29 Feb 2012 No Comments

SIPOC tool

The process map is an information type in the Information Mapping Method. Similarly, SIPOC is a tool from the Define and Measure phases of a Six Sigma project. SIPOC takes its name from Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs, and Customers. These segments in the process map define where a process starts and ends. Here I’m going to show how the SIPOC tool is used to write process documentation. This is a quick exercise that serves process improvement.

  1. ID the process. Name the key point. What does it do? What is its purpose?
  2. ID the outputs. What happens, whether desirable or not. What are the deliverables, outcomes, and results.
  3. ID the customers. Who becomes the recipient? Think ‘voice of the customer’ and whether the customer is internal or external.
  4. ID the inputs. What series of events causes or triggers a process? Are they manual? Automatic?
  5. ID the suppliers. Who provides the resources? People? Systems?

SIPOC templates are readily available to help you sketch out this info using a particular flow. Or make your own template:

  1. Hold a piece of paper horizontally and fold it in fives.
  2. From left to right title each folded column, one letter per column, S-I-P-O-C.
  3. Then working in reverse from right to left identify the Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs, and Customers.

by Pam Drucker in book types & parts, production & publishing

30 Jan 2012 No Comments

Font-challenged learners

If fonts were cars, the Arial Light would be fitting for night driving. I imagine it having a softly illuminated dashboard and headlight-cancelling rearview mirrors. Reading too should offer the same adaptations–flick a few switches to give us the best fonts in pleasing shades so we don’t ruin our eyes.

Twelve-point Comic Sans MS, if it’s not banned outright the silly font just might be critical to learning. A psychologist at Princeton University found that the harder a font’s readability, the better the recall. A block of text set with 50% leading is easier to read than text having no line space where ascenders and descenders touch. The point size can be used as a unit of measuring type and line space. For regular newspaper and book text, 8pt to 12pt usually satisfies.

Education article: Learning difficulties.

by Pam Drucker in design & typography

10 Dec 2011 No Comments

Letter wizard – what the family pack proved

My mother remembered birthdays without fail. She’d pre-write cards for all December-borns, penciling the recipient’s DOB in the postage stamp corner. Three to four days later a Hallmark greeting arrived like clockwork. Given the scale of mom’s birthday card sending, a request for backup was reasonable at Christmastime. Dad enlisted to sign cards going to his brothers and sisters.

My father adopted a penmanship habit that resembled stretching before a run. He limbered up with a few air pen swirls, then pen on paper swirls. He completed the first card from our family to his eldest sister’s family.

When mom read the closing, well, I wasn’t sure if she’d throttle him or crack up laughing. It read Mr. & Mrs. John DiStefano. Not the formality you’d expect from a sibling everyone called Johnny.

Mom was not one to waste anything but a ruined greeting card was about as bad as a forgotten one.

by Pam Drucker in authors & audience

11 Nov 2011 No Comments

Holidays & Observances

Canadian poppy
Today, we paused to remember those who served. My father who served in WWII called it Armistice Day long after the US renamed it Veterans Day.

He’d fasten the poppy’s wire stem through a buttonhole. By December the poppy hung like mistletoe from the Ford’s rear view mirror.

Nations render their own design of the poppy pin. At last week’s meeting on the European debt crisis, we saw leafed and non-leafed variations adorn lapels of heads of state.

Remembrance Day, has now passed. Yet we vow to never forget.

by Pam Drucker in terms & abbreviations

29 Oct 2011 No Comments

We value your opinion

Surveys are meant for collecting data. The analysis says how one measures up to other survey takers. But sometimes the data is useless. A simple error in survey design proves why.

If you’re a customer responding to a satisfaction survey, you’d assume “1″ to be low on a scale of 1 to 10. The question goes something like this; How satisfied are you with your purchase? Very satisfied? Somewhat satisfied? Not at all satisfied? Phrased another way, on a scale of 1 to 3 where 1 means not satisfied and 3 means very satisfied, how satisfied are you with your purchase?

In this survey, the only sure rating is “5″.
on a scale of 10 to 1

We would value your opinion if we hadn’t redesigned the rating system.

by Pam Drucker in design & typography

27 Sep 2011 No Comments

My centred life

My identity blurred the day I become chapter president and employed. Leaving only pockets of time to savor summer, I relished one late afternoon, on a rooftop patio, sipping coffee and being interviewed about work.

