Skill #35: Understanding Basic Design Principles

📣 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!_____________________________________________Technical communicators wield the power of plain language to ensure their readers find and understand the information they need to complete a task—no matter how complex.Basic design principles, such as alignment, contrast, and other principles you’ll learn in this episode, give your documentation that extra lift it needs to engage readers throughout your documentation. That’s why in this episode, we have Laci Kettavong on the podcast: Marketing and Member Coordinator at Stoke, a coworking space based in Denton, Texas—and also a former technical communicator in both industry and academia, deploying design principles for several different mediums. Joining us, as well is Jerrard Dorran at KnowledgeOwl—longtime sponsor of The Not-Boring Tech Writer—to discuss design principles from a knowledge base software company’s perspective, as well. In this episode, you’ll learn everything you need to know to begin using basic design principles in your documentation. Show notes: Non-Designer’s Design Bookaxe-conKnowledgeowl knowledge base softwareLaci on TwitterLaci on LinkedInLaci’s blog

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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.