Christmas gift ideas: 7 books for Technical Communicators
As Christmas approaches, the yearly pressure of finding the right present intensifies too — be it for your loved ones, friends, or colleagues. Indeed, a book is a timeless present but even more so for a Technical Communicator. This year, we have decided to ask our teammates what books they have read, liked, and would recommend to a fellow professional.
Technical Communicator is really an umbrella job title that includes a wide variety of roles. In our selection, we tried to find books that would be useful for any Technical or UX Writer, Information Architect, Interface Designer, Researcher, or just anyone curious about writing and design. Here go our seven picks.
How to Make Sense of Any Mess by Abby Covert
Abby Covert is an information architecture enthusiast and author. Her first book, How to Make Sense of Any Mess, was published back in 2014. Her enthusiasm to spread more sense in this world went as far as publishing a free complete copy book online in both English and Spanish. Which doesn’t make the paper copy any less of a present. What’s more, in her Etsy shop, you can get a signed copy and even ask for a specific inscription!
Here’s what our fellow Technical Communicator, Natalia, says about the book:
I like the straightforward telling and very compressed info in the book. It is super-easy to read and applies to, basically, anybody who deals with all sorts of items, not only information or content. The book has one story to map recommendations on how to clean up the mess, so the advice is not abstract but very real and relevant for all industries and roles in software development.
What I didn’t like is that sometimes either your case is too specific for those general guidelines to help much, or the guidelines are too basic for complex ecosystems where the mess is too heavy.
Writing Is Designing: Words and the User Experience by Andy Welfle and Michael J. Metts
This book was published in 2020 and quickly became one of the most popular publications among writers in tech. It mainly explores the topic of UX writing and makes effort to explain why these tiny little squiggles of words matter so much in a product — something writers so often struggle to convey to others. The book itself has a yummy design with plenty of illustrations, which makes it a great addition to a Technical Communicator’s collection.
Viktoria, a Technical Communicator, says:
I like that the book was written by professional UX Writers with years of experience in renowned companies like Adobe or Upwork. The book contains valuable, clear, and easy-to-read examples that help understand the key principles of good UX writing. It’s a great book to start if you want to understand the importance of writing in product development. I also found the voice especially friendly and engaging. The authors do a great job sharing their experiences and advocating for writing as a full-fledged design practice. I think this book is handy for anyone who writes for the public, for people who begin their journey as UX Writers, Technical Writers, and UI/UX Designers. It is an excellent introduction to UX writing.
Microcopy: The Complete Guide by Kinneret Yifrah
This book is another gem for people engaged in software development, writing, or marketing. No doubt, it’s basically a Bible of microcopy. Kinneret Yifrah is not only a hands-on UX and microscopy writer and author, but she also runs her own microscopy studio, leads the microcopy community in Israel, and offers an extensive course on microcopy and UX writing on Udemy.
The book was recommended by one of our Technical Communicators, Oksana:
It’s short and very easy to read — you can do it over a weekend. Easily applicable, with screenshots of dos and don’ts — it will help you create concise, user-friendly error and success messages, login forms, and other pieces of microcopy. I go back to this handbook every time I’m in doubt and quickly find what I need in the table of content. I like literally everything about this book.
Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug
So far, the oldest book on our list, so it might be a bit outdated if you’re looking for more technological answers. The last revision was made in 2014, and since then, the Internet has developed tremendously, but the core ideas remain relevant as they explain the principles of intuitive navigation and information design. The underlying idea is something we all know — users are, well, lazy, so the software design must allow them to achieve their tasks as easily and directly as possible.
The book is often recommended, and it even made it to college courses. Essential reading for everyone working on the web.
Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things by Don Norman
Donald Norman is a significant author for the TechComm community in the way that he works at the intersection of usability design and cognitive psychology. He started studying user interfaces way back in the 1980s and was the first person to ever use the words “User Experience” in a job title.
This book is, in a way, a continuation of Norman’s opus magnum, The Design of Everyday Things, so it might be a good idea to grab both of them. Even though in Emotional Design… he writes about everyday objects surrounding us rather than about computer systems, it is still a valuable insight into the field.
Maria, our Technical Communicator, shares her impression:
The book goes deeper into the levels of design and demonstrates why certain things appeal to one person and not the other. I guess my lesson from this book is that if your work is aesthetically pleasing, the user will forgive you minor mistakes and will be less judgmental about them.
100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People by Susan Weinschenk
Just like Don Norman, Susan Weinschenk works at the intersection of behavioral science and design. 100 Things… is a great collection of quick lessons on how the human brain works when it comes to seeing, reading, focusing, making decisions, and other things. It is, perhaps, more applicable to the job of a Technical Communicator than the previous recommendation. The author writes about the neuroscience of readability, perceiving colors, why fonts matter, and why reading doesn’t guarantee understanding.
We wouldn’t recommend this book to a seasoned designer, but it is a great gift to start one’s professional library.
Oxford Guide to Plain English by Martin Cutts
Surprisingly few people outside the writing community know about the concept of plain writing. Have you ever tried to make your way through a bulky legal text? Or maybe you’ve spent ten minutes of your life trying to understand what your colleague meant in their email?
The idea of plain English started out in 1940 in England, aiming to reduce the amount of ambiguous, pompous writing used by the officials. Since then, it has spread all over the world and made a tremendous impact. Today, plain English is used by government workers, medical professionals, and lawyers, and is a great asset for everyone who uses written communication regularly. Even if English is not your first language, the general principles of concise, easy-to-understand writing translate into all cultures.
When making this list, we wanted to give you not only a ready set of gift options but also a sense of direction for your own ideas. As you can see, Technical Communication is much more than user guides. It requires an understanding of design and visual media, language and writing, technology, and organizational skills. We hope we made your search easier, and you will surprise your friend or loved one with a handy present.
