Re: Can a Technical Writer be a Web Designer

[Becca Price <becca_price -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

Since I'm a long-time tech writer looking to move into
the Web world (I'm tired of swearing at Word - I want
the chance to swear at new and different
technologies), this discussion is fascinating to me.

so far, everything everyone has said is mostly true:
the web is the province of graphic designers and
programmers.  currently.  There is an emerging field
of  information architecture that relates to
strucutring information for use on the web.

Remember the early days of WinHelp, when people were
basically trying to put a user's manual on line?  Then
we found out that folks use Help differently than they
do a manual.  The web is still in that situation.  

It's gradually sinking into "common knowledge" that
folks use the Web differently than they do books. 
It's not just a great library on line; we don't *read*
web pages so much as scan them.  Jared Spool has some
wonederful information available, and I could list a
few other great books if anyone is interested. (can
you tell that this has been a hot topic of research
for me lately?)

Are there jobs in information architecture yet? not
many, but I'm hoping this will change.

-Becca
beccap -at- rust -dot- net
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