Joe Welinske

Joe Welinske creates content strategies and other crafted communication as a UX practitioner, teacher, and event organizer.

Joe is super-thoughtful about the role of content in helping people use technology. We had a great conversation about his journey from old-school technical communicator to leading-edge UX practitioner.

We talked about:

Joe's journey from industrial engineering to technical communication

how he and others were doing "content strategy" long before the phrase was coined

the evolution of the University of Washington's iSchool from a library-science program to one focused on digital products and services

evidence-driven design

how the field of "user assistance" (wizards, tutorials, interactive components within software, etc.) emerged from technical communication

the importance of continuing to be an active content practitioner even as you transition into a more strategic role

the importance of constant learning, and expanding your focus beyond your specific field of practice

the continuing relevance of user assistance in modern user experience development environments

his interest in, and advocacy of, accessibility -

the value in not only meeting basic guidelines, but also trying to be innovative about how to develop information so that all of us are able to consume it

recognizing and empathizing with folks who face accessibility challenges

designing, both technically and semantically, navigation and content for accessibility

promoting accessibility techniques as a new skill set to build into content strategy roles

Bio

Joe Welinske specializes in helping improve digital products and services through crafted communication. The best user experience features a quality collection of words and images in the user interface. The UX of a robust product is also enhanced through a comprehensive approach to accessibility, content strategy and user assistance. For close to thirty years, Joe has been providing education, training, contracting, and consulting services.

One of Joe's most satisfying current activities is as program manager for Seattle's annual conference for user experience professionals called ConveyUX conference. This event - produced by Blink UX - attracts UX professionals from around the world. Other events Joe produces include conferences for technical communication and software user assistance.

Joe is regularly involved as an instructor at the University of Washington in several departments, including the iSchool. He also teaches classes for UC Silicon Valley Extension and Bellevue College.

Video

Here's the video version of our conversation:

https://youtu.be/gIIjM1mETfA

Transcript

Larry:

Hi everyone, welcome to episode number 26 of the Content Strategy Interviews Podcast. I'm really happy, today, to have with us, Joe Welisnke. Joe is a real strong figure here in the local Seattle UX community, and he's been a content strategist before we were using the term content strategist. He evolved out of the technical communication world in the 80s and 90s, and then into the UX world, and along the way has accomplished a lot and done a lot of teaching and other things, so we have a lot to talk about today.

Larry:

So, I want to jump right into it. First of all, welcome, Joe. Do you have anything more you'd like to say about your background for the folks?

Joe:

Well, yeah. Thanks, Larry, it's great to be doing this with you. I've enjoyed your previous episodes and guest for this, I hope I can be up to that level of it. But yeah, working with content is something that I've done for my whole career, and I've really enjoyed it. Starting back in ...