Bob Watson

Senior Tech Writer. Studies #UX, #ICT4D. Practices #techcomm, #apidocs, #apiusability. Tweets mine.

[Katalin Fogas @KatalinFogas]

There are some real gems among the entries. The jurors will have a hard time selecting the best in most of the categories 😅

[Bob Watson @bobwatsonphd]

@remoquete For sure. You should at least be up to Windows 95 or 98. 😁

[Bob Watson @bobwatsonphd]

@remoquete After socks comes…shoes?

I’m hiding this tweet from my furniture lest they start complaining about how I’ve not dressed them properly.

[Bob Watson @bobwatsonphd]

@RonilM @remoquete Clearly a case of needing a bigger Customer Support org.

[Bob Watson @bobwatsonphd]

@mikepope TSA: Know and follow our protocol!

Traveler: Can you explain it?

TSA: No. If you knew our protocol, you’d figure out how to evade it!

Traveler: 🤷‍♂️

[Bob Watson @bobwatsonphd]

@remoquete Every case is different, but in general, the priority is to get the “success” path to work, and the error path gets far less attention when things get tight.

You can’t ship if the success path is broken, but you can (it’d seem) if the error path is.

[Bob Watson @bobwatsonphd]

@remoquete I understand what goes on behind the screen. It’s hard work to design an error messaging system that conveys useful info up and down the stack, especially when you throw in async calls.

But, how is this not critical to customer success?!

[Bob Watson @bobwatsonphd]

@remoquete I’m “delighted” when I get an appropriate action I can take.
Even “Try again later” is better than the computerese version of 🤷‍♂️.

[Bob Watson @bobwatsonphd]

@remoquete I hate it when I get that message and “something” isn’t consequential.

I booked 4 hotel rooms once, thanks to such a message.

Apparently, the “something” wasn’t the “make reservation” part.

[Bob Watson @bobwatsonphd]

@remoquete I booked four hotel rooms once, thanks to a “something went wrong” message.

Apparently, what went wrong wasn’t the part that made the reservation.
😡

[Write the Docs @writethedocs]

Thank you to everyone for attending our WTD Portland 2024 conference! At just under 350 attendees, this conference was a success thanks to our speakers, sponsors, organizers, volunteers, and attendees alike.

View the link for the recap!

#writethedocs

https://t.co/F8knQgA9tA

[API the Docs @APItheDocs]

We're happy to share that we processed the presentation recordings of AI The Docs 🎉 📺

If you'd like to get access to the videos, you can still buy a ticket here: https://t.co/1WnuNsWkCB

#APItheDocs #GenerativeAI #technicalwriting #APIdocumentation #onlineconference

[Bob Watson @bobwatsonphd]

@remoquete I think, technically, I’m an intellectual, and I’ve never ridden a bandwagon.

Am I doing it wrong?

[Merriam-Webster @MerriamWebster]

We want it that way.

[Write the Docs @writethedocs]

If you’re in Portland early for our conference, join us for our annual hike! It starts at 2pm on Saturday, and we have an optional lunch meeting at nearby food carts at 12:30pm.

https://t.co/9BflLG5nb8

[Bob Watson @bobwatsonphd]

@remoquete @storyneedle An interesting article indeed.

I would have liked to see examples of paradata being applied in research.

When it comes to content analytics, I still see a gap between what can be collected and how it can be used constructively.

[Lana Novikova @_Unsolved_]

topical #techwritingmemes #memeday

[Bob Watson @bobwatsonphd]

I look at AI and the future of tech writing through the lens of my past work in https://t.co/bEEZRHLpUP and AI summarizes it in https://t.co/PISReqhFED

I'm probably drawing the wrong conclusion, but I do like how it agrees with me. This takes talking to yourself to a new level!

[Bob Watson @bobwatsonphd]

@remoquete @_Unsolved_ ...and that's because they work.
Same goes for the tutorials and procedures described by Carroll in 1990, which still work today as well as they did 30-some years ago.
Will AI change how people interact with the content?
Maybe. But I think that comes down to the cost.

[Bob Watson @bobwatsonphd]

@remoquete @_Unsolved_ It's one of those things where the more things change (e.g. the means of producing it), the more it stays the same (that which is produced).
Reference topics from, for example, 1988 look quite similar to those produced in 1998, 2008 and 2024.