Don't believe the myths about technical writing
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
“I don't think it's something for me — it sounds boring," a friend said when I told him about my role as a technical writer. “It's not boring. You learn a lot, talk to many people, and create content for real users," I replied. During our conversation, a few myths about technical writing emerged. Let's dig into them — they may prevent you from achieving quality and delivering value to your clients.
Written by: Andreas Grönvall Mikkelsen
“It’s not creative”
Technical writing isn't like creating art, music, film, or literature. But in a broader sense, creativity is about approaching challenges by finding new perspectives, exploring domains, and connecting the dots. It's about discovering possible directions and shaping ideas. You decide which to pursue – perhaps you need to go back, rethink, and start over. The result of the process is something with meaning and value to someone. A technical writer follows all those creative paths.
Structure may not seem related to creativity. But technical documentation must fit within the right information architecture. Content must be easy to use, reuse, and maintain — and comprehensible to users. On top of this, it should be easy to find, in the right context, at the right time. All this takes a significant amount of creative work.
“Good design does not require user manuals”
This myth about technical writing ignores that users come with different needs, knowledge, and experiences. What is obvious to one person may be unknown to another. It’s easy to forget that there are user manuals even for everyday products like washing machines and smartphones — most of the time, you simply don't need them.
Solutions in areas such as aircraft, building automation, medtech, and food packaging cannot rely solely on UX and design. And educating users is often not enough, since there will be moments when they need to perform unfamiliar tasks, double-check hardware details, or verify configuration settings. Even excellent design cannot anticipate and solve everything.
Complex business solutions frequently need to meet regulatory and safety requirements and comply with standards that vary by market. This information often belongs in the technical documentation too.
We at informiQ recommend that you gather input on what your audiences need and expect before you start. Create the technical documentation in parallel with other tasks. Review it, polish it, and publish it. Track how audiences use it, analyze usage data, run feedback sessions, and keep improving.
“It slows innovation and release work down”
Imagine your company is about to launch an amazing food processing equipment that will reduce time-to-market and cut energy costs. As you put the champagne in the fridge, your sales manager texts: “We must ensure our offer is comprehensible, meets quality requirements, and includes all necessary safety information. Is the technical documentation approved?" If the answer is no, you have a problem.
Involve technical writers in innovation, development, and marketing teams from the start. Give them access to product owners and developers for workshops, interviews, Q&A, and review sessions. Your organization will gain insights, reduce uncertainty, improve quality, and better address audience needs.
Watch out for the myths about technical writing
My friend finally agreed that I had a point. Technical writing is creative in a way that is not apparent to everyone. Most products and solutions require technical documentation in order to be installed and used correctly, to keep users and equipment safe, and to follow standards. Integrate technical writing properly into your processes, and it will make everything run more smoothly.
