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By Carrie Janek
On April 10, 2003, the Southwest Airlines Systems Information Design Team, led by Robert Hurst, Sherri Harte, and Kerry Newberry, gave a 50-minute presentation on how their documentation team has changed its approach to creating documentation for their customers, all internal clients. Rather than simply responding to client requests for updating existing Help, the documentation team analyzes the tasks associated with the client's business goals. If gaps exist in processes and procedures, opportunities exist to make the processes more efficient. For a profit-sharing organization like Southwest Airlines, that means saving money: cha-ching!
For this particular project, the documentation assisted the users with the applications that help track and ship cargo on their planes. The Information Design Team originally focused their documentation on the application rather than on the users' needs. Writers now identify the workflow for all the users' tasks. Members of the Information Design Team meet with clients, including cargo supervisors, dispatchers, and cargo loaders to determine all of their needs. They try to understand the details about the users' jobs even when such specifics do not pertain to the software. This change has helped the writers to design well-written and more accurate documentation; in this way, Southwest Airlines employees improve their job performance.
The Southwest Airlines Information Design Team gave an impressive presentation concerning the importance of accurately identifying the audience for their documentation. I thoroughly enjoyed the presentation. It held the interest of everyone in the room and helped us to understand why Southwest Airlines is at the top of their game. (Cha-ching!)
Note: If you missed this presentation, look for the repeat performance at May's International STC Conference, here in Dallas. —Editor