
Challenges include global competition, reductions in corporate resources, and the ongoing need to retain talented and skilled people.

Traditionally, training departments were often separate from their organization’s day-to-day business. Multi-day live classroom training was the primary approach.  This was expensive from a dollars and resource perspective, and difficult to schedule because of travel arrangements and other work commitments.  Management frequently viewed training as necessary, but costly.

Distance education was a step in the right direction. It reduced travel costs, and eliminated some, but not all, scheduling issues. Other initiatives such as web-based training, mentoring, blended learning, and just-in-time learning were also beneficial. However, this was like picking the low-hanging fruit on a tree. Additional savings and improvements would require more innovative approaches.

Besides efficiently delivering training, today’s training departments must be tightly aligned and integrated with their organization’s business goals and needs. The common goal is to drive higher performance and create strong business results by improving employee performance.

Lean Six Sigma is an improvement process designed to help organizations meet their goals and their customers’ needs.

An early innovator was Dr. W. Edwards Deming, a quality improvement pioneer in both Japan and America. His 85/15 rule stated that 85% of problems were built into the way work was done, and only 15% was the fault of individual employees. 

One central theme of Lean Six Sigma is that unnecessary complexity adds cost, time, and waste. Another is that only customers can define quality. Anything that does not meet a customer need can be considered a defect. In addition, low quality and slow processes make their corresponding services and products, expensive. By focusing on improvements to the process flow, we can improve training development speed, quality, and integration with organizational business goals.

This presentation examines the challenges of training in today’s competitive business environment. It focuses on a systematic approach to training program development using the principles of Lean Six Sigma.

Examples will include self-paced web learning portals that provide structured training paths as well as access to additional resources such as recordings of knowledge transfers, departmental sites, documentation, and wikis.

Is your organization adopting agile software development methods? Learn how Thermo Fisher Scientific’s Laboratory Automation and Integration group used DITA to produce just-in-time software documentation for the next generation of lab automation software.

This presentation is for you if:

• Your organization is adopting agile software development methods and you want to know what this means for the documentation function.
• You are considering moving to structured authoring with DITA and want to learn from a successful, real world implementation.
• You want to learn how to monitor and measure documentation quality in real time, automatically, using DITA and Microsoft Excel.

You think you might need a new Help Authoring Tool (HAT), but there are a lot to choose from. You’ve read blogs and press releases and articles and forums and email lists, and you’ve noticed that a lot of people have a favorite HAT.

However, you need to focus on your needs when choosing the HAT that will work best for you. It wo’n’t matter how many other people use a HAT if it doesn’t produce the output you need or if it won’t run on the platforms your customers use.

During this session, you’ll learn about four features that matter when choosing a HAT:

• Outputs—We’’ll start with a really quick discussion of the outputs that are available from all HATs, and then move on to the important questions. What outputs can the HAT produce? Can you customize them to match your company branding? What platforms and browsers can be used?
• Development environments—The lines are blurring between traditional HATs, where all authoring takes place in the HAT, and publishing HATs, which reference the source documents. Which HATs have combined authoring and publishing? Which have their own authoring environments? Which let you mix-and-match? Will you want to leverage your existing knowledge or learn a new editor?
• Importing legacy content—While you will have some new projects, you will also likely have existing content that needs to be imported. What types of content can be imported? What issues should you watch for?
• Reusing content—In today’s world, reuse is big. (And content is king.) Some HATs let you reuse content within projects, while others let you reuse content across projects. Some let you combine deliverables within one project through the use of build tags or other types of markers, letting you publish both a User’s Guide and a Training Guide. Some HATs let you take advantage of variables, snippets, widgets, topics, and more, or a combination of all. What types of reuse should you evaluate? Can you reuse layouts, templates, and browse sequences?

  By the end of the session, you’ll have put together a checklist of features that matter to you.
  

  
  
  

  Quality Documentation Through Collaboration: Making the Review Process Efficient for All Involved

  Speaker: Teresa Mulvihill
  Time: 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM   Date: October 31
  Track: Content Quality
  Experience level: All levels
  

  The more elaborate the review cycle, the better the quality. Right? Well not when the cycle seems to leave everyone feeling a bit dizzy (end users included). This presentation offers tips and tricks to create a straight forward review process for high-quality, user-friendly documentation.

  
  
  

  All-Around User Assistance: Delivering Layers of Information Efficiently

  Speaker: Nicky Bleiel
  Time: 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM   Date: October 30
  Track: User Assistance
  Experience level: All levels
  

  The best software user assistance is so elegant that users don’t need to look for it. In Doc-To-Help 2008, the embedded dynamic help window and expanded tooltips display relevant information as the user navigates the interface. This session will demonstrate this project and discuss how the interface was planned to include all-around user assistance, how the online Help was structured to work with the interface, and how mappings and other information were managed without the need for custom software development.

