Design Thinking in Technical and Professional Communication: Four Perspectives

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 437-455 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Pope-Ruark
Keyword(s):  
Technical Communication ◽  
Design Thinking ◽  
Professional Communication ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Complex Problems ◽  
User Design ◽  
Technical And Professional Communication ◽  
Is Design

In this special issue, we explore design thinking as a broad conceptual process as well as a tool that might align with the work of technical and professional communication (TPC) programs. But what is design thinking? What are the benefits and drawbacks of the process? Can design thinking be used to help students address rhetorical challenges and complex problems? How is design thinking showing up in the field, and does it belong in TPC programs? Four scholars explore these questions in their niche areas: process, usability and user design, technical communication, and industry and programmatic perspectives.

Investigating the Impact of Design Thinking, Content Strategy, and Artificial Intelligence: A “Streams” Approach for Technical Communication and User Experience

2021 ◽  
pp. 004728162110419
Author(s):  
Gustav Verhulsdonck ◽  
Tharon Howard ◽  
Jason Tham
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
User Experience ◽  
Technical Communication ◽  
Design Thinking ◽  
Professional Communication ◽  
Ux Design ◽  
Content Strategy ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Technical And Professional Communication ◽  
User Centered

Technical and professional communication (TPC) and user experience (UX) design are often seen as intertwined due to being user-centered. Yet, as widening industry positions combine TPC and UX, new streams enrich our understanding. This article looks at three such streams, namely, design thinking, content strategy, and artificial intelligence to uncover specific industry practices, skills, and ways to advocate for users. These streams foster a multistage user-centered methodology focused on a continuous designing process, strategic ways for developing content across different platforms and channels, and for developing in smart contexts where agentive products act for users. In this article, we synthesize these developments and draw out how these impact TPC.

Iterating the Literature: An Early Annotated Bibliography of Design-Thinking Resources

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 456-465 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Pope-Ruark ◽  
Joe Moses ◽  
Jason Tham
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Design Thinking ◽  
Writing Studies ◽  
Annotated Bibliography ◽  
Popular Media ◽  
Professional Communication ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Technical And Professional Communication

As discussed throughout this special issue, interest in design thinking as a process, a set of mind-sets and practices, and also a potential addition to writing studies and technical and professional communication (TPC) program curricula has increased recently, opening discussions about the rhetorical nature of design-thinking practices. Does design thinking align with the already rhetoric scholarship on design in TPC? In this working bibliography, we pull together literative from across disciplines, popular media, and higher education media to examine design thinking from a variety of angles and to offer a starting point for peers interested in learning more.

Composing Like an Entrepreneur: The Pedagogical Implications of Design Thinking in the Workplace

2021 ◽  
pp. 004728162110315
Author(s):  
Mason Pellegrini
Keyword(s):  
Design Thinking ◽  
Web Design ◽  
Professional Communication ◽  
Business Success ◽  
Current State ◽  
Composing Process ◽  
State Of Research ◽  
Design Firms ◽  
Fierce Competition ◽  
Technical And Professional Communication

Fierce competition has made innovation increasingly necessary for business success, and this has increased the importance of user-based innovation strategies like design thinking (DT). While many studies in technical and professional communication (TPC) have explored how DT can be used pedagogically, no studies have done this through investigating how DT is used as a workplace composing process. This study does exactly that. First, it presents the current state of research on pedagogical uses of DT in TPC, and then it builds upon those suggestions with an empirical study that chronicles on how two web design firms use DT to make websites. My main suggestion is to teach DT as a recursive process that allows students transcend potentially incorrect assumptions built into design tasks through gathering data not only from users, but from clients as well.

scholarly journals Project-oriented web scraping in technical communication research

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Gallagher ◽  
Aaron Beveridge
Keyword(s):  
Technical Communication ◽  
Professional Communication ◽  
Communication Research ◽  
Research Practices ◽  
Web Scraping ◽  
Technical And Professional Communication ◽  
Technical Considerations

This article advocates for web-scraping as an effective method to augment and enhance technical and professional communication (TPC) research practices. Web scraping is used to create consistently structured and well-sampled datasets about domains, communities, demographics, and topics of interest to TPC scholars. After an extended description of web scraping, we identify technical considerations of the method as well as provide practitioner narratives. We then describe an overview of project-oriented web scraping, and we discuss implications for the concept as a sustainable approach to developing web-scraping methods for TPC research.

