Where did I go?

Well, nowhere, actually, I've just been very busy at home: my wife was on a cruise with a friend of hers for a week, and I was busy doing various household chores that were assigned to me while she was gone.

I was also busy with my job search: telephone interviews, actual physical interviews, applications, all that stuff. So, maybe I did go somewhere; a couple of wheres, I guess.

I've also been learning to use a new application that I acquired in the last week or so: iSpring Suite, which includes components for creating eLearning modules from PowerPoint presentations and captures of working through other applications. It also includes a Quiz Builder component, which I used to create a short quiz for the Gilbert & Sullivan Light Opera Company of Long Island (a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization, of which I've been the webmaster for the last thirteen or so years). The GaSLOCoLI website can be reached by clicking this link, and if you are interested in taking the quiz, it's available on the homepage of that site.

Anyway, since I have so much on my plate, I pushed this blog to the side for a few days, but I will continue to add to it, as I have the time and the inclination.

Thanks for your interest!

Andy

Information Architecture, Content Strategy, User Experience?

There are a lot of articles and blogs about these three things on the web, and I have recently added the first two of these terms to my resume. But why? you may ask.

It seems to me that I have been an Information Architect and a Content Strategist for nearly my entire career. I suppose it is high time for some background information, which you will probably find nowhere else.

Something about me

I dropped out of college in my junior year—I was an Architecture student at the City College of New York—in the late 70s. After being something of a bum (I won't go into details here) and working in a hardware store for over sixteen years, I decided I needed to move on. While still working at the hardware store, I returned to school (the NYU School of Continuing Education) to learn programming. I had played around with some programming on my own, learning BASIC, Forth and some other languages on various home computers I was able to afford. At NYU I studied various programming languages which included Pascal, C, RPG II (the computer at the hardware store used this), Job Control Language (JCL), OCL and IBM 370 machine language and assembly language. I was pretty good at it—programming, I mean.

Soon thereafter, I decided I needed to earn some sort of degree, and went to a workshop at Brooklyn College (another college in the CUNY system) to find out more about what I had to do to get my degree. During the course of my interview with the counselor assigned to me, I expressed my knowledge of programming, and also my interest in writing, which had always provided me with a modicum of pleasure. As we spoke of these interests and accomplishments, the counselor asked me, "Have you ever considered becoming a technical writer?" I had never heard of such a thing and I asked him for an explanation.

While he described the discipline of technical writing, I had time to reflect on the many user manuals and so-called "help systems" provided with hardware and software that I had encountered over the years, and how I often felt dissatisfied and even angry at the quality thereof. Well, that pretty much decided me: I would become a technical writer!

The City University of New York by that time had created a program called the CUNY Baccalaureate program—which is still in existence and flourishing—which allowed students accepted into the program to design their own course of study along with the aid of their mentor; the counselor whom I already mentioned. One of the unique features of this program was (and is) the ability of the student to take courses at any of the CUNY colleges, if appropriate to the degree sought. So we did, and I did and here I am.

Back then, to the best of my knowledge, there were no such concepts as Information Architecture or Content Strategy. If there were, they were only gleams in the eyes of those who later came up with the concepts. There were only good (technical) writing and bad writing, and I have always firmly placed myself in the former category. As I have progressed in my career, the use of these concepts was never primary (or even peripherally) in my mind, but always informed the content—documents and online information—I created.

What about UX?

User Experience (UX) is another term thrown about with abandon on the web. I think that this site does an excellent job of explaining the role of a UX designer, which is certainly an emerging discipline.

I suppose I could spend anywhere from $615 to $11,500 for "certification" in UX (see this site for some more information), but that is yet to come, if it comes at all.

Conclusion

And so, I think that I can, with justice, claim that I am both an Information Architect and a Content Strategist. As I said on my website:

These two terms—Information Architecture and Content Strategy—are often confused with each other, as they overlap in many ways. They are, in my experience, quite different things, but are best viewed as part of a single, organic, whole.
Information Architecture is the structure that is created to hold the information you want to be seen by whoever; the menus, pages and their layout, navigation, etc.
Content Strategy is the actual information you intend to deliver.

I see no inconsistency with claiming these capacities for myself. You can agree or disagree with me if you like, but that won't change my opinion, dear reader.

Thanks for your attention and interest,
Andy

Writing as a Habit

I never learned the discipline of keeping a daily log or diary, which I'm sure is a good thing to do when you're young. Well, I'm no longer young, and I find that in the midst of personal turmoil--I won't bore you with details--although I have a strong desire to write every day, I don't always have either the time or the necessary wherewithal.

I am also a little cautious regarding putting all my thoughts and feelings on the line or out in the public eye, as little as they might actually be read by anyone other than the lovely Beth.

However, I do wish to keep my hand in and although the nature of this blog is in many ways (all ways?) different from that of my usual occupation as a technical writer, I find it liberating by not having the constraints imposed upon me that my profession imposes upon me. When wearing my technical writer's hat, I must always keep in mind many different factors: the raft of corporate "standards" which I must adhere to, as far as formatting and phraseology; the opinions, edits and information which must be dealt with, and which I receive from my compeers, SMEs (subject matter experts), programmers, executives and others who form my "customers," as well as legal disclaimers and other information which must be included as a matter of course.

Blogging, of course, carries none of these requirements, and although it shares a common language with technical writing (English), the only thing I have to do with my blog is to please myself. I am not even at the mercy of you, dear readers, in trying to please my audience.

So, I have been writing to please myself, and hopefully, my lovely wife. My intention is to be neither boring nor pedantic (although I might sound highfalutin much of the time), and to write about things which not only interest me, but I which may prove interesting to others, as well.

I don't ever expect to become an Internet sensation who's blog is the source of manic re-postings and heated conversations around the water-cooler. I don't really expect to have much of a readership at all, but I don't think that's the point of this particular blog. It isn't, for me, at least. The point is, that I write, and I keep on writing, and perhaps, in time, I will inculcate in myself the habit of doing this sort of thing everyday, rain or shine, without having to drag myself to a computer to do so.

I wish myself success! Thanks for your attention.
Andy