Dilbert On Technical Writers

Is this what it's like in your company?



'nuf said.

Crazy Conference Calls

Tech writers are involved in their share of conference calls, often as observers who watch the craziness and obsurdities.

Here is a favorite of mine, showing the Dilbert-esque goings on of a lot of conference calls. It's funny because it's true.

Technical Writer Humor: #1

Finally, strong evidence that technical writers have a sense of humor when they write documentation.

Here is an image from instruction manual for a vacuum cleaner:


It is actually a great way to use humor and psychology to get an instruction across.

Bad Error Messages (which isn't usually so funny)

Take a look at Scott Nesbitt's "rant" about his bad error messages from Amazon:

Here's an example of the message:

More 404 Errors

As promised, more links to cool, nice-written 404 errors:

• http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/08/17/404-error-pages-reloaded/ -- like the ones that use familiar imagery, like the book missing a page or the blue screen.


• http://www.tutzone.org/2009/05/31-cool-404-error-page-designs.html -- like the ones where they relate to the site itself, like the one for Club Penguin.


• http://sixrevisions.com/design-showcase-inspiration/beautiful-and-useful-404-error-pages-for-inspiration/ -- like these because they have a lighter design and, frankly, less weird.

Finally, some tips for writing a good 404 ("good" means one that will ease some of the frustration the user is feeling at this moment):

• http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/07/25/wanted-your-404-error-pages/


• http://www.alistapart.com/articles/perfect404/


• http://designshack.co.uk/articles/inspiration/building-a-constructive-404-error-page-with-examples

And here's one I created for a project called Columbus:

404 Error Gets a 10

Who is the technical writer who got to create this 404 error?

Actually, I love a good 404 errors, and tomorrow I'll send a link to a bunch of good and funny ones. Here's one from a Web site Klariti.com (clever spelling), a business development and marketing strategy company for small businesses:

Click on the picture for a larger copy:

Accepting Reality (except for this)

With all the spellcheckers and grammar checkers, sometimes really stupid mistakes get through. Like this one, which shows the author didn't know the difference between "accept" and "except". (To be honest, I consitently mix up "there", "their" and "they're".)