User Research for Technical Writers


Details
If you've ever had a hard time deciding on navigation and flow for your documentation or wondered whether users are actually able to find what they need in your documentation, this presentation is for you.
Good documentation supports users in learning and accomplishing their goals. What better way to ensure this than actually talking with users or getting perspective from someone outside of your team?
In this presentation, you'll learn about different types of research that may be helpful for you as a technical writer, when to use each type of research, and the basics of how to conduct that research. As a result, you'll be able to make research-informed decisions when deciding on information architecture, content focus, and overall flow.
ABOUT OUR SPEAKER
Serena Jolley is a user experience designer at VMware. She's been spending a lot of time with technical writers lately while contributing to The Good Docs Project as a designer of a user interface for the fictional Chronologue tool, which will be used to model and showcase effective documentation. In her free time, Serena enjoys reading, hiking, and spending time with her husband and two cats.
AGENDA
7:00 to 7:10 - Icebreaker and announcements
7:10 to 8:00 - Presentation and Q&A
8:00 to 8:30 - Optional breakout rooms by meetup - Stay a few minutes after the presentation to meet with your local meetup organizers and members to say hi to other people in your area!
SPONSORING MEETUPS
The Quorum program brings together various local Write the Docs meetup chapters that are in a common time zone to provide quarterly super meetups over Zoom throughout the year. This event is hosted by the Bay Area, CA meetup.
The following U.S. West Coast and Australia meetups are sponsoring this Meetup event:
Australia - https://www.meetup.com/Write-the-Docs-Australia/
Bay Area, CA - https://www.meetup.com/Write-the-Docs-Bay-Area/
Los Angeles, CA - https://www.meetup.com/Write-the-Docs-LA/
Portland, OR - https://www.meetup.com/Write-The-Docs-PDX/
Seattle, WA - https://www.meetup.com/Write-The-Docs-Seattle/
NOTE
This meeting will be recorded. You must have a valid Zoom account in order to attend. Also be advised that the Zoom room for this meeting is capped at 100 attendees. If more than 100 individuals RSVP for the event, only the first 100 attendees who enter the Zoom room will be able to attend.
The full link and passcode to the Zoom event will be posted on the Write the Docs Slack workspace for early access. All other attendees will receive the Zoom link the day of the event through the Meetup messaging service.


User Research for Technical Writers