The London Underground (aka the Tube) is a railway system in London that’s used by 3.25 million passengers every day. The system has recognised the power of effective communication and design almost since it began back in 1863. Some elements have affected engineering projects around the world, and probably still do today.

In this post, we’ll look at a few ways the system communicates information to staff and customers.

Mind the Gap

“Mind the gap” is probably the most famous set of user instructions in the world. Since 1969, this three-word command has been a warning to train passengers to take care at some stations when they get off the train. It’s needed because some platforms on the Underground follow the road above and are curved. As the underground cars are straight, it creates an unsafe gap when the train stops at those stations.

These three words, “mind the gap,” are a great example of why technical writing should not be measured solely by the number of words written per day.

The London Underground Map

The tube map, designed by Harry Beck in 1931, was the first city train network map to abandon a geographic map of the stations, and use a schematic representation instead.

The basic design concepts have been widely adopted for other network maps around the world, and it was voted a UK design icon in 2006.

According to Wikipedia:

“Beck was a London Underground employee who realised that because the railway ran mostly underground, the physical locations of the stations were irrelevant to the traveller wanting to know how to get to one station from another—only the topology of the railway mattered.”

Crossrail and The New Engineering Contract

Crossrail is a new commuter rail service project for London and the South East. Costing approximately £15,000,000,000 ($23,322,000,000), the project uses The New Engineering Contract (NEC) to help ensure the project won’t suffer from significant cost overruns.

NEC is a system for drafting and obtaining tenders, and awarding and managing contracts on civil engineering and construction projects. According to Wikipedia, the NEC’s family of standard contracts each have these characteristics:

• Its use stimulates good management of the relationship between the two parties to the contract and, hence, of the work included in the contract.
• It can be used in a wide variety of commercial situations, for a wide variety of types of work and in any location.
• It is a clear and simple document—using language and a structure which are straightforward and easily understood.

NEC has led to the UK government approving a number of large engineering projects, as they now have greater confidence these type of projects will not run massively over-budget.

The Business Case Development Manual

According to Transport for London, all projects involving capital expenditure, changes in day-to-day operating expenditure and setting and revising standards must be justified and prioritised in accordance with London Underground’s Business Case Development Manual (BCDM). The BCDM sets out the steps and methodology for making a business case, with the goal of controlling the cost of managing a safe service.

It is not straightforward to make a business case for something that can be for the social good. For example, how do you quantify the business benefit of redesigning stations so they are wheelchair-friendly? Best practice, particularly if you want architecture-led design may cost more. BCDM offers some advice, but it can be hard to quantify quality.

There’s Lots More

This information, and a lot more, is available on the Transport for London website.

Please share your ideas, thoughts and suggestions in the comment box below.

Ellis Pratt is sales and marketing director at Cherryleaf. Ranked the most the influential blogger on technical communication in Europe, Ellis is a specialist in the field of creating clear and simple information users will love.

You may have noticed that for every one Web application, there are a dozen similar Web applications. Do you know what makes a well-designed Web application? Usability, that’s right. You probably have several Web applications on your smartphone and you know which ones you like best. With so many Web applications on the market, it’s easy to delete one from your smartphone and replace it with another. Usability plays a big role in what you keep or delete.

The following are a few tips for designing user-friendly Web applications:

Design for compatibility. A mobile website needs to be compatible with any number of mobile device formats and maximum download speed. Use Cascading Style Sheets for the layout to ensure maximum compatibility. Avoid using tables because they do not appear well on a small screen. It is easiest if your site is coded using either XML or XHTML, with your character encoding set at UTF-8.

Design simple forms. Forms can be difficult to use on a mobile device so offer users radio buttons and lists for data entry. Reduce the number of screens a user passes through to complete a form. Forms should require the minimum amount of data input and should remember the data for the next time a user visits the site. Most mobile browsers don’t support plugins or extensions so avoid them if you can. Avoid unnecessary graphics to maximize download speed.

Design simple workflows. Reduce the number of steps users have to make to get to the information they are looking for. The sooner users have the information they need, the sooner they can make a decision or complete a transaction.

Design to accommodate screen sizes. If you want to assure usability of your application, make sure that it automatically adjusts to any size screen. An application that is only compatible with one size of screen is not likely to win over users.

Design for touch. If you design a user interface that relies on a physical keyboard—you are wasting your time. Mobile devices are driven by touchscreen keyboards and single buttons to execute a program. The user interface needs to be capable of multi-touch gestures such as tap, swipe, flick, double-tap, rotate, pinch, touch and drag, and touch and hold. Label a button with the action it performs: Back, Submit, Cancel, and arrows to move forward or backward.

