This article was originally published in the April 2011 issue (Vol 16, No. 1)

About the Author

Arun Martin is a member of the India Chapter. Arun is working as a Technical Writer for VMware, Bangalore..

STC UUX Community Newsletter
Usability Interface

Report on the STC India User Research and Usability SIG

By Arun Martin, India Chapter

The STC India User Research and Usability SIG continues to grow in membership and attract a growing interest by local technology companies.

On October 23, 2010, we held three information sessions at Red Chilli Solutions in Bangalore.

• Effective Content Writing by Sudhindra V.
• Content Strategy - Integrating content in user experience design by Neha Singh and Arunima Saboo
• Documentation Deliverables for User Experience by Xavier Roy

Effective Content Writing

Writing for persuasion is very important to attract the users to Web sites. Sudhindra explained why microcopy (i.e., short sentence, a phrase, a few words) is gaining acceptance in today's Web with users looking at just in time instructions and contextually important information. Sudhindra raised a valid point as to whether we need to include documentation when Information graphics or infographics is gaining popularity. Using Information Graphics, writers could represent the documentation manuals as pictures.

About the Speaker

Sudhindra V. is an Associate Creative Director and heads the User Experience practice at Sapient India. He is passionate about aesthetics and usability. His interests include persuasion design, and interfaces that shape behavior and habits.

Content Strategy - Integrating Content in User Experience Design

Neha explained about what defines content and why it is tough to maintain it. Arunima stated that to make content accessible to users, organizations should define a content strategy. Arunima explained that a well-defined content strategy makes content usable, findable, accessible, and readable. They focused on the content strategist's role in the user experience lifecycle: research, requirements, ideation, design, and validation. With market opportunities opening for content strategists, career options exist for technical writers, professional editors, etc.

About the Speakers

Neha Singh has an MBA in international business from Netherlands and a Computer Science engineering degree. She has worked on Web content for diverse clients ranging from corporate sectors, non-profit organizations, educational institutes, and IT industry. Using her experience in online content, Web site customization, accessibility, SEO, and Web marketing, she is currently shaping content strategy at Yahoo! within its User Experience Design team.

Arunima Saboo is a B.Tech (Bachelor of Technology) in Information Technology and Masters in Software and User Interface Design from the National Institute of Design. Arunima works at Yahoo! as an Interaction Designer, designing entertainment properties for Latin America and South East Asia. She has been working proactively with SEO, accessibility, and content strategy specialists bringing value to the User Experience Design process in Yahoo!.

Documentation Deliverables for User Experience

Xavier's session focussed on various deliverables associated with a UX project. He briefly explained about personas, scenarios, content inventories, analytics, concept maps, site maps, process flows, wireframes, storyboards, style guides, interface patterns, and prototypes. Xavier concluded that the right deliverable is based on the audience, content, context, process, and the problem.

About the Speaker

Xavier Roy works as a technical writer and editor for a casino solutions company. With over eight years of experience in user assistance, he feels that user experience is a natural progression from a technical writing role and has completed his CUA certification.