  This session will also discuss:
  

  • Planning for information layers
  • Structuring your help project for embedded dynamic help
  • Mapping embedded dynamic help to the interface
  • Single-sourcing best practices and methodologies
  • Managing the UA in the interface
  • How you can duplicate the same sort of user experience yourself
  
  
  
  
  

  Getting Up-to-Speed on Eclipse User Assistance

  Speaker: Lee Anne Kowalski
  Time: 3:30 PM - 4:30 PM   Date: October 30
  Track: User Assistance
  Experience level: Intermediate
  

  Has your development team just announced “We’re moving our applications to Eclipse!”? Are you wondering how on earth you’ll create the online help for these applications? Or are you asking “what the heck is this Eclipse thing?” If so, this session is for you! In this session, we’ll cover what Eclipse is, what user assistance and online help mechanisms it provides, and what you need to do to deliver content effectively in an Eclipse-based application.

  In this session, attendees will learn:
  

  • What Eclipse is and what their developers mean when they say “we’re doing an Eclipse product”
  • What the different Eclipse user assistance pieces are and how they are used by end users of an Eclipse-based application
  • Practical approaches for authoring their content and delivering it as Eclipse UA

  After this session, attendees can return to their jobs with a set of practical methods, tips, and tricks for producing content for delivery in an Eclipse-based application.

  
  
  

  Content Feedback Methods

  Speaker: Jennifer Shankle & Mirhonda Studevant
  Time: 3:30 PM - 4:30 PM   Date: October 31
  Track: Content Quality
  Experience level: All levels
  

  Documentation and Training professionals are constantly challenged to deliver the highest quality deliverables with the least amount of resources. Lack of resources has discouraged many professionals from seeking documentation feedback from their most importance audience—the user. The user’s experience and perspective is essential to producing quality documentation. Resource constraints do not have to hinder your ability to gain user feedback. User feedback can take a variety of forms.

  Whether it’s adding feedback mechanisms to your interface, gaining exposure through customer meetings, or conducting usability tests, there are a variety of ways to learn more about your user audience and their needs. This session will examine the driving factors that hinder the writer’s interaction with the user.

  In addition, you will learn how to:
  

  • Determine which methods work best in your environment
  • Be creative in using existing applications at your workplace or tools available via the Internet to accomplish your goals
  • Integrate user feedback into your deliverables
  • Design feedback interfaces that encourage users to participate
  • Become an advocate for the user
  • Use your gold mine of user experience information to establish stronger intradepartmental relationships as well as build customer goodwill

  The benefits of the user experience reach well beyond Documentation and Training groups. Whether you are new to the technical communication field or a seasoned writer, applying the methods highlighted in this workshop should reap handsome rewards for you and your audience.

  
  
  

  Comparing DITA Support in XMetaL and FrameMaker

  Speaker: Simon Bate
  Time: 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM   Date: October 31
  Track: Modular Content
  Experience level: All levels
  

  When your organization transitions from “traditional” publication methodologies to XML and DITA, it’s a good time to consider the tool that your authors use to create content. There are two competing schools of thought on XML authoring: use a more familiar WYSIWYG tool (such as Adobe FrameMaker) or use a newer tool that is much closer to XML (such as XMetaL from Just Systems). Both FrameMaker and XMetaL provide some level of integration with DITA, which makes them both viable candidates. This presentation uses live demonstrations to illustrate the advantages and disadvantages of both FrameMaker and XMetaL when working with DITA.  The presentation shows the highlights of both tools, the authoring experience, generating output, conditional processing, working with conrefs, map files, and specialization. The presentation concludes with a series of guidelines to help you assess your situation and which tool might be best for you.

  
  
  

  Practical Uses for DITA: Product Documentation and Training - How a Software Company is Practicing What it Preaches

  Speaker: Jeff Filo
  Time: 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM   Date: October 31
  Track: Training
  Experience level: All levels
  

  A long-standing problem at PTC, as with other companies, has been our limited ability to reuse common content among different document deliverables. To reduce cost and improve the re-usability of our documents, we needed a single-source XML authoring environment to create modular content to be used by multiple authors across multiple courses and published in multiple formats. Attend this session to learn how we: used the single-sourcing capabilities of Arbortext to deliver nine deliverables from one source, used a DITA-based solution to modularize course design and facilitate content reuse, adopted a dynamic publishing solution to provide us with course consistency.

  
  
  

  Proving DITA Success in a Small Shop Environment: A Case Study

  Speaker: William Hagen
  Time: 10:45 AM - 11:45 AM   Date: October 31
  Track: Modular Content
  Experience level: All levels
  

  This session should help anyone who is considering using DITA, especially if resources are limited. Maybe you’ve researched DITA, maybe not. Maybe it all seems intimidating. In this session you’ll hear how one company went about adopting DITA through a small, pilot project that became a successful business case. What were the tasks that had to be done? What were the problems? And what were the solutions?

  Hughes launched a pilot project using XMetaL and DITA to produce four similar but different PDF manuals using the same set of topic and graphics files. The primary tools that made this project a success: XMetaL, ditamaps, and conditional content.

  Writing topics, creating content using DITA is probably very different than what you are used to. You have to think differently and work differently.

  The presenter, who did most of the work for the pilot project and wore several different functional hats, described the effort as follows:

  I am proof that an old dog can learn new tricks. When we started out, I really wondered if I could learn XML and DITA. Could we make it work for us?

  DITA fell into my lap after one of our writers left the company. She had done initial research on XML and DITA. When she left, I was asked to take over the pilot project.

  Here’s the problem we faced: We used Adobe FrameMaker to create an Installation Guide and a User Guide for our satellite modem product. These two manuals shared a lot of common content. When the company developed new, similar products, we created new, similar manuals. All were “knock-offs” of the original, with differences and similarities. Eventually we ended up with at least 10-12 manuals (about 120 pages each) that had a high percentage of common content. It was hard to know what should be different in each manual and exactly where to apply new information and revisions. Eventually we knew we were doing far more work than we really had to, and we knew that we couldn’’t always know if the content in each specific variant document was really what it should be. If you produce multiple documents with common and similar content, you’’ll want to attend this session.

  We began to realize that we needed to implement single-sourcing. We needed a way to write the common information once and apply differences where needed. Eventually we found that DITA was a viable solution for accomplishing this. The specific DITA tools that helped accomplish our goals were ditamaps, submaps, and bookmaps; and conditional content.

  After one year, we’ve released two DITA documents and plan to release two more soon. We’’ve learned a lot in a short time, but we realize we have much more to learn. Come to this session and hear how we did it and what we learned.

  
  
  

  Choosing the English That’s Right for You: Simplified Technical English and Other Controlled Languages

  Speaker: Brenda Huettner & Alison Huettner
  Time: 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM   Date: October 31
  Track: Content Quality
  Experience level: All levels
  

  Simplified Technical English (STE) is a success story for the aerospace industry. Will a simplified English work for your industry as well? This session explores the rationale behind simplified languages, their advantages and their perennial challenges. It surveys controlled languages from their beginnings to the offerings in today’s marketplace. The session will also cover the questions you need to ask to determine what’s right for your situation. Do you need to simplify? Can you adapt an existing language or lexicon? Or should you define your own set of rules and phrases?  Where should you begin? What effort would be required?

  
  
  

  Reaching Untapped Markets in the US: Targeting the Hispanic and Other Non-native English Speaking Markets

  Speaker: John Watkins
  Time: 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM   Date: October 30
  Track: Localization & Translation
  Experience level: All levels
  

  There is no question that as the immigration of foreign nationals to the US is changing the landscape for product marketing. Over 100 languages are spoken in the US today, with Spanish being the most common language amongst non-native English speakers. Of these 100 languages, there are 11 languages that correspond to populations greater that 500,000 people in the US (ranging from Arabic with 0.6 Million US residents to Spanish with 28 Million residents). Communicating effectively with these consumers, especially the large US Hispanic market, brings the need for effective localization and translation strategies to further increase market opportunities in the US.

  John Watkins presents an overview of the evolving demographic trends, especially in the Hispanic community, within this rapidly growing market and highlights effective strategies used to communicate with the target audiences. Real-world examples highlight relevant considerations and effective strategies for translating and localizing content for this market.

  Topics include:
  

  • Identifying a growing market through demographics
  • Knowing your audience to communicate your message effectively
  • Understanding when you must translate your message
  • Implementing effective strategies for targeting the non-English speakers
  
  
  

  [Case Study] How Suite It Is: Creating Multimedia Documentation and Training with the Adobe Technical Communication Suite

  Speaker: Donna Reynolds
  Time: 3:30 PM - 4:30 PM   Date: October 31
  Track: Training
  Experience level: All levels
  

  With the release of the Adobe Technical Communication Suite, “single sourcing” took on new meaning. Where it once seemed almost magical to create print, web, and PDF products from a single source file, the Adobe Technical Communication Suite added video, 3D graphics, and Help capabilities to the mix.