Design cross-platform applications. HTML5 is a potential candidate for cross-platform mobile applications. Many of the features of HTML5 have been built to run on smartphones and tablets.

Design for the future. As we heard at this year’s Summit—designing applications for mobile devices is the future. Today there’s a Web application that guides you on a three-dimensional tour through a museum and provides commentary on the objects you are viewing. There’s a Web application that can convert the spoken word into a document, email, or even translate it into another language. Want to know where your friends are and contact them with a press of a button—there’s an app for that.

The usability of Web applications will be the deciding factor of what is successful and what’s a dud. If an application cannot satisfy the users’ needs—they will find a better product elsewhere.

I’m David Dick and I’m talking usability.

Over 70 years ago, my grandfather wrote a book about the U.S. constitution. Not being a professional historian, he couldn’t find a publisher for his book, so he self-published. He had no real trouble formatting the book or getting a bunch of copies printed. It certainly wasn’t as cheap (in inflation-adjusted terms) as it would be today, but it was well within his means. However, without the backing of a publisher, his book had no chance for broad distribution in book stores. He could sell it directly and he could talk some local bookstores into carrying it on consignment, but widespread distribution was out of the question. When it comes to brick-and-mortar bookstores, things have barely changed in the last 70 years.

You can take the Print-on-Demand route, as I discussed in last month’s post, and make your books available through the major distributors, but without the marketing clout of a well-known publisher or a name-brand author, you’re no more likely to get your book into a brick-and-mortar bookstore than my grandfather was. Beyond that, to even be considered by physical bookstores, you need to offer your book at a deep discount (50-55% to a distributor or 35-45% for direct sales) and accept returns for a full refund. The difference today is that now you have alternate sales channels that didn’t exist 70 years ago. The game-changer, of course, is Amazon and the army of online bookstores following its lead. The Print-on-Demand companies all distribute through Amazon, and usually through other retailers as well. That means you don’t need to manage or pay for inventory and fulfillment. In addition, you can sell without allowing returns and with much smaller discounts. And your books will be available through most bookstores, though only by special order.

The tech comm connection

What does this mean for technical communicators? It turns out that the one thing that is still difficult—getting books into brick-and-mortar bookstores—is irrelevant in most cases. It’s highly unlikely that your local Barnes and Noble is going to be interested in the manual for your product anyway – there are exceptions, but they are rare—so losing that channel doesn’t matter. The combination of Print-on-Demand and online retailers makes it easy for you to sell printed versions of your content, even content that you already provide online for free. There is some effort involved with formatting and packaging content for print, but if you have a reasonably modern process, ideally XML, this isn’t hard. And you’ve already done (I hope) the really hard part—writing, editing, testing, and reviewing—for your online or help edition.

It may seem counterintuitive, but my company, XML Press, has had success selling the printed version of a book even when an identical PDF was available for free download; the convenience was worth it for buyers. In fact, for large books, we’ve been able to offer a perfect-bound copy, with a nice cover, for less than it would cost someone to print the PDF at a copy center, and we still make a profit. The returns for the typical product will likely be modest, but the overhead is low. And you’ll give customers who want print a benefit that your competitors may not offer.

Richard L. Hamilton is the founder of XML Press, which is dedicated to producing high quality, practical publications for technical communicators, managers, content strategists, marketers, and the engineers who support their work. Richard is the author of Managing Writers: A Real-World Guide to Managing Technical Documentation, and editor of the 2nd edition of Norm Walsh’s DocBook: The Definitive Guide, published in collaboration with O’Reilly Media.

This post is a reprise of my recent lightning talk at the Technical Communication Summit in Atlanta. For those who weren’t able to attend the Summit, I’m sorry this article can’t be more visual. For those who were able to attend, this article might better explain what I was trying to say during that five-minute train wreck.

Typography is one of my favorite aspects of design. The shapes of the letters, the angles, and the curves give visual form to your content. Despite my long love affair with typography, I still hesitate whenever I need to choose a typeface or, worse still, combine typefaces.  To me, this is like getting dressed. I’m never sure how to mix patterns or colors, how to accommodate changes in the weather, or how to plan for consecutive events of varying degrees of formality. There are so many choices when selecting a typeface or getting dressed. The following questions may help you sort through some of the most common typefaces.

