Understanding the Hidden User for Content Strategy

Abstract

Purpose: This research paper explores the following phenomena that impact content strategy in technical communication (TC): 1) understudied user analysis methods that reveal users’ information seeking behavior, 2) changes in infrastructure design for innovative user research practices, 3) skill sets required by technical communicators to carry out content strategy tasks. Methods: Methodologically, the article reports findings from 19 interviews conducted with TC practitioners who hold titles such as technical writer, content strategist, information developer, information architect, and documentation manager. Results: The interviews revealed more than 13 practices/methods in which users’ interactions resulted in data that provided more information about them which impacted the design of content platforms. I classified the findings into 4 main categories of users’ interactions that hold valuable insights about users’ information consumption behavior. These insights that can be used to make informed content strategy decisions are lost if the data is not carefully processed. Conclusion: This paper demonstrates how user interactions can inform research on content strategy in TC and how it impacts the processes of users, as well as the impacts on existing roles of technical communicators. I argue that we need to be more purposeful about analyzing users’ interactions that produce data and design infrastructures to support interactions as part of an organization’s content strategy goals. My future work will focus on how issues such as privacy, surveillance, and incentivization can be handled in situations where users’ information is used for audience analysis purposes.