Legally Minded Technical Communicators: A Case Study of a Legal Writing Course

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 393-414
Author(s):  
Godwin Y. Agboka
Keyword(s):  
Technical Communication ◽  
Professional Communication ◽  
Legal Literacy ◽  
Legal Writing ◽  
Writing Course ◽  
Technical Communicators ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Technical And Professional Communication

Understanding the law and its impact on the practice of technical communication has been an important scholarly thread in technical and professional communication (TPC) for more than two decades. Technical communicators recognize the impact of their work on stakeholders as well as the potential liability issues associated with composing technical communication documents. While this scholarship is widespread, relatively few pedagogical resources are available to prepare students for success in a litigious world or to guide instructors in teaching legal writing. This article offers a case study of a legal writing course that prepares TPC students to develop legal literacy and succeed in the workplace.

Curricular Efforts in Technical Communication After the Social Justice Turn

2021 ◽  
pp. 105065192110441
Author(s):  
Godwin Y. Agboka ◽  
Isidore K. Dorpenyo
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Technical Communication ◽  
Professional Communication ◽  
Substantial Body ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Social ◽  
Technical And Professional Communication

The social justice turn in technical and professional communication (TPC) has inspired a substantial body of progressive scholarship and discussion. But it is not clear how these scholarly efforts have shaped (or are shaping) programmatic and curricular efforts. This article reports the findings of a survey of TPC instructors and an analysis of 231 TPC programs to examine their curricular efforts toward social justice. Drawing from the mixed findings, the authors argue that vigorous curricular efforts in social justice enable TPC to fully and practically demonstrate the core mandate of our discipline.

Using Learner Centered Pedagogy and Social Justice Pedagogy in Post-Secondary Technical and Professional Communication Writing Courses

2019 ◽  
pp. 337-350
Author(s):  
Kimberly C. Harper
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Cultural Competency ◽  
Technical Communication ◽  
Professional Communication ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
Post Secondary ◽  
Social Justice Pedagogy ◽  
Learner Centered ◽  
Pedagogical Choices ◽  
Technical And Professional Communication

This chapter discusses the author's approach to implementing social justice and learner-centered pedagogies in a course titled Technical Communication in the Age of #BlackLivesMatter. The author uses the Black Lives Matter movement as a springboard for teaching technical communication students about the responsibilities of workplace writers. Technical and Professional Communication (TPC) make use of a skills-based pedagogy and, at times, omits the importance of providing students with cultural competency skills. However, there is a shift in the field of TPC as some scholars are advocating for the inclusion of topics such as race, culture, gender, and class in pedagogical discussions. Discussed in this chapter are the theories behind the author's pedagogical choices when creating the described course, the student assignments, and the challenges encountered while teaching the course.

Positive Deviance as Design Thinking: Challenging Notions of Stasis in Technical and Professional Communication

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 376-399 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucía Durá ◽  
Lauren Perez ◽  
Magdalena Chaparro
Keyword(s):  
Behavioral Change ◽  
Design Thinking ◽  
Positive Deviance ◽  
Professional Communication ◽  
Innovative Methodology ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Mexico Border ◽  
Common Problems ◽  
Technical And Professional Communication

In design thinking, extreme users have found work-arounds for common problems, but they are few in number and often overlooked in toolkits and write-ups. This article posits that positive deviance, an approach to social and behavioral change that is compatible with design thinking, offers technical and professional communicators an accessible and innovative methodology for engaging extreme users. The authors analyze a case study of how the positive deviance approach was used to address federal recidivism on the U.S.–Mexico border. They conducted a positive deviance inquiry to arrive at the everyday replicable behaviors that enabled released individuals to complete their terms of supervised release successfully, despite the odds against them and without access to special resources. The authors conclude by discussing the value and implications of focusing on extreme users.

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