Designer or Knockoff?

Arial may look like Helvetica, but most designers can tell the difference. If critical eyes can tell that your handbag is a knockoff, would you carry it around?

Classy or Anachronistic?

Typefaces like Georgia and Caslon are evocative of bygone eras. Like a bow tie, they can seem either formal or old fashioned.

Powerful or Clunky?

Rockwell or Hypathia have thick slab serifs that can evoke strength or, at certain weights, can look quite overwhelming. These typefaces are heavy like Doc Martin boots. They make a statement, but aren’t appropriate for all occasions.

Popular or Overused?

Gill Sans and Gotham are both very popular typefaces, but being popular has a downside. Gotham has appeared in everything from U.S. presidential campaigns to fast food menus, and Gill Sans appears in many television and print ad and on all those pesky “Keep Calm” knockoffs. This can be a lot of baggage for your type to carry. If you wear pinstripes, are your trendy or just a poser?

Modern or Institutional?

Helvetica and Futura are handy standbys, but are they too neutral and too commonplace? They are the plain black suit of typefaces; they are generally accepted anywhere, but unimaginative.

Elegant or Painful?

Script typefaces are beautiful in their delicate, wispy strokes and graceful, continuous curves, but they are difficult to read. They are like those favorite high-heels shoes that make your legs look great, but are a pain to wear for long periods of time.

Fun or Absurd?

Comic Sans is the ruffled, blue shirt of typefaces. There may be a time or place where these might be appropriate, but you must understand that no one will take your seriously.

The overriding theme here is to dress for the occasion. It would be just as sad to receive a wedding invitation printed in Helvetica as it would be frustrating to try to read road signs printed in script. Choose typefaces that are suitable for your rhetorical aims. Look around to see how these typefaces are used elsewhere for additional context.

Michael Opsteegh has been a technical writer in the software and financial services industries for nine years and is currently a senior technical writer for Eyefinity. Michael specializes in professional and technical communications that include user guides, websites, policies, and procedures. He holds a master’s degree in English, rhetoric, and composition and a certificate in technical and professional writing from California State University, Long Beach. He has written articles on comics and typography in technical communication that have appeared in STC’s Intercom. Michael occasionally blogs on the topics of typography and page design at bestfontforward.com.

The Doc-To-Help Team is proud to announce the upcoming release of Doc-To-Help 2013 V1, which will feature the industry’s first HTML5 editor.  This version release focuses on upgrading your authoring experience with HTML5 editing, reviewer commenting, a new source code editor, and a visual undo stack similar to the one you see in Microsoft Word.

The reviewer commenting feature will allow reviewers to leave comments or insert their own in Doc-To-Help’s HTML5 editor. It will behave much like the comments you see in Google Docs or Microsoft Word and will help you track team comments or simply leave notes for yourself.

Not only does Doc-To-Help’s editor create HTML5 source code under the hood, the new release will offer a number of features and options for you to adjust that code if you need to.

Source code editor features will include:

• IntelliSense, which will show an auto-complete menu for tags.
• Automatic validation to make sure your code conforms to standards.
• Automatic formatting to make the code more human readable and easier to troubleshoot.
• Collapsible outlining to give you a more concise view of your top-level content.
• Line numbers for easy location when errors occur.

Visual Undo will let you roll back to a specific point. Instead of tapping CTRL-Z and hoping you see what you want, drop down the visual undo menu and select a specific undo point.

This is the first release  in a 2013 cycle that will focus on giving you the best tools to create your content and the best outputs available to showcase that content to your users.  With 2013 V1, we’re getting the ball rolling with HTML5 and source code options and future releases will give you more advanced options for content delivery, such as interactive user widgets and enhanced table support.

On the output side, look for a brand new responsive theme that optimizes itself for phones, tablets, and desktops. These are just a few of the things on the roadmap, so stay tuned for future announcements and many more exciting things to come from the makers of Doc-To-Help.

Bette Frick brings us another guest post in her series on Business Matters.

One of my favorite columnists, Leonard Pitts, Jr., recently wrote a commentary titled “I (heart) introverts” in which he reviewed Susan Cain’s New York Times bestseller Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking. I immediately bought the book and found myself on almost every page.

