Write the Docs Atlantic 2023
who it's for
technical writers, documentation managers, content designers, ux researchers, localization engineers, product managers, community managers
topics
YAML glossary termbase; Hugo module tooltips; Crowdin automatic sync; single source content orchestration; AsciiDoc + Antora pipelines; GitHub Action readability checks; in-app guided flows; usability testing for IA; product screenshots for help; video tutorials with Doodly; AI ethics for writers; 25-hour workweek experiments
| title | author | length |
|---|---|---|
| conference introduction | Sasha Romain | 20m |
Community-run conference announces a schedule across time zones, two days of sessions, live moderated Q&A and human captions, and a lightning-talk slot that is… | ||
| Working with User Experience to Maximize User Success | Katie Riker | 34m |
UX provides concrete artifacts — personas and research reports, journey maps, mock-ups and usability-test scripts — that technical writing can use early to… | ||
| One glossary to rule them all: terminology management at scale | Ian Cowley | 41m |
Organization implements a machine readable single source glossary housed in a GitHub repo, authored as a YAML termbase and packaged as a Hugo module + YAML… | ||
| Papercuts: Stop the Bleed | Kristine Sihto | 35m |
Templates routinely leak prior-client details unless teams sanitize templates by replacing nontransferable fields with dummy text and visible signifiers. Word… | ||
| Graphs, not trees: A ground-up approach to fixing a docs site. | Matt Dodson | 41m |
Thesis: major IA improvements come from ground-up fixes rather than jumping to top-level reorgs. Practical moves include run a link checker, fix broken links… | ||
| Returning after Maternity Leave | Jeanine Abuahmad | 04m |
Concrete steps for a smoother return: know and document leave rights and eligibility for FMLA and paperwork, notify HR early — example given is contact HR… | ||
| Is Single Sourcing Dead? | Joe Gelb | 05m |
Claim: single sourcing as “one source, many outputs” no longer works. Companies accumulate documentation, API docs, product info, knowledge articles, community… | ||
| The Power of Pink: Women in Technology | Chryssy Joski | 05m |
US degree data show women earn more bachelor and graduate degrees yet only 21.88% in computer and information sciences, and 41% of women leave tech before 35… | ||
| "Putting the instructions on the box" | Ryan Macklin | 04m |
A concrete claim: print usable steps where people already look, not just in a buried manual. Example: a wheelbarrow with instructions on the box lid works as a… | ||
| 25-hour Workweek | Marybeth Alexander | 05m |
An organization adopts a 25-hour workweek as policy, reports measurable gains in focus and happiness, and uses Google Duet AI to draft the outline and generate… | ||
| Metric driven documentation | Chris Noonan, John Hannagan | 35m |
Claims that readability metrics measurably reduce cognitive load and help reviewers and translators, supported by a two‑year experiment. Built an open‑source… | ||
| Creating a content pipeline for | Alexander Schwartz, Fabrice Flore-Thebault | 42m |
Claims a reproducible upstream → downstream pipeline that single-sources content and automates releases: AsciiDoc attributes and include statements produce… | ||
| Once Upon a Time There Were... Docs | Fabrizio Ferri Benedetti | 35m |
A technical writer turns OpenTelemetry into a children's book that explains core concepts with metaphors and illustrations, drafts under 1,000 words in a week… | ||
| Drop the Docs, Get Back to What’s Important! | Stephan Delbos | 37m |
Argues that documentation should minimize time on docs and get people back to work, not chase page views; applies user disengagement by fixing search and… | ||
| The power of product screenshots in your help documentation | Josh Peacock, Dennis Mortensen | 36m |
Product screenshots measurably boost comprehension, recall and search rankings and cut support friction — uploader cites 91% of customers saying they'd use a… | ||
| AI ethics for tech writers | Chris Meyns | 35m |
Claims that generative AI can cut support costs tenfold and auto-generate docs are paired with concrete tools like ChatGPT DALL·E Bing and a real-world failure… | ||
| Liven Up Your Videos with Doodly | Dennis Dawson | 04m |
Demo shows Doodly turning recorded whiteboard sketches into finished clips by clicking create new video, picking a whiteboard background, placing line art or… | ||
| Writing a Best Practices Guide | Susan Armstrong | 05m |
Starts as notes on Dr Gen configuration and evolves into a maintained Confluence best practices guide that collects recommendations, templates and examples… | ||
| Valuing You (Accurately and Completely) | Kenzie Woodbridge | 05m |
The talk argues that organizations and people overvalue maker output and undercount other concrete contributions such as meetings, advocacy, maintenance and… | ||
| OpenAPI for Documentarians | Lorna Jane Mitchell | 35m |
Explains concrete practices not platitudes: shows a folded-yaml visualization, recommends editors and plugins (VS Code, linting, CI), names tooling sources… | ||
| Bootstrap IA Development with In-house Usability Testing | Adam Trujillo, Jeffrey Boruszak | 38m |
Bootstrap effort uses 20 volunteers for an in-house usability study with scripted 30-minute Zoom sessions, records clicks and time, and compares two redesigned… | ||
| conference closing | Sasha romang | 10m |
All sessions are pre-recorded and videos published next week with Q A added, sketch notes by Dennis Dawson on Flickr accompany every talk, and break music… | ||
| nothing matches | ||