"4. You’re not just a writer, you’re an advocate for clarity

I thought being a technical writer meant simply explaining what someone else built. But it’s so much more than that. You’re there to simplify complexity, anticipate user needs, and advocate for clarity.

Why it’s key: A good writer doesn’t just document systems, they improve them. In most cases, you should be the first real user of a new feature. Your fresh perspective can highlight gaps and improve the overall experience."

https://bufferbuffer.com/10-things-i-learned-the-hard-way-about-technical-writing-in-tech/

#TechnicalWriting #SoftwareDocumentation #Documentation #Docs #SoftwareDevelopment

"[T]o build effective docs you not only need tools and content types, but also a model of needs that documentation must satisfy as a product, or of actions users need to accomplish through docs. This model should be fairly independent from the type of software product you’re documenting, in the same way conceptual models of product design and satisfaction abstract away the specifics. Aiming for a general model is necessary because it helps professionals learn and communicate together.
What follows is my own descriptive model of user needs for documentation, one I’m following to build and arrange documentation today.
The approach I’m proposing here is a model of what user actions the docs are meant to satisfy. The model aims at connecting both UX research and documentation frameworks with a conceptual and functional layer that focuses on two aspects: docs as a product and what users are meant to accomplish through them. It’s an attempt at describing what technical documentation should do. It’s treating docs as a product that someone is going to use to achieve actual goals.
As I said, the core of the model is actions. I’ve identified seven that I think cover a decent amount of goals that a consumer of docs may want to accomplish when using documentation. They represent common patterns in how users interact with documentation across different products and domains. They’re the following, each bearing an alternative term in parentheses: Appraise (Discern), Understand (Learn), Explore (Discover), Practice (Train), Remember (Recall), Develop (Integrate), and Troubleshoot (Solve)."

https://passo.uno/seven-action-model/

#TechnicalWriting #Documentation #TechnicalCommunication #UX #DocumentationFrameworks #UXResearch #DocsAsProduct

#israel #palestine : #war / #gaza / #literature / #eyewitness / #documentation / #counterpublic

„Mahmoud Muna is the owner of the Educational Bookshop in East Jerusalem and one of the editors of “Daybreak in Gaza: Stories of Palestinian Lives and Cultures”. The book collects testimonies and stories from over a hundred Gazans, documenting their lives before and during Israel’s ongoing war on the enclave.”

https://qantara.de/en/article/mahmoud-muna-editor-daybreak-gaza-book-about-hope-anger-and-anguish

➡️ The PHP manual has learned a new trick, you can now run the code right in the browser!

🥳 Thanks to @soyuka for the implementation!

#php #documentation

#Gaza #documentation

Why is our website different to other existing websites?

You can read the answer in the third tab on this page: https://pares.glosm.eu/index.php

#Gaza #documentation

We're slowly bringing the whole archive but in backwards order online as November 2024 is nearly complete online; October 2024 & #October7th, are complete online. Now preparing: Sept. 2024.

https://pares.glosm.eu/index.php

#france #israel #palestine : #war / #gaza / #westbank / #opt / #dissent / #openletter / #documentation

„In an article published in 'Le Monde,' leading figures of the Jewish faith and culture denounce the visit to Paris on November 13, of the finance minister for Benjamin Netanyahu's government, who is hostile to a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war and defends the illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank: “

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/article/2024/11/10/war-in-the-middle-east-israeli-minister-bezalel-smotrich-a-supremacist-and-revisionist-should-not-be-welcomed-in-france_6732288_23.html?lmd_medium=al&lmd_campaign=envoye-par-appli&lmd_creation=ios&lmd_source=default