Empowering the User Through Inclusive Technical Writing

This thesis examines the issues in technical writing due to a disconnect between writer and reader/user. I am basing this study on my real-life job. I am a manager at a well-known sneaker retailer. In August 2024, there was a Workforce Management (WFM) software that the sneaker retailer launched in the retail stores. The WFM itself was glitched and unfinished. Not much disclaimer, training or preparation was given other than these procedural documents the sneaker retailer gave. If all the store managers had to depend on was technical documentation to prepare for this already glitched WFM, then I argue there was a severe disconnect the sneaker company and its technical writer had with the store managers. The ultimate goal for this thesis is to make the WFM technical documentation usable by including the store managers in developing the technical documentation. I pursue this goal by reviewing available literature on the general disconnect of a group(s) in technical writing. Then, I give my methodological lens on how I will approach this study. Using interviews with actual store managers of the sneaker retailer in the district that was affected, other technical documentation from the sneaker company, and other design-related literature; I examine the issues with and propose solutions for the bad WFM technical documentation. I apply these solutions by remaking one of the bad WFM technical documents. After collaborating and doing several tests of prototypes with actual store managers, we recreated a usable document that was previously deemed by the store managers as unusable.