Term of the Week: Wearables

Why does a technical communicator need to know this?

With the strong market for wearables, technical communicators have opportunities to develop content for wearable devices. It’s important to consider wearables as a subject of technical communication and as a content delivery system.

Wearable users have unique content requirements and use cases. For example, you can use an Apple Watch app as a camera remote control when taking photos with your iPhone’s camera. Content must be timely and concise on the tiny wearable display.

Practical advice: get involved early in a project. Develop wearable personas and use cases to understand customers’ needs. Create content prototypes for wearable interface text and notifications. Participate in usability tests and incorporate feedback.

As a technical communicator for a wearable project, be sure that content meets these guidelines:

• Useful: help people complete a task or make their lives simpler, healthier, safer, happier, or more efficient.
• Timely: provide messages that are pertinent to the time and place.
• Unobtrusive: avoid distracting users with unnecessary content.
• Relevant: provide content that pertains to the current task.
• Concise: trim content to what is required for the wearable use case.
• Straightforward: use a conversational style.
• Visual: provide customization instructions; link to videos where it makes sense.
• Adaptable: test to confirm that content displays well on the target wearables.
• Accessible: ensure that content conforms to accessibility guidelines.

Provide wearable content that meets customer needs to contribute to an excellent user experience.