  The Technical Communication Suite had been announced but not released when ImaCor LLC began developing their echocardiography hardware and software documentation. They were intrigued by the possibilities of an integrated application suite and gambled on the software sight unseen. The bet paid off. In addition to the print manual required for FDA approval, the ImaCor documentation project yielded:
  

  • An interactive PDF-based user manual with 3D graphics and video components
  • Product spec sheets with 3D graphics
  • An embedded software Help system with video components
  • A web-based Help system with video components
  • PDF and web-based training and marketing materials with 3D and video components

  This presentation looks at the real-world trials and triumphs of employing the Adobe Technical Communication Suite to produce a broad range of materials in multiple media. Specifically, it considers:
  

  • Project planning
  • Skills development
  • Learning resources
  • Lessons learned

  Join me in exploring how the Adobe Technical Communication Suite promotes new levels of creativity and unprecedented effectiveness in technical and instructional materials.

  
  
  

  Sustainable XML for Publishing Applications: DITA Makes It Possible

  Speaker: Eliot Kimber
  Time: 8:45 AM - 9:30 AM   Date: October 30
  Track: Keynote
  Experience level: All levels
  

  XML applications for publishers have largely failed to realize the full potential inherent in the technology. While larger publishers could make the investment necessary to realize significant return on the use of XML technology, smaller enterprises simply could not, for a number of reasons, but fundamentally because the startup costs and ongoing costs of ownership were simply too high. The DITA standard fundamentally changes the equation, bringing several unique features that, together, serve to lower both the startup cost and ongoing costs, making the use of XML for publishers much more affordable than it ever has before. At the same time, advances in supporting technologies important to Publishers, such as improved support for XML in Adobe Creative Suite and Microsoft Office, powerful new XML search and retrieval systems such as MarkLogic, and a new generation of lower-cost XML editors, as serve to make the use of XML for Publishing applications more attractive than it ever has been before.

  
  
  

  Creating Quality Content with Open Source Tools

  Speaker: Scott Nesbitt
  Time: 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM   Date: October 31
  Track: Content Technologies
  Experience level: All levels
  

  When you think of authoring any kind of content, what tools come to mind? Probably software like FrameMaker, Microsoft Word, Author-IT, RoboHelp, and a few other tools that are considered standard. But have you consider the Open Source alternative?

  Many people equate Open Source with Linux. But here’s definitely a lot more to it than Linux. In fact, users of Open Source software can take advantage of a number of content authoring tools which give writers—technical or otherwise—the ability to create and publish professional content.

  In this presentation, Scott Nesbitt will highlight the strengths and drawbacks of Open Source tools. Scott will introduce some techniques for developing content the Open Source way, and give you a peek at how some vendors use Open Source tools for their documentation and collateral. You’ll also learn when and when not to go open.

  This presentation will also look at a variety of Open Source tools for creating quality content, including:
  

  • Word processors and wikis
  • Help authoring tools
  • Markup languages and how to publish with them
  • Software for generating developer documentation
  • Graphics and multimedia applications
  
  
  
  
  

  Producing Quality Documentation In An Agile Development Environment

  Speaker: Christine Sigman
  Time: 2:30 PM - 3:30 PM   Date: October 30
  Track: Professional Development
  Experience level: All levels
  

  Agile programming methodologies such as XP and Scrum are well-known for freeing engineers’ productivity. Less well publicized is the confusion that technical communicators can feel when first faced with this new way of working. In an Agile environment, you may not be able to rely on extensive design documents or specifications. You may suddenly become much more accountable for your time and your actions, and to a larger number of people. Release schedules may become much shorter than you are used to. At times, it can be hard to figure out exactly where documentation fits into the picture.

  Whether you and your team are facing the immanent arrival of Agile development or are struggling to adjust to it, this presentation will help you look at Agile clearly and find your place in it. You will learn the basic tenets of one particular Agile methodology, called Scrum, and explore proven strategies for the following:
  

  • Gathering essential information in new ways
  • Coping with frequent releases
  • Building your self-management skills
  • Managing day-to-day interactions with your development team
  • Maintaining relationships within the documentation team
  
  
  
  
  

  Blogzilla: Why Blogs Are The Monster In The Business Closet: You Are No Longer In Control Of Your Brand

  Speaker: David Esrati
  Time: 10:45 AM - 11:45 AM   Date: October 31
  Track: Content Technologies
  Experience level: All levels
  

  The lines between a “Blog” and a “Website” are blurring faster than a speeding bullet, yet many business people still think blogs are platforms for personal publishing and self-expression, when in fact, they may be the most powerful tool to connect with your customers on the ‘net today.

