New ideas are essential to company success. Without new ideas, there is no growth or improvements. However, after a while ideas get stale; working on the same problems with the same people can result in the same ideas. Don’t...
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Accelerated Learning (AL) has been shown to speed up the design process for instructional designers, and enhance the learning process for learners. It focuses on total learner involvement, because people retain more and learn better when they actively participate...
What is creativity? Defining creativity is like attempting to define happiness or the meaning of life. Each person you ask has a different definition, but there are common themes about uniqueness and originality, imagination, ideas, and usefulness. Click here...
Failing is a part of life. It is also an important part of creativity. I first introduced the importance of failing in the post Fail Fast, Fail Frequently … Really?? In the workshops I teach and in my soon-to-be-released...
Embrace risk to energize your content. Are you eager to try a new instructional technology? Have you researched a fresh strategy to apply to your design? Is there a new approach you’re excited to explore to better engage learners?...
You cannot expect inspiration to strike on your timetable. However, as last week’s post Consistency Is a Key to Creativity mentioned, if you practice creativity you are more likely to generate fresh ideas when you need them. Why do...
Effective infographics can say more with a picture than a thousand words. So how can technical writers use infographics most effectively? Although we’ve blogged about infographics before in the post Infographics: Information at a Glance, we’ve never applied them...
A surprising key to unlocking creativity might be the last thing you expect, and that is consistency. We might assume creative types are those who wait for inspiration to strike, then delve into a frenzy of creativity. The elusive...
Historically, technical writers worked with one product from start to finish. That meant beginning with an outline for the product or piece of equipment, writing the content, and then formatting it for delivery. In some industries, technical communication is...
When I first started writing this blog it was very difficult for me. I would sit looking at a blank screen for hours fretting about what to write. Generating ideas for topics was not the issue. My issue was...