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Addicted to meaning: Mental models for technical communicators This presentation explores how ‘meaning’ works and how you can create meaningful technical communication. Understanding how and why communication is meaningful can help make your documentation more effective. Based on semantics and mental models, Kai explains: How users create meaning from documentation When meaning succeeds – and why it fails so often Why minimalism works, but FAQs often don’t And how we all are addicted to meaning Attendees will get a deeper understanding on their work as Kai puts familiar tech comm methods into new context in a romp of aha-moments.
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ADDICTED TO MEANING
MENTAL MODELS
FOR TECHNICAL COMMUNICATORS
Kai Weber
@techwriterkai #TCUK13
25 September 2013
PROGRAM
Intro: Who am I and what do I know?
1. What is meaning…… and why should technical communicators care?
2. How does meaning work in communication…… and why does it still fail in tech comm?Semiotics
3. How and why we create meaning…… and how to create meaningful documentation?Mental models
WHO AM I AND WHAT DO I KNOW?
WHAT IS MEANING?
Wisdom
Knowledge
Information
Data
Don‘t put into fruit salad.
It‘s a fruit.
WHAT IS MEANING?
Wisdom
Knowledge
Information
Data
WHAT IS MEANING?
Wisdom
Knowledge
Information
Data
Nothing lasts...
Used to be File menu
Open, Save, Print
Office 2007
WHAT IS MEANING?
Wisdom
Knowledge
Information
Data
Nothing lasts...
Used to be File menu
Open, Save, Print
Office 2007
ME
AN
ING
WHAT IS MEANING?
Can be in information, more valuable in knowledge
Allows us to “connect the dots”
Answers “why should I care?” and “what should I do?”
Turns information into relevant & applicable knowledge
WHY SHOULD TECHNICAL COMMUNICATORS CARE?
It’s what we do:
Turn information into relevant & applicable knowledge
Know your audience!
Task-oriented documentation
HOW MEANING WORKS IN COMMUNICATION
Shannon & Weaver (1949) – process theory
Omits meaning!
Sender Receiver
Fiske (1990) – semiotics
HOW MEANING WORKS IN COMMUNICATION
Messages
Conventions
Media
Fiske (1990) – semiotics
HOW MEANING WORKS IN COMMUNICATION
Messages
Conventions
Media
In semiotics… In tech comm…
Represent “stuff” arbitrarily Clarify w/ definitions & glossary
Include or exclude groups Can ensure comprehensibility
Allow or restrict feedback Invite feedback & collaboration
WHY DOES MEANING FAIL IN TECH COMM?
Aren’t message, conventions, and media clear?
von Foerster (1949ff.) – radical constructivism
There is no meaning but the one created by the reader.
Each individual situation is a new beginning, another page one…which is why FAQs fail.
HOW WE CREATE MEANING
We compare each individual situation…
… with personal past experience…
… by matching…
Mental models
Semi-consciously selected, incomplete images
What (we think) we understand of the world
How we face the world: Options? Solutions? Confidence?
HOW WE CREATE MEANING
HOW WE CREATE MEANING
HOW WE CREATE MEANING
Imag
e c
redit:
jwarletta
HOW WE CREATE MEANING
HOW WE CREATE MEANING
Mental models
Flexible and adaptable, within limits
Support meaningful knowledge
How we approach a task
How we react to a problem
How we look for help
Inert, uncontrollable
HOW WE CREATE MEANING
Mental models
Flexible and adaptable, within limits
Support meaningful knowledge
How we approach a task
How we react to a problem
How we look for help
Inert, uncontrollable
In tech comm:Designer vs. user
Norman (1988)
WHY WE CREATE MEANING
We are addicted to meaning!
Conspiracy theories
Pop lyrics, “mondegreens”
Logos
Janoff (1977)
Image credit: Marcin Wichary
WHY WE CREATE MEANING
We are addicted to meaning!
Because we want to understand and do stuff: What does this mean? How does this work?
Because we seek order:How does this hang together? How to connect the dots?
WHAT IS MEANINGFUL USER ASSISTANCE?
1. Relevant to user, applicable to situation
2. Or a way ahead, a workaround
3. Or an explanation
4. Or even understanding and sympathy
HOW TO CREATE MEANINGFUL USER ASSISTANCE
Meaning needs understanding (cognition and empathy)
1. Understanding your audience
2. Understanding semantics
3. Understanding mental models
HOW TO CREATE MEANINGFUL USER ASSISTANCE
Understanding your audience
1. Help users connect the dots.
2. Beyond information, deliver applicable knowledge.
3. Beyond the “how”, include the “why”.
HOW TO CREATE MEANINGFUL USER ASSISTANCE
Understanding semantics
1. Messages are best clear and consistent.
2. Conventions are best inclusive.
3. Media are best serving people’s communication.
4. Receivers need “random access”.
HOW TO CREATE MEANINGFUL USER ASSISTANCE
Understanding mental models
1. Translate designer’s model into users’ models.
2. Observe diverse audiences.
3. Support with options, solutions, and confidence.
4. Invite to explore; don’t teach to control.
BETTER GRASP ON MENTAL MODELS...?
FURTHER READING AND SOURCES
1. DIKW Pyramid
2. Shannon & Weaver’s process theory (1949)
3. Fiske on semiotics (1990) (chapters 3 & 4)
4. Mental models
in user interfaces
Norman: The Design of Everyday Things (1988)
5. Mondegreens in pop lyrics; Phil Collins’s “In the Air Tonight”
6. Janoff, designing the Apple logo (1977)
7. Carroll on minimalism (1998), (esp. chapter 2)