For most of my life, I’ve urged myself to be more extroverted, but the opposite has happened—I see more evidence of introversion every year. Classic definitions suggest that extroverts are drawn to the external life of people and activities; they recharge by socializing. By contrast, introverts are drawn to the inner world of thought and feeling and recharge by being alone. But Cain shows that the differences in personality are much more complicated than that as she traces the history of introversion and some of its political ramifications. For example, she posits that the 2008 meltdown was caused by too much power being concentrated in the hands of extroverts, whom she defines as aggressive risk-takers. That’s a separate, but very fascinating, discussion.

For this blog post, I want to share my revelation that once I recognized my introversion, I applauded it as one facet of a complex personality and celebrated the opportunity to do what makes me most comfortable—enjoy the solitude and quiet of self-employment that allows me to generate ideas and content and then embrace that small part of me that enjoys the extroversion of collaboration and communication. For example, I love being in front of a room full of people―the more the merrier―but this involves stepping outside of myself for a specific time period. Afterward, I retreat to my “restorative niche” as identified by Cain.

Cain estimates that introverts make up one-third of the general population. I was interested to find that, while teaching a recent STC webinar on freelancing, 75% of potential and current freelancers self-identified as introverts. Perhaps introverts become freelancers because they feel that they can control their work environment more than they might in a normal, noisy work setting at a company or organization.

Cain says that our culture undervalues introverts and elevates extroverts, but she warns against that bias. She urges introverts to recognize their true nature; to choose a job or self-employment that will allow them to thrive; and to strengthen their communication skills, both in writing and speaking, so that they may counter some of the irrational exuberance of extroverts in their workplace. Of course, as a presentation and writing trainer, that makes a lot of sense to me. Since I’ve stopped trying to convert myself into an extrovert, I feel I have a lot more energy. I still go forth into the world, greet fellow hikers and bikers, and interact in all my personal and professional communities. I just enjoy my solitude more now that I’m not feeling quite so guilty about it.

Susan Cain on TED

The “Quiet Quiz”: How do you score on the Extrovert-Introvert spectrum?

Guest post by Paula Robertson.

STC International Summit Awards (ISA) judges are selected based on strict criteria for their professional backgrounds and experience, which indicate knowledge and application of technical communication principles. This year’s ISA judges demonstrated the commitment, knowledge, and self-motivation to provide an increased level of quality assessments for the competition entrants.

The 2013 Judge Co-managers, Rob Brown and Paula Robertson, offer our sincere gratitude to the following individuals whose service to the ISA made it all possible.

Danielle Villegas, also known as TechCommGeekMom, is attending the STC Summit for the first time this year, so we’ve asked her to blog about her experiences at the Summit. This is the last post of her series.

It’s been a few days now since I returned home from the 2013 STC Summit. I survived airport security, and even a fall at home that temporarily landed me in the hospital fifteen minutes after I walked in the door of my house (don’t worry, I’m okay now), and lived to tell about it.

I thought I’d look back at my initial pre-conference posts and see if some of my fears or concerns came to fruition.

In A First-Timer’s Summit: Why the STC Summit Now? and A First-Timer’s Summit: Speed Dating and Pick-up Lines at the Summit? What?, I discussed my need to connect and network with other technical communicators. Networking was strongly encouraged at the Summit, allowing the ambiance of the Summit to be highly conducive towards this goal. Hannah Morgan’s recommendations came in very handy for me, especially socializing through social media first. I did follow the “fake it ’til you make it” mantra, because I knew that once the ice was broken, I’d be fine. I’m sure many who met me thought I was definitely not an introvert, because I would talk excessively! Ha ha! I also have to thank my buddies from the STC Philly Metro Chapter, vendor reps I knew, and several STC officials I knew, who’d stop me a few times during the Summit to make sure I was doing okay. There is no question that new tech comm friendships were created and established friendships reinforced.

In A First-Timer’s Summit: Are There Fire Breathers and Sword Fights at the Summit? and A First Timer’s Summit: It’ll be “Gone With The Wind” Fabulous!, I tried to figure out how my free time would be spent between the education sessions. Through pre-conference networking, I went to the World Of Coca-Cola with another attendee, went to the Juke Joint for lunch another day with two other attendees I had met on the spot, attended the STC 60th Anniversary Party which I initially hadn’t intended on attending (but glad I did), and did a solo trip into midtown to see a documentary filmmaker that I like speak. There was plenty to do, for sure.

In A First-Timer’s Summit: A Road Not Taken, I had questioned the idea of using tracks for deciding the education sessions during the STC Summit. My current job is heavily based on content strategy and publishing, so I did take a lot of education sessions that centered around that topic. However, I also took sessions in the topics of accessibility, social media, e-learning, and editing.  So, I followed a track to a point, but also allowed myself to open up to other topics that matched my interests. If nothing else, what I liked about the sessions were that they reinforced my philosophies and thoughts about tech comm topics, allowing me to know that I’m correct in my way of thinking.

