Articles & Talks
Two separate pages on specific topics
Older Adults
Links to my work and other resources on making websites work well for older people.
Voting
Links to my work and other resources on plain language in ballots and other materials for voters and poll workers.
Selected articles, book chapters, slide sets, and YouTube presentations since 1980
Redish, J., 2023, Planning and Evaluating to Communicate Successfully (an updated version of a short article that was originally part of a 2014 project).
Redish, J., 2022, Content Writing / Information Design. In C. Lebson, The UX Careers Handbook, 2nd edition, CRC Press, 233 – 238. (Available for purchase)
Redish, J., 2020, Content Strategy, October 28, (slides), Plain Language Summit. See also Redish, J., 2019, How to Collaborate on Strategies, (90-minute video presentation), November 13, Plain Language Action and Information Network.
Redish, J., 2020, UX Writing – A New Role for Technical Communicators?, September 30, (slides), Society for Technical Communication, DC Chapter. You can also watch and listen to the video version of the talk.
Jarrett, C. and Redish, J., 2020, How to Test the Usability of Documents, May 4, UXmatters.
Jarrett, C. and Redish, J., 2019, Readability Formulas: 7 Reasons to Avoid Them and What to Do Instead, July 29, UXmatters.
Redish, J., 2018, Putting our work in context. Keynote to the Plain Language Summit, July 20, YouTube, Minutes 13:18 to 1:04:31.
Redish, J., 2016, Making every word count: Writing well for responsive design. Nielsen Norman Group, webinar, 60 minutes. (Available for purchase for $99)
Redish, J., 2016, Applying research to practice – Understanding Users. Keynote for the Conduit conference hosted by the Philadelphia Metro Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication. (Slides on SlideShare; Bibliography on my site)
Redish, J., 2014, Honing Your Usability Testing Skills, a full-day workshop on how to plan, conduct, analyze, and report a usability test. Originally done for the European Union pilot project, IC Clear. (slide set, PDF, 1.6 Mb)
Felker, D., Pickering, F., Charrow, V., Holland, V., and Redish, J., 2014 reprint of a 1981 monograph with a new introduction by Ginny Redish, Guidelines for Document Designers, American Institutes for Research. (PDF, 633 Kb)
Redish, J., 2013, Plain Language and the Legacy of Professor Erwin R. Steinberg, Invited talk at the memorial service for Professor Steinberg, Carnegie Mellon University, April 16. (YouTube, 70 minutes.)
Jarrett, C., Redish, J., and Summers, K., 2013, Designing for people who do not read easily. In L. Meloncon, (Ed.), Rhetorical Accessability: At the intersection of technical communication and disability studies, Baywood / CRC / Routledge, Chapter 2, 39 – 65. (Available for purchase)
Redish, J., 2013, Letting Go of the Words — Writing Great Copy. Confab London. (slide set, PDF, 2.6 Mb)
Redish, J. and Kleimann, S., 2012, Plain language in government. In E. Buie and D. Murray, (Eds.), Usability in Government Systems, Morgan Kaufmann / Elsevier, Chapter 11, 171 – 189. (Available for purchase)
Redish, J., 2012, Writing Web Content that Works, UxLx, Lisbon (slide set, PDF, 3 Mb)
Courage, C., Jain, J., Redish, J., and Wixon, D., 2011, Task Analysis. In J. Jacko, (Ed.), Handbook of Human-Computer Interaction, 3rd edition, CRC Press, Chapter 42, 955 – 982. (Available for purchase)
The 2nd edition is Courage, C., Redish, J., and Wixon, D., 2008, Task Analysis. In A. Sears and J. Jacko, (Eds.), Handbook of Human-Computer Interaction, 2nd edition, Lawrence Erlbaum, Chapter 48, 927-947.
The 1st edition is Redish, J. and Wixon, D., 2003, Task Analysis, In J. Jacko and A. Sears, (Eds.), Handbook of Human-Computer Interaction, 1st edition, Lawrence Erlbaum, Chapter 48, 923-940.
Redish, J. and Barnum, C., 2011, Overlap, Influence, Intertwining: The Interplay of UX and Technical Communication, Journal of Usability Studies, 6 (3), May, 90-101. (PDF, 359Kb)
Redish, J., 2011, Review your website through personas and conversations, short article that was originally a blog on my old site.
Redish, J., 2010, Technical Communication and Usability: Intertwined Strands and Mutual Influences, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 53 (3), September, 191-201. (PDF, 332 Kb) – Winner of the “best paper of the year” award.