  Large and small companies have joined in with blogs, but the reality is, it’s not just the idea of having a “blog” - but having a Content Management System that puts you in the drivers seat instead of some web geeks.

  The beauty of using blog software as a CMS is that it already has all the cool “Web 2.0” features already built in. From marketing to support, if you aren’t using RSS, comments/feedback and building community, you aren’t going to survive. As an added bonus, they also generate perfectly compliant W3C code- meaning not only will your site meet ADA requirements, Google will love everything you do.

  If you think blogs are for lightweights, come to this session and learn why blogs may be the biggest, baddest marketing and communications tool on the planet. Oh, yeah- you’ll also be entertained while getting your education.

  
  
  

  Creating Visual Training Using MadCap Mimic

  Speaker: Neil Perlin
  Time: 8:30 AM - 12:00 PM   Date: November 1
  Track: Post-Conference Workshops
  Experience level: All levels
  Laptop computer required for this session

  For years, software training was largely text-based; add screen shots in a document, add some text with descriptions and instructions, and voila!  The result worked, but how much more effective might it be if “someone” actually “walked you through the steps” on the screen?  That’s where visual help authoring tools like Mimic come in, letting you create that “someone”.

  Mimic’s primary use is to capture what’s on the screens as you perform application-related tasks like using a feature in Word. That series of screen shots is effectively a series of frames that users can play back as a movie that shows how to perform the task. To make the movie more useful, you can add explanations and instructions in text or audio form, special effects, even interactivity features that simulate real software operation. With these features, Mimic lets you create demonstrations, sales training simulations, and marketing presentations and tutorials.  And Mimic offers two additional benefits – it supports text variables in text captions, and is programmatically integrated with Flare and Capture, two other components of MadCap’s MadPak suite.

  Mimic can create movies in Flash format, Microsoft’s Silverlight, and other formats, but you don’t have to touch or even know any code. Better still, Mimic is quick and easy to learn, two days to get up and running, and cheap—US$299.
  
  This workshop presents a quick overview of Mimic’s basic features in order to provide an overview of the tool as a whole.  In a busy three and a half hours, you’ll:
  

  • Look at uses for Mimic
  • Design and plan a movie
  • Record a movie to be used as a demonstration
  • Enhance a movie with text captions and other frame “annotation” features
  • Publish the finished movie
  • Look at Mimic’s use of variables and its integration with Flare

  The only prerequisites are a basic knowledge of Windows, Internet Explorer, and PC skills in general.

  
  
  

  Should You Call It A Wiki, Or A Collaborative Work Space?

  Speaker: Stewart Mader
  Time: 3:30 PM - 4:30 PM   Date: October 31
  Track: Content Technologies
  Experience level: All levels
  Laptop computer required for this session

  Your competitors are using wikis. Your customers are using wikis. So are others in your organization. You need to use wikis, too. It’s where your future is. And we’ll show you how.

  We’ll explore:
  

  • The business value of wikis
  • How to make the case for using a wiki in your group or team
  • How to encourage participation
  • How to use examples of current wiki success to build excitement and drive adoption
  • How do wikis change an organization’s culture for the better?
  • How do wikis “fit” with other business tools like SharePoint, blogs, content management systems, and email?

  Stewart Mader, author of Wikipatterns and the Grow Your Wiki blog, and a panel of wiki experts from companies like Bank of America and BearingPoint, will answer these and take questions directly from the audience.

  
  
  

  APIs and SDKs: Breaking Into and Succeeding in a Specialty Market

  Speaker: Edward Marshall
  Time: 9:45 AM - 10:45 AM   Date: October 30
  Track: Professional Development
  Experience level: Intermediate
  

  Documenting Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and Software Development Kits (SDKs) is a challenging but rewarding niche in technical communication. This session discusses what these products do, who uses them, moving into this area, benefits / drawbacks to working on these products, issues unique to these products, and commonly used help authoring tools. As the demand is often greater than the supply of writers, you can get higher pay than for other types of writing. You often get greater flexibility in telecommuting / working remotely in this area. Sample source code and the documentation produced from them will be shown.

  Attendees will learn about the skills needed to break into this area of technical writing, and be introduced to some of the tools commonly used to document APIs and SDKs.

