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We spoke to Deborah Reid, Lead Tester at Bloom & Wild, about usability testing.  We discuss: What is testing? Is it only about accessibility? Where is it used? Why should organisations worry about testing/do testing? Does it need a specialist to do it?/ What skills are needed? How did you become a tester/what attracted you to it? How is it done? Browser developer tools When should you test?  Deborah's Twitter account: @deborah_reid19 More information: Cherryleaf website Cherryleaf newsletter To contact Cherryleaf: info@cherryleaf.com

We asked the people who receive the Cherryleaf newsletter what was one goal (relating to work, career, or work-life balance) that they were setting for 2021. We received a lot of replies – thank you. In this episode, we go through what you told us.  More information: Word clouds from your responses Ankerwycke Cherryleaf website Cherryleaf newsletter To contact Cherryleaf: info@cherryleaf.com

Another walking podcast, this time it's from Bedfont Lakes country park in west London. We gaze into our crystal ball and make predictions for the future of technical communication for 2021 and beyond. We also share the thoughts of others in the profession.  Twitter thread: What trends do you think there will be in Technical Communication (including UX writing) for 2021 and beyond? LinkedIn thread:  What trends do you think there will be in Technical Communication (including UX writing) for 2021 and beyond?   Cherryleaf website Cherryleaf newsletter To contact Cherryleaf: info@cherryleaf.com

The DevPortal Awards bring together the API community to recognize, celebrate and learn from the world’s greatest developer portals and their API documentation. Ellis is one of the judges. In this podcast, he talks about the criteria the awards use to assess the different developer portals.     DevPortal Awards Cherryleaf website Cherryleaf newsletter To contact Cherryleaf: info@cherryleaf.com Cherryleaf  Image of Penton Hook by Motmit

We discuss a thread by Chris Herd on Twitter about working from home, and the future of work.    Chris Herd's thread on Twitter.   Cherryleaf newsletter To contact Cherryleaf: info@cherryleaf.com Cherryleaf 

We talk to Bart Leahy about his career as a Technical Writer and his book, Heroic Technical Writing: Making a Difference in the Workplace and Your Life.   Cherryleaf newsletter To contact Cherryleaf: info@cherryleaf.com Cherryleaf 

Ellis describes his experience of writing and publishing a book on Kindle. He also discusses creating an audiobook for Audible and the latest options for printing a paperback book.    More information https://kdp.amazon.com/ https://www.acx.com/ https://www.postermywall.com/index.php/posters/search?s=ebook# https://www.fiverr.com/   Cherryleaf newsletter To contact Cherryleaf: info@cherryleaf.com Cherryleaf 

Ellis was recently a judge for the UK Technical Communication Awards 2020. In this podcast we look at the process for judging the entries, and the variety of content submitted.  More information: Cherryleaf newsletter To contact Cherryleaf: info@cherryleaf.com  

Organisations that take a controls-based approach to auditing typically need controls-based procedures. We look at how they differ from other policies and procedures. We also discuss how we're approaching procedures writing projects during the lockdown.  More information: Cherryleaf procedures writing services Cherryleaf newsletter To contact Cherryleaf: info@cherryleaf.com   Photo by Charles Deluvio on Unsplash

We look at some newly released applications from Microsoft and Adobe that could help you be a better communicator: Microsoft Fluid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy1Tyr93Sw4 Microsoft Editor https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/microsoft-365/microsoft-editor https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-365-blog/introducing-microsoft-editor-bring-out-your-best-writer-wherever/ba-p/1247931 Microsoft Lists https://youtu.be/plshQSoe_OY Adobe RoboHelp Summer Release 2020 https://blogs.adobe.com/techcomm/2020/07/robohelp-summer-release-2020.html More information: Cherryleaf - for technical communication that keeps customers. Cherryleaf newsletter To contact Cherryleaf: info@cherryleaf.com

