Skill #25: Nudging Users to Action Through Contextual Help

📣 Special announcement: The Not-Boring Tech Writer team (Kate and Chad) will be at Write the Docs Portland in May. Thanks to KnowledgeOwl's sponsorship, they’ll be wearing KnowledgeOwl and The Not-Boring Tech Writer t-shirts and giving out The Not-Boring Tech Writer stickers. If you're attending WTD Portland this year, please say hi to Kate and Chad, let them know what you think of the show, and swing by the conference swag table to grab some free stickers so you can flaunt your not-boring tech writer status with the world!_____________________________________________As technical writers, we help users learn processes or complete particular tasks. And we offer this help in several ways, including documentation, video tutorials, or learning management systems. But get this: through gentle nudges and clues throughout the users’ journeys, technical writers can help users achieve their goal without sending them straight to the help site. How? Through contextual help: the micro-copy, in-app guides, and info tips that developers and user experience designers include in their product to nudge users to action.You’ve seen examples of contextual help. Think the copy that appears below free form fields, instructing you to enter certain content; or guided steps introducing you to a new interface. This is contextual help. And you—the technical writer—are best equipped to create it for your company. That’s why, in this episode, we have Kacy Ewing on the podcast: fellow graduate of the University of North Texas and tech writer out of Austin, Texas—though soon moving to Brooklyn, New York to begin a new tech writing job with Bloomberg. Kacy has created several forms of help resources—including contextual help—and, in this episode, shares the skills you need to excel in creating contextual help for your employer, as well, including: how to position yourself in the user experience processhow to practice your contextual help writing Where to find the best examples of contextual helpShow Notes: Microcopy: The Complete GuideSkill #4: Understanding UX DesignWalkMeKacy Ewing on LinkedInKacy Ewing on Twitter

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All technical writers have one thing in common: their peers outside of the industry believe technical writing is a boring career. They think we lack creativity; they think we only eat tuna salad for lunch; and they think our work is reserved to instructional manuals that they don't even use. This podcast gives you the tools to prove them wrong! In each episode we talk to the humans behind the docs, sharing stories, experience and expertise to inspire, entertain, and give you knowledge and skills you can use in your life as a not-boring tech writer.