In A First-Timer’s Summit: Packing Heat—Where’s Rick Steves When You Need Him?,  I felt the heat in trying to decide what to bring to the Summit, and felt like I needed the wisdom of travel writer Rick Steves to help me to pack. I found that I had actually over-packed! My iPhone and iPad with my wireless keyboard generally met my needs for taking notes and social media. The only downside that I experienced was that I didn’t know the STC wifi password until the last day; that wasn’t well publicized. The other issue was that the power outlets in the hotel were not very strong to recharge my devices efficiently, even when I would recharge them in my room overnight. Otherwise, I had everything I needed.

In the end, I am I glad that I went to the 2013 STC Summit. It was better than I expected because the atmosphere was casual and inviting. I liked every person I met, and felt the education sessions fit my needs. There was a lot to absorb, but at no time did it ever feel overwhelming. Do I want to go to the 2014 STC Summit in Phoenix? You betcha! Would I recommend the Summit to other technical communicators? Definitely. There is something for everyone in the field here, and the people at the conference are warm and welcoming—and just plain fun! You would feel included and in the right place at the right time.

This is my last blog post for this series. I hope you’ve enjoyed my posts leading up and during the Summit itself.  Thank you very much to Kevin Cuddihy and STC for providing me with the opportunity to write for STC’s Notebook on my experiences.  I hope to see you next year in Phoenix, and please check in at TechCommGeekMom.com for more insights from me about technical communication over the next year!

Danielle M. Villegas writes the blog TechCommGeekMom.com. She graduated with her MSPTC degree from NJIT in 2012, and is currently a Web publishing consultant for BASF North America and an instructor for World Learning teaching business and technical writing.

At the recent Summit STC shared an early look at this year’s Salary Database, with a brief summary and some of the charts and maps that will be highlighted in the upcoming publication.

This unique, member-exclusive publication, now in its seventh year, has become a highly valued resource for job-hunters and hiring managers in evaluating salary offers and recruiting strategies as well as for independent consultants and project managers estimating labor costs, location strategies, and industry analysis.

This year’s data offers new insights how the emerging recovery has and will continue to influence the demand for technical writers. The most dramatic story is the growing importance of export markets to the U.S. economy. Many industries with the strongest foreign demand were also among those reporting the largest net increases in technical writer employment in 2012. These include industrial equipment manufacturers, engineering and managerial service providers, and electronic market wholesalers and brokers. Demonstrating the role technical writers are playing in helping to address the “skills gap,” private sector educational support services and employment services, which includes temporary help, also made the top ten industries with the largest job gains for technical writers.

On the downside, after five consecutive gains in technical writer employment, the public sector reported declines with both federal and state governments reducing technical writer positions. A third consecutive annual decline in the number of technical writers employed by computer and peripheral equipment manufacturers reflects continued weak retail sales for those products and still-tight credit on smaller businesses.

The other main theme emerging from the 2012-2013 Salary Database is the shift from traditionally large markets for technical writers both regionally and by industry. Only five of the industry sectors with the largest job gains in 2012 were not even among the top 20 in terms of total employment. Similar trends appeared in the geographic distribution of technical writer jobs. Four of the states with the largest number of technical writers reported declines in employment in 2012. Of the ten states reporting the largest job increases only one, New Jersey, was also in the top ten largest employers. Four states with the largest gains technical writer in employment were not even in the top 20.

The full report will be available free to all members later in the year, but we invite everyone to review the preview report today.

The final guest blog post from Viqui Dill on bringing The Rough Drafts to the Summit.

Bringing the Rough Drafts band to the 60th Anniversary Party for #STC13 was a big job that took a village to accomplish. This blog post describes our journey as a series of Agile sprints. 10 to be exact. We’ve divided it into three blog posts. Here is the third and last.

*spoiler alert* There’s a happy ending.

Sprint #9: Check one. Check one.

Load in and sound check.

Fast forward to Monday morning at the Summit. After a couple of awesome educational sessions, it’s time for the plan to come together. The Centennial Ballroom is already hopping with wonderful roadies in black, hauling instruments in black cases, black amplifiers, and more boxes (black) full of cables, music stands, stomp boxes, and tuners.

Sprint #10: Party!