scholarly journals Designing Telecollaborative Projects for Professional Communication and User Experience

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (5) ◽  
pp. 450-471
Author(s):  
Elisabet Arnó-Macià ◽  
Mary McCall ◽  
Daniel Kenzie ◽  
Suvi Isohella ◽  
Bruce Maylath
Keyword(s):  
User Experience ◽  
Technical Communication ◽  
Professional Communication ◽  
Future Performance

This article draws on Trans-Atlantic and Pacific Project (TAPP) collaborations (e.g., [Arnó, 14] [Vandepitte, 16]) to show how students in already-existing technical communication classes can join other classes in realistic transnational projects through ICT and thereby acquire and enhance various types of transversal competences necessary to students’ future performance in a globalized workplace.

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.

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.

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.

Creating Content That Influences People: Considering User Experience and Behavioral Design in Technical Communication

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 376-400
Author(s):  
Gustav Verhulsdonck ◽  
Nadya Shalamova
Keyword(s):  
User Experience ◽  
Technical Communication ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Experience Design ◽  
User Experience Design ◽  
Technical Communicators ◽  
Behavioral Design ◽  
Information Products ◽  
Digital Assets ◽  
People Today

As people today use information products in contexts with distractions, we need to design for people’s attention. User experience design routinely relies on behavioral design to engage distracted users and nudge them toward specific behavior. Although practiced in user experience design, behavioral design is less known in technical communication. In this article, we use the CHOICES (Context, Habits, Other people, Incentives, Congruence, Emotions, and Salience) framework developed by McKinsey’s Behavioral Lab to introduce students to learn about behavioral design principles that make use of cognitive biases to influence people. We maintain that behavioral design is useful for technical communicators because they create digital assets that are part of the user experience.

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.

Cognition, Care, and Usability: Applying Cognitive Concepts to User Experience Design in Health and Medical Contexts

2020 ◽  
pp. 004728162098156
Author(s):  
Kirk St.Amant
Keyword(s):  
User Experience ◽  
Technical Communication ◽  
Patient Expectations ◽  
Experience Design ◽  
Script Theory ◽  
User Experience Design ◽  
Medical Materials

Meeting the needs of users requires an understanding of the contexts where they interact with materials. This entry presents an approach for integrating script theory into usability to develop medical materials individuals can use in the settings where they receive or perform healthcare activities. The entry introduces technical communication professionals to script theory and presents mechanisms for using script theory to research patient expectations of and presents usable materials for health and medical contexts.

A Survey of Technical Communication Students: Attitudes, Skills, and Aspirations

1983 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 205-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
David H. Covington ◽  
Clifford M. Krowne
Keyword(s):  
North Carolina ◽  
Long Range ◽  
Communication Skills ◽  
Technical Communication ◽  
Professional Communication ◽  
State University ◽  
Communication Course ◽  
North Carolina State University ◽  
Career Plans ◽  
Students Attitudes

A survey of technical communication students at North Carolina State University has revealed information about students' perceptions of their communication skills and abilities, their immediate and long-range career plans, and what should be offered in a technical communication course. This information complements information gathered from surveys of business and industrial employers and of technical graduates on the job. The results of the survey suggest the desirability of increased technical communication course emphasis on oral reports and simulating professional communication activities. The survey also suggests specific areas for emphasis in the teaching of organization, format, and style.

The Disappearance of Business Communication From Professional Communication Programs in English Departments

2021 ◽  
pp. 105065192110214
Author(s):  
James M Dubinsky ◽  
Kristen Getchell
Keyword(s):  
Technical Communication ◽  
Business Communication ◽  
Professional Communication ◽  
English Department ◽  
Historical Evidence ◽  
English Departments ◽  
Communication Programs

Since 1985, the field of professional communication has grown in size and reputation while maintaining a space within its primary disciplinary home of the English department. This article relies on historical evidence to examine how a field that was once evenly divided between business communication and technical communication is now technical communication-centric, almost to the exclusion of business communication. The authors pose questions about the field of professional communication and how faculty who consider business communication to be their primary discipline (regardless of their disciplinary home) might play a role in future discussions related to disciplinarity and domains of knowledge.

Extending Design Thinking, Content Strategy, and Artificial Intelligence into Technical Communication and User Experience Design Programs: Further Pedagogical Implications

2022 ◽  
pp. 004728162110725
Author(s):  
Jason Tham ◽  
Tharon Howard ◽  
Gustav Verhulsdonck
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
User Experience ◽  
Professional Practice ◽  
Technical Communication ◽  
Design Thinking ◽  
Experience Design ◽  
User Experience Design ◽  
Ux Design ◽  
Content Strategy ◽  
Communication Pedagogy

This article follows up on the conversation about new streams of approaches in technical communication and user experience (UX) design, i.e., design thinking, content strategy, and artificial intelligence (AI), which afford implications for professional practice. By extending such implications to technical communication pedagogy, we aim to demonstrate the importance of paying attention to these streams in our programmatic development and provide strategies for doing so.

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