Technical Communication: The Ever-Changing Forms For Its Users

Hey Siri, set a timer for 12 minutes.

Okay, timer set for 12 minutes.

I like to bake. I use my phone almost constantly and having that ability to just speak and ask Siri to have a timer set for me is a great way of how technical communication and conversation and tactical communication all the line together to create the experience of the user better and easier.

We have little computers in our hands and pockets with us almost every day, these little devices are able to do the same functions and process information exactly like how a computer would at home or at your work.

With that, we have an increase of communication between people and documents, how people are receiving technical information and technical communication have changed immensely over the years and are continuing to change as the technology that surrounds us changes with it. Fifteen years ago we didn’t have Siri or Google Voice or anything that a person could speak into and actually get an intelligent and responsive response that allows input and output. this has changed the way that not only users can receive information, but disabled users who cannot read text, have some sort of learning disability that makes reading difficult for them, blind users, users who just have a hard time in general with written instruction, now have access to a plethora of information and communication at the tips of their fingers and the tips of their tongue.

Can technical communication evolve more into conversational design by using AI and Chatbots?

I think, yes, it already is. Every day the technology that we use in conversation is advancing and is being built better with the hopes of being more helpful for the user and the audience instead of it being limited and only able to adhere to a certain type of user.

Beyond just be conversations that you can have with your virtual assistant on your phone also leads to services like Amazon and Google having their own AI systems that work in the home where you can ask similar things but it only has a hearing aspect to it. You can purchase things from it and set reminders and the functions of it really adhere to the user and the user's wants.

But with all of this it has to have some sort of design and person behind it creating these conversations or designing a conversational formula so that each user has a different experience based on their wants and needs for it.

For instance, the needs of my Google Home that I have in my house that my grandparents use is going to be very different from the Google Home that I have at my apartment that I have with my college roommates. We are both very different users and different demographics that the needs and conversations we would be having with the Google Home are going to be different, so how do you design one product that fits all of the needs and all of the conversations from this?

Well, a lot of coding and design processes and interviews and research go into it. In Michael Huang’s article, he discusses how the conversation has become a design and how we use these designs to create authentic and helpful conversations for the users. Conversational design is literally how a conversation works between a human to human and applying that same conversation between a human and a system instead of another human.

The difference between a human conversation in a conversation between a human and a UI is that a human is going to have clues and conversational skills that they’ve built throughout their life, while a UI is not going to have those same skills that naturally come from a human unless we design it that way.

He shows a diagram from Margaret Urban, who is a Conversational Designer at Google, and how this design process is based on the human design in human voice so it has that human light touch that a conversation needs.

It’s all about the programming and design process to be able to create these abstract and human-like connections between an object that is not human. I’ve definitely been goofing off and have asked my Google Home what is the meaning of life and the differences between what I get are based on as if I was asking two different humans.

Not only are we getting these interactions from devices that we speak into, but we are also getting personalized conversation in chat boxes on many different platforms and services to help the user.

All things do have their problem areas that need to be expanded upon and more researched and given more time so that a broader user can actually use these products and have them used successfully.

Dr. Halcyon Lawrence, a professor at Towson University who studies UI and technical communication, brings up a good point on how these UIs give users with a different vernacular a hard time and they don’t fully understand them, creating a boundary and difficulty that doesn’t allow users to fully use these products that are made to help them. Why are we (we being designers of the UI) not researching and spending more time on communities and languages that a lot of people speak and use, so they can use these products and communication ways easier and properly for them instead of adding in fun little quirks or additions to things when these products are failing communities?

We have a long way to go with how these devices understand languages and I think that is a real design flaw that hasn’t already been worked out because it is mainly used by people who speak into it instead of using an app or device to connect with it. I think more research needs to go into it so that we can actually have people who speak multiple languages in different dialects actually use this successfully and without fail if they have a different vernacular or way that they speak.

