4. • Atlassian has a very strong Design team
• Traditionally, tech writing has played a very traditional
role
• There was opportunity to work together, as these
teams have the same basic goals
Some background
4Wednesday, 2 April 14
6. Atlassian design principles
• A few of our design
principles:
• Be familiar
• Grow with me
• Give me clarity
6Wednesday, 2 April 14
7. • Almost any UX principle you encounter can be
applied to documentation
• Android
• Mac OSX
• Facebook
• Designers are great at working toward UX principles,
so they can be helpful in evaluating how well a
document meets them too
Looking at the docs as part of
UX
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8. • What role is a feature
targeting?
• What is assumed skills/
background, etc.
• How do we best reach a certain
type of user?
• What are their preferences?
Their fears?
Audience/Persona
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10. • Realization! Designers have access to lots of customer
information!
• Customer interviews & site visits
• Usability tests
• Usage information on existing features
• Long-term roadmap
Leveraging siloed data
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11. • Piggybacking usability
testing
• Do we need documentation?
• If so, what are the FAQs?
• Piggybacking analytics
results
Measuring success
11Wednesday, 2 April 14
13. • Empathy maps help bring focus
on the user
• Use them to workshop how a
user might feel in a “before and
after” situation
• Work backward from the “after”
situation
Workshopping: Empathy maps
13Wednesday, 2 April 14
14. • Great for moving ideas
around
• Great for separate ->
collaborative
brainstorming
• Cheap, mobile, fun
Invest in Post-its
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15. • Basically a critique session
• Brings group thinking into design
and planning
• A check that the goals have been
met with the prototype
Workshopping: Sparring
sessions
Goals of sparring sessions:
To assure design quality by
critiquing design early and often
To drive towards outcomes/
decisions quickly
To keep each other in the loop
and learn from each others
approaches and products
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16. • Prior, a TW sends out:
• The draft to discuss
• A list that covers the
goals of the document
Sparring with TWs
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17. • Timebox, timebox, timebox!
• If your team is given to negativity, try a positives-only 5
minutes
• Try to make sure everyone is heard - using a checklist
or give everyone 1 minute to list feedback
• Leave with at least 3 action items
Tips for running a sparring session
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18. • 6-ups drive focus on ideal
solutions
• Get you out of “word-thinking”
• Good way to build on each
others’ ideas
Workshopping: 6-ups
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19. • How does a user get to a
feature?
• Controlled process?
• From many different areas with
different goals?
• What does a user do before?
• What does a user usually do
next?
Workshopping: User stories
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20. • Use colored stickers to
“vote”
• Build out your doco plan
based on the problem areas
Taking user stories to the next level
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21. How we made this
happen
21Wednesday, 2 April 14
22. • Look for a team that finds value in
Design and Tech Writing
• Look for a Designer who sees the
value in docs
• Look for a new project that’s running
lean and has some momentum
• Look for projects that are data-driven
Find the right projects
22Wednesday, 2 April 14
23. • Check out some design
principles
• Read about design techniques
• Follow some UX blogs
• Write a documentation
experience plan
Explore & expand
23Wednesday, 2 April 14
