How has technical writing changed in the last 10 years? And how will it be different in the coming years? I started to think about these questions when an old friend asked my opinion about how the tools and deliverables have changed since the late 1990s. She was working as a technical writing manager back then and is now considering re-entering the workforce.
I see two notable changes from 10 years ago:
XML authoring. Of course, one of the main changes in the last 10 years is the widespread use of XML when authoring technical documents. Two years ago, Scriptorium Publishing (http://www.scriptorium.com ) asked more than 600 technical writers whether they write in XML. A majority of respondents were either already writing in XML, implementing it, planning to use it, or were at least considering it. Only 16 percent of those surveyed didn’t plan to implement it. XML authoring is not a fad. It’s here to stay.
Improved tools. I started using FrameMaker 6.0 in the late 1990s. Adobe just released version 10 in January. Thankfully, authoring technical documents has improved significantly. If you distribute PDF documents to subject matter experts who make edits in the PDFs, we can now import those edits back into the source files. No more tedious editing. FrameMaker and RoboHelp can single source. You can ask subject matter experts to review your files via “the cloud.”
How will technical writing change again in the next 10 years? Here are some educated guesses:
We’ll all be preparing our online help for mobile devices. Smartphones and tablets are expected to start outselling computers in the near future. More and more people will be using these devices to work and will need technical assistance. I expect this is the next “big thing” for us.
Cloud computing may change how we perform our jobs. Increasingly, we may be storing our source files in the cloud, distributing technical drafts using the cloud, and even authoring content using cloud-based software. See my related post about cloud computing.
Social media will change how we communicate. In my opinion, most technical writers are not taking advantage of tools like YouTube and Twitter. But in the coming years, more of us will understand how to marry social media and technical documentation. In the April edition of Intercom magazine, there’s an interesting article called “Understanding the Help 2.0 Revolution.” It’s worth checking out: www.stc.org. The edition is free too.
These are some of my initial thoughts. How do you think technical writing will change in the next decade?
I have worked as a
One of the trends I’ve seen is the shrinkage of information available through docs and help (on a product by product basis — goodness knows that information as a whole has expanded).
I would like to see products designed in such a way so as to minimize the NEED for docs and help … a rational, coherent UI could go a long way toward communicating what should/can be done …
Technical Writers have been billing themselves as advocates for the users for a long time — expanding that role might be a good way for us to add value.
The next ten years scare me. Clearly the aim will be as always; better, faster, cheaper. Thats the only way to stay competitive. We may even reach a point where we work with engineering side by side and publish DAILY on the web. If for nothing else, just so we can beat the other guy to the market place. I don’t pretend to know what’s going to happen, but you can be sure that will be the trend!
Good Luck!
I agree with Bob Propes. In the age of Scrum Methodology, there can be shift of gears and change of the roles and responsibilities for each member of a team.
Hi Bob,
Yes, I agree. High-tech firms always want to release a new product first with the hope of dominating a niche.
Regarding your comment about “staying competitive,” I believe that technical writers in Europe and North America will increasingly work with writers in China and India. Collaboration has always been part of our jobs, usually within one office. In the future, I suspect we will be colloborating more with teams in other countries.
Thanks for your comment!
One thing that you didn’t mention is the trend (which I’ve witnessed these past several years) for subject matter experts to take over more and more of the standard technical writing responsibilities, and whether technical writers will either have to become true subject matter experts themselves in the organization’s business and technology or face extinction. I think the bar has been raised for truly understanding the business, rather than writing about it. And the bar has been lowered for having writing skills thanks to the structured authoring tools, which help compensate for pure writing talent. This is something I worry about regarding the future of technical writing.
Technology will enable working remotely to even greater levels than today, certainly beyond 50–60%. Content single-sourcing and internationalization will be the norm rather than the exception. Prepare to hear “crowd-sourcing” and “electronic ink” more often.
I also worker as a technical writer back in the late 90s before venturing on to other things. Now that I’m aiming to re-enter the profession (but open to other opportunities), I find it more and more challenging as the standards have changed over the past decade. My only question is what kind of certification/courses would both upgrade my skills and make my myself more marketable to potential employers?
Hi Eijones,
That’s a challenging question. I’d consider learning XML and structured writing, learning the recent tools (FrameMaker, RoboHelp, MadCap Flare), and look closely at the jobs ads for technical writers, which will also give you a sense of the skills and technologies employers want.
Hope this helps.
Robert, great blog post and I think you are dead on with saying XML is here to stay. The extensibility that it provides is really incredible. It can do so much in relation to content — web, mobile, UI labels and screen text, blogs (Drupal and DITA project), wikis, and on-demand content building. I think this area will only expand in the future and I think mobile adds a whole new twist.
I agree on all your predictions…but the question is HOW? I am being asked to come up with a documentation strategy for our business software product to meet the needs of a Web 2.0 audience, in the cloud. We already author in DITA XML, so our content has the flexibility, but where do you begin? Any recommendations would be gratefully received!
Hi Briana,
As you probably guessed, there’s not a simple answer.
A key part of Web 2.0 is fostering discussions with customers. Disqus.com provides some functionality that you could potentially add to your help so that customers can comment and rate your help topics.
There are probably tools that will help you transform your XML into mobile-ready content. I don’t know any tools off the top of my head. The folks at http://www.scriptorium.com/ probably would be able to assist.
If you’re so inclined, you can start storing some of your files in “the cloud” right now, if there was a need for this. Check out web sites like Dropbox.com
Hope some of these ideas help!
I guess I have a somewhat darker, less confident take of the future of technical writing, but it is based on a certain amount of personal experience, so:
1. Mobile devices just don’t seem to have very great requirements for technical documentation. As one commentator has pointed out, modern, well-designed user interfaces reduce the need for documentation, and mobile devices have made great strides in that direction. I would love to see a survey or study of how much technical writing is required by mobile device applications compared to PC-based applications.
2. I don’t see that cloud computing will make a big difference in a technical writer’s work. True, we may end up using cloud storage and web-based applications more, but I guess I don’t have enough experience with this to see any fundamental affect.
3. Social media, to me, threatens to significantly reduce the need for technical writers, and it does change how we work. For example, there is an increasing tendency for companies to establish “user communities”, in which experienced users are effectively co-opted to provide assistance to less experienced users. Also, it seems that users volunteer YouTube videos on how to use applications, including performing some fairly advanced tasks, all contributed freely. I have even added links to such videos as at least introductory-level documentation for some applications. If you do work as technical writer managing a wiki of documentation, your main tasks might involve organizing and editing or illustrating material and providing navigational aids, but your actual writing tasks may be significantly reduced.
4. Given these above trends, I seem to see technical writing demanding ever greater and more specialized knowledge, particularly more specialized domain knowledge, for example, there are a growing number of standards and certifications required for specific industries, and–as a result–ever greater obstacles to crossing from one industry into another. For example, government work requires security clearances, but can also require knowledge of specific standards, such as ITIL for IT support related documentation, and medical device documentation can require NB-MED/R2.5.1 knowledge. There also seems to be greater demand for developer and network engineering documentation, which requires greater knowledge and experience of those tasks, which leads to technical writing roles being filled more frequently by experienced developers, network administrators, and other engineers and technology specialists, rather than generalized technical writers with English degrees, or even technical writing certificates.