My recent presentation at Université Paris Cité International Conference on Technical Communication discussed technical documentation as an aesthetic.

Aesthetics is most often associated with cultural phenomena such as art, music, fashion, and film. However, we can consider the term more broadly.

Technical writers and communicators are creating artefacts that reflect sophisticated products and technologies. These artefacts are often the result of collective efforts of many talented people. A challenge is designing documentation that reflects this sophistication while keeping it accessible for end users.

What is aesthetics?

Aesthetics can be defined as:

Branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art.

Aesthetics examines the affective (emotional) response to an object or phenomenon. It considers what happens in our mind when we experience things like art, music, writing, fashion, film, and sport. It can also be considered in relation to industrial design or products.

While it is unlikely that the term “beautiful” will be associated with documentation, one might make judgments based on simplicity, elegance, or utility.

Why aesthetics?

Aesthetics allows us to take a holistic, integrated look at technical communication.

UI/UX is obviously as major component of this, but it also includes:

• Sentence structure
• Code samples
• Attitudes & perceptions

Aesthetics can be viewed as a top-level approach to quality; a way to look at the big picture. This approach can be helpful when feedback is nebulous and general. Users or colleagues might suggest something is not quite right, but can’t tell you exactly why. There may be a sense that quality improvements need to be made before gathering formal feedback from end users or consulting subject matter experts.

Attitudes & Perceptions

Part of a holistic approach is managing how stakeholders perceive documentation efforts. Battling perceptions is something technical writers often have to deal with.

Gathering organizational and product knowledge into a clear, coherent story is a big task requiring skill sets that run against common industry paradigms (e.g., siloed workflows and specializations). The knowledge and time it takes to create quality written or multimedia content is often underestimated.

By establishing some standards and protocols for how organizations engage with technical writers, documentation can be seen as:

the integration of technology, language, and design; a way to delight users and showcase organizational talent and innovation.