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The Case for Humor: When, where, and why

  • Presentation
  • Content Creation
  • Leah Guren

    Leah Guren

    • Cow TC

Contents

Traditional TechComm best practices dictates that our content should not contain any humor. Since humor can be culturally-specific, and written humor can be misunderstood, that was a rational and reasonable guideline.

Things are changing. We are seeing a shift in user preferences and expectations. Personality, warmth, and humor (the human touch) may now be appropriate elements to add to our TechComm content, but we must be careful. We need to know the scenarios to absolutely avoid humor, the scenarios when humor might be appropriate, and how to apply humor to enhance the user experience, rather than ruin it.

Takeaways

  • Humor is a problematic and should be used with caution.
  • When used correctly, humor can ease user stress and improve the product’s perceived value.
  • It can help set your company and products apart from the competition.

Prior knowledge

Good grounding in TechComm best practices

Speaker

Leah Guren

Leah Guren

  • Cow TC
Biography

Leah Guren is the owner/operator of Cow TC (technical communication training and consulting). Her career spans over 40 years of working with some of the leading hi-tech companies in the world. She has trained a generation of new TechComm professionals through her courses and workshops. In addition, she provides consultation services to help companies solve their documentation usability problems. She is a popular speaker at many TechComm conferences and a regular contributor to TC World magazine and other TechComm journals.

Leah Guren is the owner/operator of Cow TC (technical communication training and consulting). Her career spans over 40 years of working with some of the leading hi-tech companies in the world. She has trained a generation of new TechComm professionals through her courses and workshops. In addition, she provides consultation services to help companies solve their documentation usability problems. She is a popular speaker at many TechComm conferences and a regular contributor to TC World magazine and other TechComm journals.

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