tekom-Jahrestagung 2012 - ActiveDoc

User Assistance
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Presentation
Addicted to Meaning: How Good Technical
Communication is Like Bad Magic Tricks
Kai Weber, SimCorp GmbH, Frankfurt
Being meaningful is an essential, but elusive feature of good technical
communication. This paper draws on the theories of semiotics and mental
models to examine how meaning works in technical communication,
why it sometimes fails and how you can improve its chance for success.
Being meaningful in technical communication is just as essential as being
correct and clear, concise or consistent: Understanding how and why
communication is meaningful can help you to make your documentation
more effective and to make your product more useful.
What is meaning?
Information theory posits a hierarchy of information which proceeds
from data at the bottom via information and knowledge to wisdom at the
top (Weinberger 1–5). For example, data is the sheer fact that the Microsoft
Office 2007 software has an “Office button” icon in the upper left
corner. The information that this icon gives you access to functions such
as opening, saving, and printing a file helps you with generic functions.
The knowledge that this functionality has replaced the habitually used
File menu adds meaning and supports your active experience.
So meaning occurs at the knowledge stage in this hierarchy when you
make sense of data and information, when you “connect the dots” into
something that you can apply purposefully. Meaning gives answers to
questions such as “So what?”, “What does this mean for me, in my situation?”
and “Why should I care?” (Cortada 4).
Why should technical communicators care?
Technical communicators should care about meaning, because we are
in the business of creating meaning and transmitting it to users. We can
provide all the data and information we want, if it is not meaningful
to customers, it is wasted and dead. Any time documentation fails, it is
either because meaning has not been created or not been transmitted
successfully. Documentation that merely informs the user “To print a
file, click the Print button” does not support the user in any active experience.
It does not create any meaning if it omits the context, such as
the task the user may be engaged in, the prerequisites and the expected
results of the user’s action.
How does meaning get transmitted in communication?
The Mathematical Theory of Communications by Shannon and Weaver
of 1949 explains communication as the transmission of messages that
are broken up into small signals (see Fiske, ch. 1). A sender (a technical
communicator) uses media (HTML files) via channels (the internet) to
transmit messages to receivers (users). This model aims to show what
keeps communication efficient and accurate.
This technical model is clear, linear, and easy to understand. However,
communication doesn’t really work this way beyond the very technical
levels of a telephone cable, a radio wave, or a TCP/IP network. It’s only
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