Technical communication has a few goals that are important to remember before, during and after the design of information.

First of all, we need to design the communication with PURPOSE. There are two purposes to keep in mind, yours and those of your audience.

• Everything you create--from the shortest email to the longest report--should have a specific purpose. Are you trying to persuade someone? Are you trying to instruct someone? Both? Always remember what your purpose is and try to design the communication to best meet that purpose.
• The purpose that your audience has for reading the information must also be kept in mind. What are they trying to do? Learn? Make a decision? Put something together or install something? Understand that purpose and design the information to help them attain their purpose.

The second thing to remember is that you want to design the information so that it is easy to find.

• Your readers must quickly find the information they are looking for. If they must spend a lot of time simply trying to locate what they need, your document has already failed. Design the document so that it's easier to get the information to the reader.
• The third aspect to remember is that you want to design information so that it is easy to understand.
• Once a reader has found the needed information, they still must quickly understand it. Thus, design the information so that it is easy to understand by that particular audience. That doesn't mean you must simplify the language, it means matching the information to the reader. They may find it easier to understand if the information is in technical jargon, however, others may understand it better if explained in plain English.

Thus, as in all situations, understand your audience and then decide how to best get them their information.

So, as you design information, do so with the following 4 goals in mind:

• Achieve your purpose.
• Achieve your readers' purposes.
• Make it easy for your readers to find the information they need.
• Make it easy to understand the information once it's found.

Last update: 27-03-2009 13:45