User Experience and Technical Communication: Beyond Intertwining

Abstract

In this special issue, we reflect on the past and current connections between TC and UX, it is important to recognize the value the two fields bring to one another. The articles in this collection illustrate a move into new spaces, incorporating new methods, and forging new connections and provide us an opportunity to conceptualize the continuously evolving relationship between the fields.

You Shall Not Pass? The Design of Age Gates in an Emerging Cannabis Market

“…Studies in these areas will prompt us to further probe the disciplinary intersections between TPC and user experience, an area of inquiry that Redish (2010), Redish and Barnum (2011), Lauer and Brumberger (2016), and Rose and Schreiber (2021) have helpfully outlined. They also will prompt us to engage more deeply with fields like prevention science, which is driving much of the scholarly and industry discourse around age verification practices online.…”

“…The cannabis industry is thriving in the United States, where some 48.2 million people (nearly a fifth of the population) used a cannabis product at least once in 2019 (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2020). In 2020, legal sales across the country grew 46% compared to the year prior, setting a record of $17.5 billion (Yakowicz, 2021).…”

Extending Design Thinking, Content Strategy, and Artificial Intelligence into Technical Communication and User Experience Design Programs: Further Pedagogical Implications

“…Rockley et al, 2015;Evia 2019;Duin and Pedersen, 2021). As such, this article follows up on Verhulsdonck et al's (2021) discussions about the three "streams" that are entering and diverging from mainstream TPC by focusing on the pedagogical effects they bring to our discipline as a response to Rose and Schreiber's (2021) call. examined the ways in which design thinking, content strategy, and AI technologies are reshaping mainstream TPC practices.…”

“…In a recent special issue on user experience (UX) design and technical and professional communication (TPC), guest editors Rose and Schreiber (2021) reminded JTWC readers the legacy of Redish and Barnum's observations about the intertwined relationship between UX and TPC (Redish, 2010;Redish & Barnum, 2011). Upon revisiting the four predicted categories that Redish envisioned TPC would bring to UX-collaboration, communication, complexity, and change--Rose and Schreiber cautioned us about the work that still needs to be unraveled for TPC and UX to truly become mutually beneficial and respected: "It becomes increasingly important to foreground these connections in our pedagogies, programs, and research," (2021, p. 344; emphases ours).…”

Toward TPC-UX: UX Topics in TPC Journals 2013–2022

“…In an introduction to a special issue on UX in this journal, Rose and Schreiber (2021) chart how Redish's themes have appeared within recent TPC scholarship about UX. Rose and Schreiber (2021) note that collaboration has been addressed on three fronts: TPC's ability to facilitate collaboration (e.g., Walton et al, 2016); how tangled notions of "collaboration, leadership, management, and project management" have created labor valuation concerns (e.g., Lauren & Schreiber, 2018); and the relationship between advocacy, collaboration, and social justice (e.g., Jones, 2016;Walton et al, 2019).…”