  The following topics will be discussed:
  

  • Introduce APIs / SDKs, describe them and their function. Demonstrate several examples of APIs / SDKs and point out the similarities of information provided and format among them.
  • Typical documentation deliverables for both types of products.
  • The ideal information for SDKs.
  • The typical reference information for APIs.
  • Common programming concepts that writers need to be familiar with for this type of writing.
  • The benefits and drawbacks to doing this type of writing.
  • The knowledge / personality traits that work well in this area.
  • Sources of training to prepare you for this area.
  • Logistical issues faced by writers: how you get your information, tools you can use, common formats for online help, platform issues, build and deployment issues, etc.
  • Some common tools used to generate the documentation from the source code, “a single source of truth” will be demonstrated, showing the source code and the documentation generated from it.
  • Other advanced, powerful shareware tools tthat are very useful for documenting these types of products, such as tools to compare the contents of directories / files, search and replace tools, and advanced text editors.
  • Factors to consider in determining which help format to use.
  • Determining if context-sensitive help is useful and tips for making it easier to track your context-sensitive IDs / numbers.
  
  
  
  
  

  Leveraging the DITA Community: Advice, Tools and Resources To Get Your Tech Pubs Team Up-To-Speed

  Speaker: Bob Doyle
  Time: 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM   Date: October 31
  Track: Content Technologies
  Experience level: All levels
  

  Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) XML structured publishing solutions, like content management systems in general, run the gamut in cost from free to millions of dollars for some of the largest implementations in big corporations, such as Adobe, Autodesk, BMC, EMC, IBM, Nokia, Salesforce.com, and Sybase.

  The toolsets alone can run to hundreds of thousands of dollars when a fully automated publishing solution is integrated with an XML CMS, such as those from Astoria, Vasont, and XyEnterprise, or integrated editing, styling, publishing, and content management systems from PTC Arbortext.

  Significantly, however, where free content management solutions have been driven by the open source community——who built the leading CMSs such as Drupal, Joomla, and Plone——the free structured publishing option for DITA is the gift of one of those large corporations: IBM.

  IBM actually gave the intellectual property rights for the DITA standard to the leading XML standards organization, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Systems (OASIS).

  The heart of free structured publishing is called the DITA Open Toolkit (OT). It is managed by IBM, not by OASIS, which is responsible only for the standard, not particular, implementations. Most implementations are based on the OT, with the early leader in structured publishing, Arbortext (now PTC), opting to develop its own DITA publishing implementation.

  All you need to get started with structured content is to download and install the OT and get yourself a DITA XML editor. Judging by the traffic on the technical communication community mailing lists (i.e., STC and TECHWR-L), there is hardly a technical publications department anywhere that does not have someone studying DITA to see if and when it will be adopted.

  Four years ago, I was one of the founders of the content management professionals organization CM Pros. We had a small but strong group interested in structured publishing, and we put an early version of the DITA OT up on a web server so members would not have to install it themselves. Now those tools are available at DITAUsers.org.

  Technical writers are typically good writers but poor techs, and IBM’s gift is easy to install only for programmers. Besides, installing the OT on a laptop or a desktop limits its use to one individual. When the OT is on a web server, many writers can share it, and their publishing deliverables can be seen immediately on the web. This is the SaaS (software-as-a-service) model for highly scalable content publishing in the future.

  Our DITA Users organization provides free access to the online DITA OT and a copy of the Inmedius DITA Storm WYSIWYG XML Editor. Each member gets an online workspace folder with multiple sample projects, including the files from the only DITA textbook: JoAnn Hackos’ Introduction to DITA.

  Our DITA Tools from A to Z section on the DITA Users website lists every software and service up to publishing solutions costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. But our policy of free member access to online tools means that anyone anywhere in the world can at least get started (our membership fees range from free to $100 a year).

  We call our approach “DITA from A to B,” authoring to building and, of course, publishing structured content.

  
  
  

  Challenges of Creating Documentation for Mobile Devices

  Speaker: Tamara Knezic
  Time: 3:30 PM - 4:30 PM   Date: October 31
  Track: Modular Content
  Experience level: All levels
  

  Creating documentation for mobile devices isn’t like creating documentation for desktop applications. There are a unique set of challenges associated with mobile devices that stretch current technical writing approaches and tools past their limits.

  The challenges that will be presented include:
  

  1. Lack of external resources, examples and information
  2. The growing number of operating systems that the documentation potentially has to support
  3. The need to design to the smallest screen size
  4. Authoring templates that are not appropriate for mobile devices
  5. Having to go outside of the tools and back to the basics to meet deadlines
  6. No search capability for the help
  7. PDF distribution issues for free mobile software

  Anyone who is interested in working for a mobile software company will find that this presentation is a good place to start collecting information. Also, anyone who is interested in examining the limitations of current technical writing tools and approaches may want to attend this presentation.