Black Lives Matter (BLM), inclusivity and technical communicators: What can/should technical communicators do within and without their jobs?   BLM means recognising black people have historically suffered from prejudice and injustices, and that they still do today.    We look at:   BLM and techcomm outputs Encouraging Black Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) people to become technical communicators Technical communicators using their skills in the wider community to support BLM   Links: Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/ellispratt/status/1274966367159095296 https://developers.google.com/style/inclusive-documentation https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/style-guide/bias-free-communication https://www.notion.so/9560a2fdb9364c1aa9e1ede6e6e84225?v=097d37e5e18d452b81af5712df427a56 https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/StyleGuide/current/StyleGuide/Domains https://github.com/thm/uinames/blob/master/uinames.com/api/names.json https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-53050955 https://www.cnet.com/news/master-and-slave-tech-terms-face-scrutiny-amid-anti-racism-efforts/ https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-zTssredxA&feature=youtu.be   Image Robert Gale via Unsplash More information Cherryleaf - for technical communication that keeps customers. Cherryleaf newsletter To contact Cherryleaf: info@cherryleaf.com

We caught up with Mike Hamilton, VP of Product Evangelism at MadCap Flare. We talked about: How is Covid-19/lockdown affecting you and MadCap? Managing chatbots, UI text, Help and KB articles from a single source What's new in Central 2020 What's new in Flare 2020? Are the new features a sign of future developments? ---- More information Cherryleaf - for technical communication that keeps customers. Cherryleaf newsletter To contact Cherryleaf: info@cherryleaf.com

With the Covid-19 lockdown, corporate classroom training has had to stop. But will it come back? In this episode, we look at: Do we need classroom training? How Google is converting its technical writing for developers classroom course to an online format How we are approaching the conversion of our classroom courses What others advised on LinkedIn  ----- More information Cherryleaf - for technical communication that keeps customers. Cherryleaf newsletter To contact Cherryleaf: info@cherryleaf.com   Unsplash image: You X Ventures

In this episode, we talk to Will Myddelton, Product lead at Local Welcome, about moving from an oral to a written culture within an organisation. "An oral culture has huge advantages in that it’s fluid, easy to pick up, and doesn’t require a lot of attention to processes.  But it has a big disadvantage which is that knowledge is stored inside people’s memories, or embodied in the things that are made in specific contexts. This creates problems when someone goes on holiday, and even worse when someone leaves. It means people often spend time reinventing or duplicating things that have been invented before. Stepping back, it often means there is no single view of the system that the company is operating, (which is why so many design consultancies start with trying to map the systems that a company operates). Finally, lots of organisations are trying to automate business processes, but how can you automate a process that isn’t documented (which is why there are so many business analysts who try and retro-document the processes that exist and are in operation)." Links: Conway's Law: latency versus throughput by Mark Seemann Will Myddelton on Twitter Local Welcome Notion Pioneers, settlers, town planners

In this episode, we talk to CJ Walker, of Firehead, about the technical writing scene in France. Firehead: www.firehead.net ----- More information Cherryleaf - for technical communication that keeps customers. Cherryleaf newsletter To contact Cherryleaf: info@cherryleaf.com

The COVID-19 coronavirus is having a huge impact on people and organisations. With so many things that could be about to change, how should technical communicators respond? In this episode we look at: How organisations might change during and after the Covid-19 lockdown What that means for technical communication Comments made by others on LinkedIn What changes we've made at Cherryleaf Links: Building a StoryBrand with Donald Miller - Your Checklist for Getting Through a Crisis LinkedIn thread   ----- More information Cherryleaf - for technical communication that keeps customers. Cherryleaf newsletter To contact Cherryleaf: info@cherryleaf.com

We talk to Sara Feldman, about how the writing in technical writing needs to evolve. We discuss: The driving forces that are impacting our audience’s context in ways we need to account for in how we write Things to do more Things to do less Customer-focused delivery Think with Google: How consumer needs shape search behavior and drive intent Sara Feldman on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarafeldman/ ----- More information Cherryleaf - for technical communication that keeps customers. Cherryleaf newsletter To contact Cherryleaf: info@cherryleaf.com

We talk to Jen Lambourne, Knowledge Management Lead at Monzo Bank, about her current work at Monzo and her previous role at the UK's Government Digital Service.  ----- More information Cherryleaf - for technical communication that keeps customers. Cherryleaf newsletter To contact Cherryleaf: info@cherryleaf.com

We look at working from home during the lockdown. ----- More information Cherryleaf - for technical communication that keeps customers. Cherryleaf newsletter To contact Cherryleaf: info@cherryleaf.com

We look at the importance of communication in leadership. We look at how communication needs to adapt to different contexts. Note: This recording was made before the Coronavirus crisis was fully appreciated.  ----- More information Cherryleaf - for technical communication that keeps customers. Cherryleaf newsletter To contact Cherryleaf: info@cherryleaf.com