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The Centipede & Wicked

Witch

How to Make Technical Writing Perfectly Invisible

Dan Hill, Ph.D. – President, Sensory Logic

SDL Keynote

Amsterdam, May 22, 2012


SDL: New Trends

• The tech writer has become part of the presales

team, with product documentation a decision

factor between offers

• Interest in social media and multi-media to monitor

and enhance, improve the customer experience,

which is primarily emotional in nature


Descartes’ Error

Rene Descartes (1596-1650)

“I think, therefore I am”

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716)

Invented calculus, the binary number

system, and the basis of information

technology


What They Can’t Say

4

98%

What % of mental activity is

subconscious?


Principle #1: Familiar Is Easy

• Consciousness interferes with most tasks.

The Puzzled Centipede

A centipede was happy quite,

Until a frog in fun

Said, “Pray tell which leg comes after which?”

This raised her mind to such a pitch,

She lay distracted in the ditch

Not knowing how to run.


Principle #2: Create A Network

• Forget the Enlightenment

notion of knowing oneself . .

. An idea becomes

conscious not in isolation,

but only in assimilation with

a complex of other ideas

already in consciousness.


Principle #3: Feedback Loop

• There’s as much feedback as feed-forward in the

brain. Repeat & reinforce.


Principle #4: Social & Concrete

• The brain has trouble with certain types of

calculations that it did not evolve to solve

(abstractions). But it has an easier time with

calculations that involve social issues


It’s All in the Smile


It’s All in the Smile


Example A: Abstraction

•If a card has an even number on one face, it

has the name of a primary color on its opposite

face.

•Which two cards do you need to turn over to

assess whether I’m telling you the truth.

PURPLE RED

PURPLE

If a card has an even number on one face, it has the name of a primary color on its opposite face. Which two cards do you need to turn over to assess whether I’m telling you the truth.


Example B: Social Context

• This time, If you’re under 18, you cannot drink

alcohol. Now each card has the age of a person

on one side and the drink they’re holding on the

other.

• Which cards do you need to turn over to see if the

rule is being broken?

16 33 Tequila Sprite

16 Tequila

Which cards do you need to turn over to see if the rule is being broken?


Ratings & Words: Limitations

18

20% of adults in the

western world are

“functionally illiterate.” Source: John O'Shaughnessy, Oxford UP, 2003

What % of adults in the western world

are functionally illiterate?


Leveraging the Triune Brain

19


Principle #5: Create Emotive Imagery


Keep It Simple


Speed Kills


Principle #6: Emotionally Engage

• Invoke emotions to

manipulate and enable

reaction


High/Low Road Diagram

Rational Brain

(High Road)

Sensory

Input

Emotional

Response

Amygdala

(Hot Button) (Low Road) Hippocampus

Filter

We typically have an emotional

response to a new stimulus within

3 seconds or less


12 Most Persuasive Words

1.You

2.Money

3.Save

4.New

5.Results

6.Easy

7.Health

8. Safety

9. Love

10.Discovery

11.Proven

12.Guarantee


Avoid High Frustration

Still 1 Still Frustration

2 54.91%

12 53.97%

9 48.72%

1 46.50%

4 44.43%

Norm 34.40%

Still 2

Top Five Stills - Frustration

Still 4


High Frustration Low Frustration

Video Frustration Examples


High Frustration Low Frustration

On-Emotion Results


Loss Aversion

Prospect Theory: Replaces the notion of “utility” with that of “value.” Value is

in terms of gains and losses. As seen above, identical utility does not

necessarily equal identical value.


Principle #7: Don’t Be Rigid

Allow for interaction whenever possible.


Social Media Matters

Candidate Title Views Released

Pro-Obama Yes We Can 8,564,449 2-Feb-08

Anti-Clinton Vote Different 5,292,286 5-Mar-07

Pro-Obama A More Perfect Union 4,621,348 18-Mar-08

Pro-Obama Empire Strikes Barack 1,557,731 1-May-08

Pro-Obama Response to State of the Union 1,416,683 28-Jan-08

Pro-Obama Iowa Victory Speech 1,286,488 3-Jan-08

Anti-Clinton Beat the Bitch 1,211,953 13-Nov-07

Anti-Clinton Coffee Machine Gaffe 975,420 30-Apr-08

Pro-Clinton I Need Your Advice 656,171 16-May-07

Pro-McCain Bill Clinton on McCain 390,952 7-Dec-07

41,622

votes away

33

Dan Hill, President [email protected]

651.224.7647

Visit us at: www.sensorylogic.com

Q & A

Thanks!

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The Centipede & Wicked Witch - SDLdownloadcentercdn.sdl.com/tridion/SC-Summit-2012/Summit-Keynote... · The Centipede & Wicked Witch ... •The tech writer has become part of the