  
  
  

  The Right Tool for the Right Job for the Right Output for the Right Audience: Expanding Options for Technical Communicators

  Speaker: Alan Houser
  Time: 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM   Date: October 31
  Track: Software Demonstrations
  Experience level: All levels
  

  Technical Communicators are in the midst of a grand convergence. After years of relative stagnation, tools are becoming better (easier to use, more reliable, more full-featured), delivery options are increasing (PDF, print, online, interactive), tools for generating non-conventional content (3D, demonstration, simulation) are improving, and technologies like XML-based publishing are enabling new efficiencies.

  If you want to shake up your organization’s technical publishing, this talk will help you to sort through some of the newly-available and newly-accessible options in tools and technologies and help you to choose appropriate solutions for delivering technical communication products that meet your needs and your budget.

  
  
  

  Adobe Technical Communication Suite - Integration

  Speaker: Alan Houser
  Time: 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM   Date: November 1
  Track: Post-Conference Workshops
  Experience level: All levels
  Laptop computer required for this session

  The Adobe Technical Communication Suite provides new possibilities for single-source publishing and integrated workflows for producing print, PDF, and online information deliverables. During this workshop, you will learn to improve your productivity and create interactive content using the new integration features in Adobe FrameMaker, RoboHelp, and Adobe Captivate.

  This workshop will provide an introduction to using the components of the Adobe Technical Communication Suite for single-source and multi-channel publishing. Students will learn:
  

  • How to plan FrameMaker documents for single-source publishing.
  • Basics of RoboHelp for creating online user assistance.
  • Importing FrameMaker documents by reference into RoboHelp projects.
  • Mapping styles and importing FrameMaker TOCs.
  • Using FrameMaker conditional text and RoboHelp conditional build tags to customize published content.
  • Using user-defined variables in FrameMaker and RoboHelp to represent commonly-used names and phrases.
  • Embedding 3D (from Adobe Acrobat 3D) and multimedia content (from Adobe Captivate) into FrameMaker and RoboHelp projects.
  • Publishing RoboHelp projects.

  Note: Students should bring a laptop computer with the Adobe Technical Communication Suite installed. A fully-functional trial version is available at http://www.adobe.com/go/trytcs. Trial software will be provided at the workshop in DVD (_not_ CD-ROM) format. The installation process may be lengthy, so students are advised to install the software before the workshop begins.

  
  
  

  Using Adobe FrameMaker

  Speaker: Alan Houser
  Time: 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM   Date: October 29
  Track: Pre-Conference Workshops
  Experience level: All levels
  Laptop computer required for this session

  Adobe FrameMaker has long been a favorite tool of technical communicators for authoring and publishing technical documents in print and PDF formats. With the new Adobe Technical Communication Suite, FrameMaker becomes a powerful cornerstone for single-source publishing workflows. If you have never used FrameMaker, or your FrameMaker skills are rusty, this introductory workshop will provide the background you need to begin using FrameMaker effectively.

  This workshop will introduce students to basic FrameMaker skills and concepts:
  

  • Automated formatting with paragraph and character formats
  • Automated page layouts with FrameMaker templates
  • Using graphics and tables in FrameMaker
  • Easy-to-create and easy-to-maintain cross-references
  • Bulleted and numbered lists
  • Generating tables of contents and indexes
  • Generating effective PDF output
  • Planning for single-source publishing using the Adobe Technical Communication Suite

  Students should bring a laptop computer with Adobe FrameMaker 8 installed. A fully-functional trail version of FrameMaker 8 is available from http://www.adobe.com/go/tryframemaker_win.

  Note: If you are also taking the workshop “Adobe Technical Communication Suite - Integration”, you should install the Adobe Technical Communication Suite version of FrameMaker, available at http://www.adobe.com/go/trytcs. Trial software on DVD (_not_ CD-ROM) will also be provided at the workshop.

  
  
  

  Content Convergence: Trends in the Creation, Production, and Maintenance of Technical Content

  Speaker: Rahel Anne Bailie
  Time: 9:45 AM - 10:45 AM   Date: October 30
  Track: Professional Development
  Experience level: Advanced
  

  If you think content production is complex now, wait until it starts converging with content from other departments or groups. Or when users, dissatisfied with the quality of the documentation provided, start their own DIY documentation project—and it ranks higher in the Google rankings than your own support site.

