Technical Writing is a profession that divides content and layout into two separate, but equal tasks. Content is the facts, details, images, procedures, and so forth. Layout is how this material is delivered to the intended audience.
Together content and layout is information. It acknowledges the facts people need to know, but how it is delivered to the intended audience turns these facts into information.
Marshall McLuhan famously coined the phrase “the medium is the message”. How the content is delivered IS as much the information as the content that is delivered to the intended audience.
Apple, the company, not the fruit, understands this. Consider the technology Apple has developed. It has completely changed the way we experience media. The Beatles music is still the Beatles music. The content has not changed much, although that would be interesting to consider how content today has been modified by how it is delivered not through this technology. In fact it has. The MP3 format does not have the range of tones an old LP record has, or even a taped recording of a live event. It must reduce the range of tones to keep the size of the files small. Even during the 1960s, music producers of pop music engineered their music to sound as best as possible on those cheap portable radios.
Content and Layout = Information.
So, now Apple has combined content with very creative delivery methods to revolutionize the way we experience media. Music can be enjoyed anywhere on a little device. Music, videos, and web content can be enjoyed on the iPhone. Web content can be enjoyed on a lightweight device that is easy to cart around the home – the iPad.
And as this article suggests, Apple plans on revolutionize the last unchanged electronic device in the home – the TV.
So, what does all this have to do with Technical Writing?
Should technical information continue to be delivered in the same old way of paper documents. pdf files, help systems, and so on? If not, then what technology is available that better delivers this content? How are people expecting to receive information? What lessons can Apple teach technical writers?
The full article cited in this posting:
