As part of a personal project, I’ve been shifting more and more of my day-to-day computing to the Web. Aside from the project I mentioned in the last sentence, there are a number of other reasons why I’m doing this. Reasons that I won’t go into right now.

But one thing that I’ve noticed (and which I’ve known for a while) is that the Web isn’t your computer desktop. And a number of developers of Web applications have realized this too. They’ve created some simple, but fairly intuitive interfaces. They’re easy to learn, easy to adapt to, and are easy to use after only a short period of time.

The quality and overall effectiveness of the user interfaces for the Web apps I’ve used vary widely. Some are good. Others, not so much.

I’m going to take you through a short tour of some of my favourite Web applications, and look at why I find their user interfaces to be effective.

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• Five simple but essential Web usability tips
• A pair of videos about how to write for real people
• Bar codes to deliver help text?
• A quick and rude guide to DITA
• The five keys to a successful remote writing project
• 10 reasons why your last collaboration didn’t work
• When it comes to usability, sometimes less is better
• Learn what Google Wave is for

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It’s not that we don’t have anything to write about … Believe us, there’s a solid backlog of topics on file. But last week was pretty hectic and this week will be even more so. Both on a professional and a personal level. Nothing bad; quite the contrary, there are a number of good things on the horizon.

Bear with us as we try to power through what we need to power through. We’re hoping to get back on track next week.

Until then, feel free to check out our past posts for something you might have missed.

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• Anybody can do usability
• Some advice on how to use advertising in user guides
• An interesting post on moving towards goal-oriented documentation
• Are you a freelancer or consultant? Then make it easy for clients and others to find you
• Examples can be powerful
• Why do publishers need XML? You probably know the answer to that …
• 10 words to avoid when writing

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One of the technologies that intrigues and excites me, both as a computer user and as a technical communicator, is virtualization. I’ve been following the progression of virtualization for a while and it’s something that not only has a number of uses it also appeals to my inner geek.

But what exactly is it? In an article that I wrote about virtualization software, I described it as:

a form of software sleight of hand. The trickery involved enables a computer to run two or more operating systems simultaneously.

While it’s overly simplistic, I think the description works.

But what does this have to do with technical writing? Potentially quite a bit. Read on to find out more.

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While we’re not the most prolific bloggers out there, Aaron and I do put a fair bit of content into this space each week. For a while there, we were putting up five posts a week plus a collection of links each Saturday. But work commitments, side projects, family (remember, Aaron became a dad a little over a year ago), speaking engagements, and the need for some downtime got in the way.

Our current schedule is manageable, but we’ve had to make a few tweaks to the way in which we post the words and ideas in this space. Those tweaks have made the process of writing and posting a lot more efficient. On top of that, we really believe that the changes will help us scale up when the time comes.

Here’s a quick overview of how DMN Communications approaches blogging.

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