TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
My situation may be unique (I hope not!) but I have become the GUI expert
over the last 18 months in my current position.
As I had free time between writing projects, I offered to assist the business
analysts charged with writing functional and design specs. The developers
had asked for visual mockups of the objects to be developed, and excel
spreadsheets were just not sufficient. So I hauled out my Paint Shop Pro,
took some screen captures, copied, pasted, added text, labels, group boxes,
you name it. I discussed with the analysts what functionality was required,
and I worked with end users to make sure the labels made sense and that
things were placed in a logical order to arrive at the expected output.
The screen mockups look just like the real thing. The analysts love it, and
so do the programmers. When they can't make heads or tails of the analysts'
written specs (most developers here are contracters, and not native English
speakers), having an object that looks exactly like what they are supposed to
code is a huge benefit to them. Now GUI design is part of my job
description. It's fun, and the documentation gets done faster, because I
already know what it's supposed to do and how it's supposed to look.
Now if I could only convince the analysts to write the specs in a
comprehensible manner, it would be paradise!
