Communication Design Quarterly Nov 2020

Along the cow path

Alexander Slotkin

Abstract

Technical communication and user experience studies traditionally uphold Western onto-epistemological distinctions between technical users and objects. Recent calls for the inclusion of cultural approaches to technical communication, however, have asked scholars to consider the influence cultural knowledge has on communication design. This article takes up these calls by reading technical documentation through new materialist and Indigenous ways of knowing. Using a prominent Jewish cemetery in Gainesville, Florida as a case study, this article treats technical artifacts and subjects as co-constitutive, arguing for the cultural and material agency of technical documentation design in mediating and shaping user experience.

Journal
Communication Design Quarterly
Published
2020-11-16
DOI
10.1145/3410430.3436989
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Topics
qualitative research multimodality technical communication race and writing

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (1)

  1. Butts et al. (2021)
    Deep mapping for environmental communication design
    Communication Design Quarterly

Cites in this index (7)

  1. Ingraham (2018)
    Energy: Rhetoric’s Vitality
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
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    Rhetoric Review
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    The Technical Communicator as Advocate
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
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    Beyond Compliance
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  5. Johnson et al. (2008)
    Writing New Mexico White
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Show all 7 →
  1. Sun (2006)
    The Triumph of Users: Achieving Cultural Usability Goals With User Localization
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  2. Wright (2005)
    Rhetorical spaces in memorial places: The cemetery as a rhetorical memory place/space
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
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CrossRef global citation count: 3 View in citation network →

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