There is no question that the software development world offers a lot of excitement and challenging work. In the area of software user assistance we are particularly challenged by having to master a wide range of disciplines. From foundation skills like writing and editing—to the coding of content—to usability testing and localization, we find ourselves in a profession that is difficult to define. What is it that we really do?

The objective of this survey is to take a snapshot of our collective professional life in an attempt to identify what we value in our daily work as user assistance professionals. How many of us are still using WinHelp? What emphasis do we place on writing and editing versus coding and usability testing? What platforms do we support? Which Windows Help features are most useful? How many of us are moving to browser-based solutions? Which tools provide us with the most satisfaction? What we find out may help us to better manage our career path and to improve the quality of our work.

The Skills and Technologies Survey was published in May 2001 for a two-week period. Close to 800 people responded to our call, providing us with a good size data sample. What you have in front of you is a synthesis of the results. We’re presenting our analysis in five different sections: Technologies, Windows Help, Skills, Platforms, and Tools. The links in the gold box take you to the discussions of each of these areas. A printable version of this report is available in PDF. (3 MB)

Enjoy the information. We hope it is useful to you. Please send me any feedback you have on the survey or the analysis.

Methodology

The original survey was published on the WinWriters web site for two weeks in May 2001.

We did not require respondents to identify themselves. Respondents who wished to also be entered into our survey prize raffle were required to submit their name and email address.

This study comes with a couple of caveats. First, the majority of respondents are most likely customers of WinWriters. Most of the survey submissions came in response to email broadcasts we made to our mailing list. However, the WinWriters constituency is large and probably is a fair representation of the overall user assistance community. Second, this survey is intended to represent the interests of technical writers involved in software user assistance and may not be representative of the technical communication community at large.

Raffle Winners

Thanks to all who participated in the survey. We randomly chose several of our participants to receive prizes. Here are the winners!

GRAND PRIZE - An expenses-paid trip to the 2002 WinWriters Online Help Conference in Seattle, Washington, from anywhere in the U.S. or Canada, including complimentary registration to the conference

Stacey Spoehr of Aid Association for Lutherans in Appleton, Wisconsin, wins our grand prize! Stacey graduated from Michigan Technological University in 1992 with a B.S. in Scientific and Technical Communications. Her responsibilities since she joined Aid Association for Lutherans in 1998 as a tech writer include creating online Help (WinHelp and HTML Help) for its field sales software, and writing and editing technology-related articles for the weekly field newsletter. Stacey's hobbies include reading, playing trivia, and cheering the Wisconsin Badgers and Green Bay Packers to victory. As a long-time Green Bay Packers fan, she hopes to catch a glimpse of former coach Mike Holmgren while in Seattle.

A free registration for the 2002 WinWriters Online Help Conference

Rita Muller of Morrow Technologies Corporation in Largo, Florida, is the first winner of a WinWriters Conference registration! This is Rita's fifth year as a technical writer, and after a long search she's finally found her niche. She is the sole technical writer for Morrow Technologies Corporation, an engineering firm where she creates online and book documentation for Morrow's Spectrum Analyzers. Rita's hobbies, which include reading, writing fiction, yoga, and water aerobics, are about to change drastically since she and her husband just purchased a home on Indian Rocks Beach. After a decade of condo living restraint, Rita will finally get to garden again!

Patricia Stewart from Robotic Workspace Technologies, Inc., in Ft. Myers, Florida, is the second winner of a WinWriters Conference registration!

Choice of a book listed in our Online Help Resource Directory Books page

• Betty Bekkerus
• Kim Cramer — Apache Junction, AZ
• David Eilbeck
• Murray Hill — Toronto, ON, Canada
• Beth Kreischer
• Sarah Leritz-Higgins, Mentor Graphics — Carrollton, TX
• Pamela D. Lloyd, Health Trio — Tucson, AZ
• Lynn Nichols
• Laura Vaughn, Deloitte & Touche — LaVergne, TN
• Kathy Vincenz, Mechanical Dynamics, Inc. — Ann Arbor, MI

A copy of the video Confessions of a Help Author

• Rachel Baumann
• Adrian Blagg, Millbrook Corporation — Carrollton, TX
• Doug Boyles, SAIC — San Diego, CA
• Vince Dahlberg, Unisys Corporation — St. Paul, MN
• Maggi Knapik, Fleet Credit Card Services — Maple Shade, NJ
• Jennifer Meyer, Aspect — Eugene, OR
• Ellen Phelps, CommerceQues — Tampa, FL
• Judy Reynolds, IBM — Louisville, CO
• Robert Schreiber, NetVendor — Atlanta, GA
• Dent Tillotson, Databeacon Inc. — Ottawa, ON, Canada