Jean Rollinson became the 501st person to follow The Berkshire Blog and so I asked her, what her perfect client looked like & how the mobile scene might look in 2020?

Looking for a great mobile picture to use with this story I found this one, of Dave Unstead from Oakley who do some real magical work with mobile marketing & virtual reality! I’ll publish and then ask him to add two penneth on his take… if you have a take, add yours too…

Jean Rollinson (FISTC) : My perfect client
Mark is the MD of a small software company that employs four developers. Over the past few years, Mark has become aware that although the software fills a niche and is a good product, he is receiving feedback from customers that suggests the software is not being fully used and the users don’t understand all that the software can do for them. Mark knows that they need to improve their online help and training documents and that there might be other ways to improve communications with their customers, but none of his employees has the time or the skills to do this. Mark knows he needs a technical author.

What I do is…
This is my ideal situation because the client can see the need for my services and so he is more likely to be open to my suggestions and possible improvements. It also means that Mark will ensure that the developers will be prepared to put aside some time to help me with any questions I might have while writing their documentation, as they know it will save them time in the long term. In these circumstances, I know that I can go to the company and explain what I can do for them and how the writing process works, without first having to convince them that they need my skills and experience. I have also found that companies who understand what a technical author can do for them are more willing to take my suggestions on board and help me work on a procedure that they can follow to keep their documentation up to date if they decide they want to maintain it themselves once I’ve done the initial overhaul.

What will mobiles be like in 2020?
Over the coming years, I can see mobile being more associated with wearable technology. I mean, why carry around a phone if you can get the same interaction from a pair of glasses or a contact lens. Following Google Glass I can see many more devices being developed to fulfil people’s particular needs. This would mean devices becoming more specialised, rather than the universal phone or tablet that tries to do everything. Perhaps children’s clothes with a GPS chip, so you always know where they are; or a bracelet to record messages so you can say downstairs what you intend to do when you get upstairs, in case you’ve forgotten by the time you get there. And I’ve just heard about a device that fits on your finger like a ring that reads to blind or visually impaired people, so perhaps my future is already here.

Jean Rollinson (FISTC)
Authoring Services