Redish, J., 2010, Content as Conversation, keynote to IPCC conference, Enschede, The Netherlands, September. (slide set, PDF, 1.9 Mb)
Redish, J., 2010, Writing Vibrant, Compelling Content, User Interface Engineering Virtual Seminar, September. (90-minute webinar – available for a small fee)
Redish, J., 2009, Writing Web Content that Works, User Interface Engineering Virtual Seminar, February. (90-minute webinar – available for a small fee)
Redish, J., 2007, Expanding usability testing to evaluate complex systems. Invited essay for Journal of Usability Studies, 2 (3), May, 102-111
Summers, K. and Summers, M., 2006, Reading and navigational strategies of web users with lower literacy skills, Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology.
(I am not an author of this paper; but it is a very important study showing that when you revise for low-literacy readers, everyone benefits. I hosted it here for several years with permission from the first author. It is now freely available at a publisher’s website, so I have changed the link.)
Redish, J., 2005, Six Steps to Ensure a Successful Usability Test, User Interface Engineering.
Theofanos, M. and Redish, J., 2005, Helping low-vision and other users with web sites that meet their needs: Is one site for all feasible?, Technical Communication, 52 (1), February 9-20.
Theofanos, M. and Redish, J. 2003, Guidelines for accessible and usable web sites: Observing users who work with screen readers, Author’s version of article that appeared in Interactions, X (6), November-December, 38-51. (PDF, 914Kb)
Redish, J., 2004, Yours, mine, and ours: Connecting ourselves and the communities we belong to. Keynote at the Usability Professionals’ Association Conference. (slide set, PDF, 965 Kb)
Redish, J., 2003 reprint of 1995 paper, Adding value as a professional technical communicator, Technical Communication, 50 (4), November, 505-518.
Redish, J., 2002, Forward (a discussion of community). In B. Mirel and R. Spilka (Eds.), Reshaping Technical Communication, CRC Press, vii-xii. (Available for purchase)
Redish, J., 2001, Storytelling: The Power of Scenarios. Goldsmith Award presentation at the IPCC conference, Santa Fe, October (slide set, PDF, 840 Kb)
Redish, J., 2000, Readability formulas have even more limitations than Klare discusses, ACM Journal of Computer Documentation, 24 (3), August, 132-137. (PDF, 41Kb)
Redish, J., 2000, What Is Information Design? Technical Communication, 47 (2), May, 163-166. (PDF)
Redish, J., 1999, Document and Information Design. In J. Webster (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 6, 10-24.
Redish, J., 1998, Minimalism in technical communication: Some issues to consider. In J. Carroll, (Ed.), Minimalism Beyond the Nurnberg Funnel, MIT Press in cooperation with the Society for Technical Communication, 219-245. (Available for purchase)
Redish, J., 1997, Understanding people: The relevance of cognitive psychology to technical communication, In K. Staples and C. Ornatowski, (Eds.), Theory, Practice, and Program Design in Technical Communication: Foundations for Teaching an Emergent Discipline, Praeger, 67-84. (Available for purchase)
Redish, J. and Dumas, J., 1996, What makes a user’s manual helpful to users? A report of a research study. (An unpublished book chapter of an extensive study of the features that matter in manuals).
Redish, J., 1993, Understanding readers. In C. Barnum and S. Carliner (Eds.), Techniques for Technical Communicators, Macmillan, 14-41. (PDF of the chapter available on my site, 359Kb)
Redish, J., 1989, Reading to learn to do, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 32 (4), December, 289-293.
This is a slight adaptation of the paper with the same title that appeared in The Technical Writing Teacher, XV (3), Fall 1988, 223-233. The IEEE version appeared with the permission of the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing. The original paper won the “best paper of the year” award for 1988. (PDF, 534 Kb)
Redish, J. and Selzer, J., 1985, The place of readability formulas in technical communication, Technical Communication, 32 (4), November, 46-52.
Redish, J., 1985, The Plain English Movement. In Greenbaum, S. (Ed.), The English Language Today, Pergamon, 125-138.
Redish, J., 1983, The Language of the Bureaucracy. In Bailey, R. and Fosheim, R. (Eds.), Literacy for Life: The Demand for Reading and Writing, Modern Language Association, 151-174.
Redish, J., Felker, D., Rose, A., 1981, Evaluating the Effects of Document Design Principles, Information Design Journal, 2/3&4, 236-243.
Redish, J., 1980, Readability,. In Felker, D. (Ed.), Document Design: A Review of the Relevant Research, American Institutes for Research, 69 – 93 with bibliography 153-158.