  If you’re being asked to use your content in more than one way, you might be at the stage where the “more” part includes methods or technologies you’re not really familiar with. Maybe content re-use means syndication or collaborative creation with other departments or divisions, or incorporating content from other sites or user-generated content. It could mean figuring how to build community or provide better support or get better feedback.

  Maybe “more” means creating or incorporating help from the technical side, sharing the content in a knowledge base, putting it on the Web, maybe with automatic updates, and adopting XML, perhaps figuring out how the new DITA standard works for you in all of this.

  No matter what your situation, you’re in the position where you’re supposed to figure out the XML stuff and the Web stuff and the quality stuff and the stuff around RSS feeds and copyright, how it all fits together, and why you need any of it, anyhow. After all, if you’ve even tried to coordinate content creation between departments, or track the effectiveness of email marketing campaigns, or just share content between a CMS and LMS, you’ll recognize how hard it is to find two systems that “play nice” together, let alone get an entire corporate strategy in place. It’s easy to get overwhelmed.

  Where is your next content coming from? Are you thinking about your next content strategy? Call it content management meets Web 2.0, content convergence and integration, or simply staying ahead of the curve. Hear some of the trends taking the industry by storm.

  
  
  

  [Case Study] EMC: The Design, Creation and Maintenance of Content in a Corporate-Wide XML Authoring Environment

  Speaker: Paul Masalsky
  Time: 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM   Date: October 30
  Track: Component Content Management
  Experience level: All levels
  

  This session describes how EMC uses content management, coupled with XML-based strategies, to collaborate on the design, creation, and maintenance of technical content in its corporate-wide XML authoring environment. By managing and publishing all its content through a central infrastructure that includes a content management system, EMC’s goal is to significantly improve the reuse of its content across its internal organizations and external partners, while reducing translation, localization, and maintenance costs associated with its current authoring environment.

  This session is for content authors, information architects, developers, and managers who want to:
  

  • Learn how to significantly improve the reuse of content between your internal organizations and external partners while reducing translation, localization, and maintenance costs associated with current authoring environments.
  • Understand XML-based strategies for document management.
  • Learn how to use the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) to create topic-based content that is easily “chunked” and managed.
  • Examine the dynamic customization of documents through various applications and the automatic publishing of rendered copy to company Web sites.
  
  
  

  Games to Explain Human Factors: Come, Participate, Learn and Have Fun!!!

  Speaker: Ronald Shapiro
  Time: 8:30 AM - 12:00 PM   Date: October 29
  Track: Pre-Conference Workshops
  Experience level: All levels
  

  If you were to better understand how you, your clients and customers process information would you produce better quality content? Would you be able to design, develop, test, and deploy better products? Would this increase sales or reduce service calls due to “user error? Would client satisfaction improve?  Why not find out.  Attend the Games to Explain Human Factors: Come, Participate, Learn and Have Fun!!! workshop at DocTrain 2008 in Burlington.

  Using a Game Show format and at least 25 activities and games, this session illustrates how information developers and other professionals can optimize information design and other aspects of their solutions to capitalize on human strengths and compensate for human weaknesses.

  We’ll first study the steps involved as people process information: sense, perceive, learn, store information in memory, retrieve information from memory, make decisions, respond, and interact in a social environment. We’ll emphasize learning about human strengths and weaknesses at each step along the way so that you will be able to better design to optimize utilization of these strengths and compensate for these weaknesses in the information and systems that you design, develop, test and deploy.

  Next, we’ll discuss some tools of the trade: observation, task analysis, usability testing, and communication.  We’ll review what you can do right after the session. We’ll conclude our formal session with a comprehension check (final exam) that will be fun and will provide a chance to explain how you might use some of the principles learned during the session as well as catch up on a few details that you may have missed during the session.

  Finally, we’ll award nice prizes to our winners.

  As an added bonus, you’ll learn how to lead some educational (and fun) activities with your colleagues, family (including the elementary and high school kids), and friends when you return home.

  This highly interactive session is an excellent way to begin your four day conference experience while learning, having fun, and possibly winning prizes.

  While everyone’s experience with Games is slightly different, here is what several of our participants have said about the session:
  

  • A great way for people to learn without even trying.
  • Very good practical application and examples.
  • A lot of fun and very interesting.  I could apply this to life situations.
  • Examples proved that “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Made it easy to see points being made.
  • Content was great. Exercises illustrated points very well.
  • Thank you for your wonderful presentation. Your games and explanations made human factors very understandable. I cannot wait to share the information you presented with the staff at my facility!

  Please come to Games to Explain Human Factors. If you participate, you will learn, have fun, and possibly develop ideas that will ultimately help you to advance your career!!!