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In our recent episode on the Knowledgebase Ninjas podcast, Lana Brindley, Senior Technical Writer at Shippit, gives an overview of how important it is to understand the audience and their content needs while developing information architecture. She outlines the various steps involved in the process and also sheds light on the key teams involved in its design.
Watch the Video Podcast here
About Lana
- Lana’s LinkedIn
- She graduated with a double major in marketing and information systems, which provided a solid foundation for her technical writing career.
- While working as an office manager at a startup, the company’s CTO asked her to write documentation, which helped her discover a passion for technical writing.
Key Takeaways
- According to Lana, technical writing and information architecture are closely related but differ in scope. Technical writing focuses on organizing information in an easy-to-find manner and being able to allow people to self-serve.
- She adds that While developing information architecture, it is important to recognize the audience, understand them, the type of content they need, the kind of problems they are trying to solve at any given moment, and give them a logical path through the content.
- Lana shares that It’s crucial to understand that different audiences consume content in different ways, and they have varying levels of knowledge. Understand their workflows and anticipate the different ways they might interact with your content.
- “I’m currently a single writer, but I’ve worked in both large teams and in a solo role. I’ve often been the first writer in an organization, to build out their content structure. In large teams, processes usually already exist, but as a single writer, developing these processes is essential, even if you’re doing everything yourself. This ensures that those who come after can easily pick them up”, says Lana.
- Documentation has two sides like a coin. It helps customers find the information they need. Conversely, it benefits the company by addressing a range of problems and queries.
Rapid fire with Lana Brindley
Highly recommended resource
- Write the Docs conferences
One word that comes to your mind when you hear documentation
A piece of advice you would give your 20-year-old self
- It’s okay to not know things, just learn as you progress
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