For instance, a while ago I had a boyfriend who lived in the United Kingdom, while I was visiting him I would often use his phone for things because I didn’t want to use mine and had the charges and all that stuff. I would use his Siri and I do have a bit of a lisp, sometimes they wouldn’t recognize how I would speak or what I was saying or what I was meaning because this Siri was intended for an English speaker of the British type. I am not that, I am an English speaker of American descent. So if designers can distinguish between British English and American English, why can’t they just English between Caribbean English and other English is such as cockney or different parts of the world that have different accents and styles of Speaking of the same language?

Chatbots can be used here to combat the language differences and accent to differences. Every day there are new sites and places that are using chatbots to further help their users get the information that they need in a faster way and more convenient way than before. Chatbots are going to offer a unique and variable experience based on the user and their needs at that time, and it’s going to be somewhat personal based on the design of the chatbot. While it’s not always needed it is good to have on websites that are information heavy and super in-depth that you have to go from one page to the next and so on and so on to finally get the information that they need. As well it’s a good starting point for users to find communication and to get into contact with the organization or owner of the site. It can be designed in any way based on the need for it for that specific site, that’s what’s so amazing about how chatbots are being used throughout different government websites from doctors' websites to how-to websites. technical communication as a general spectrum involves so many different aspects of owners' needs and users' needs that are creating this interweb of connectivity and community based on sole communication.

With that, as well, we see this turn of technical communication from a very rigid and standpoint of professionalism that the users have been experienced with car manuals or other things that need some sort of expert and communicator to reiterate the process or how to have something evolve between using technology and human beings interaction. Tactical communication comes into play in this way.

Would I consider tactical communication and conversational design similar?

I think I would, I think it’s definitely interesting to include how a conversation in tactical communication builds off of each other and can persuade audiences and inform audiences in different ways. well conversational design definitely aimed towards the technology and use of robots and different types of computer systems to be a technical communicator, tactical communication can use these objects to help them.

It is all about how the user receives its output. You have a problem, input, then the communicator gives a solution, output. The output is going to be based on the user, and what it needs to get from is, mine is going to be different than yours. Just like how I learn how to put on makeup is going to be different than how you put on makeup.

On YouTube, we have the beauty community, which aims to show how to put on different makeup, styles, and techniques. I’m going to have to do a different technique because I have hooded eyed lids, whereas my friend who doesn’t have hooded eyelids is going to use a different technique. This formal tactical communication can be used with a UI and conversational design because it all depends on the user and its needs.

An article, “ The Rhetorical Work of YouTube’s Beauty Community: Relationship- and Identity-Building in User-Created Procedural Discourse” by Lehua Ledbetter, really shows how the discourse of user-centered design is going to be based on its users and by using tactical communication, which I like to call self-proclaimed experts, is how users begin to explore and expand their information and how they retain information.

The community on YouTube is expanding every day, one day I might use one information (Siri), and the next day I might use a different one (Google Home), both give me the end results that I am going to want to need for that specific day, but each is valid and the expert in that certain area.

How we see fix it websites and what to do’s are popping up more and more, especially with the pandemic of COVID-19, I’ve seen more people trying to solve their problems or their needs by Googling or asking their virtual assistant how to do something instead of relying on the formal technical communication formats.

I will be continuing to use my Siri to set up timers and ask how to do something because it was made for me in mind. I will also continue to Google how to fix my lightbulb or how to clean a vacuum. Both of these forms of communication have similar outcomes which are that the format and way of communication are fitted for the user.

Technical communication is evolving, it’s no longer going to be pen and paper only, it’s going to have experts who aren’t always certified experts, going to have big design flaws, and is going to be more and more technologically advanced as we continue into a technology run era.

Technical communication is for the user. It should be designed for the user and change as the user changes.

References:

Huang, M. (2021, February 1). A guide to conversational design — why, what, and how. Medium. https://uxdesign.cc/intro-to-conversation-design-ce3bd30e4385.

Lawrence, H.M. “Siri Disciplines.” Book chapter in Your Computer is on Fire. MIT Press. 2019.

Ledbetter, L. (n.d.). The Rhetorical Work of YouTube’s Beauty Community: Relationship- and Identity-Building in User-Created Procedural Discourse. Taylor & Francis. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10572252.2018.1518950.