Let me back up…

STC Canada West Coast recently launched a service that connects senior technical writers with people exploring a tech writing career. The idea flowed from a planning chautauqua. Thirty days later, a big idea became a new service. The information interview was born and already had a waiting list.

Part bedside manner, part job shadow, the information interview aims to entice students and job seekers to join professional associations. The interviewer gets questions answered and receives free admission to a professional program in exchange for a donation to the local chapter. Ostensibly, the interviewer gets a glimpse of a day in the life of a tech writer. As it turns out, this form of coffee break may yield fruit.

Learn more about the Information Interview Service.

by Pam Drucker in authors & audience Tags:

08 Aug 2011 No Comments

A case for terminal punctuation

The key is knowing how tools work, whether a job takes physical strength or mouse clicks. I used the latter to find a handyman. My needs were simple.

  • Loosen shower handle so that it turns easily.
  • Adjust shower doors so that they slide fully from end to end.
  • Align bi-folding doors and adjust hinge hardware.

An online rating service helped pinpoint the ideal handyman. In describing the smallish job, I learned the estimate would cost the minimum charge. Exactly two hours later I was a pleased customer. My turn now to rate the worker.

When you can’t be sure how content will be presented use terminal punctuation. Omitting punctuation in a text box could display something unexpected. While the feedback form let me list a few items, the online version de-itemized the list.
text box word clump

by Pam Drucker in production & publishing

13 Jul 2011 No Comments

I am Courier

An app I stumbled upon pegs anonymous quiz takers to one of 16 typefaces. It’s a twist on the game asking what kind of animal you are. To analyze yourself, typographically speaking, you must answer four questions.

Question 2 asks:

Does something feel right or does something have a 1 in 2 chance of being right?

The analysis tell me I am Courier, the typeface designed to resemble typewriting. It has rhythmical insistence, is democratic for its even spacing and stands steadfast with its slab serifs. I am just your common character, amused by the personality of type.

Curious about your typeface? Take the test, What type are you?.

by Pam Drucker in design & typography

20 Jun 2011 No Comments

Feeling the pull

expecting the pull

I followed the unexplainable to do this thing called president. Now I’ve stepped in it. Going to lead the Canada West Coast chapter for the 2011/12 year.

It’s an honour, really. Engage with the world’s largest professional association serving technical communicators.

The Society for Technical Communication has 11,000 members in over 100 chapters. We work in high-tech, health care, natural resources, legal, utilities, business services and government. The CWC chapter is a geographic community rich with technical communicators.

Past presidents set the model for doing good and giving back. I hear you: uphold this standard!

My chapter has given me tools to profit. So that’s my reason to follow this path. My vision, while still taking shape, will seek ways to engage our 118 members.

by Pam Drucker in authors & audience Tags: ,

04 Jun 2011 No Comments

The Stanley Cup, unedited

Ice hockey’s top prize is presented to players on the winning team. The quest for every NHL team is to win the Stanley Cup championship, then to have your name inscribed among the greatest names. Some 2,163 names of players and staff decorate the cup.

Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada

photo by John Biehler

Inscriptions and bits of human error

As for naming… There’s hockey hall of famer Bob “GAINY” instead of Gainey. I sympathize with misspelled names. But misspelled teams? How is it possible to slip up TORONTO MAPLE LEAES? BQSTQN BRUINS? NEW YORK ILANDERS? Perhaps someone jotted down Long Island’s team but c’mon, that’s not the paper scrap to give to the engraver. So much for knowing your subject matter!

As for consistency… Call yourself lucky to be named more than once. Count ‘em, five variations on Jacques Plante and Dickie Moore. So much for style guidance!

As for corrections… On the trophy? Why the name of a player’s father made it on the cup is an odd problem. But how the mistake was amended is beyond ugly. What’s left of ‘Dad’ is a row of pretty Xs. So much for the first draft.

As for care and feeding… This cup is handled with gloves. This cup has a vault. This cup looks nothing like the bowl Lord Stanley awarded a century ago. Despite its amusing flaws the Stanley Cup remains a gleaming thing to be hoisted.

by Pam Drucker in authors & audience Tags:

1 2 3 4 5 6