We conducted an exploratory study to test the delivery of technical instructions built on the principles of minimalism. The aim was to investigate how we could support target users’ skill levels in a context-sensitive manner. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Literature review:</b> Related work examines minimalism, user needs and profiling, and industrial maintenance and technician experience. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Research questions:</b> 1. How can the semantic structure of DITA XML be utilized in delivering technical information to users based on their skill levels? 2. How would a layered system of information support the principles of minimalism? <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Methodology:</b> We created material and tested the concept in user studies with maintenance personnel in three countries. We collected feedback through participant observation, interviews, and questionnaires. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Results and discussion:</b> The minimalist approach of delivering information to maintenance technicians was well received and supported users with varying skill levels. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Conclusion:</b> The context-sensitive level of expertise concept empowers users to decide on the depth of technical information that they require to complete the task at hand. The semantic structure of DITA XML works well in the delivery of technical information to the users based on their skill levels. Many of the key principles of minimalism are applicable to hardware maintenance instructions.

Major trends, such as outsourcing and offshoring, and field-specific factors, such as the advent of content management systems, have fundamentally changed technical communication in recent years. These changes have been widely discussed in the literature of the field, and this article traces their impact on technical communicators in Finland, a high-cost country where downturns in the export industry and the downsizing of major employers are currently coinciding. Through the framework of activity theory, the article looks at the historical changes in the industry as sources of tension and contradictions that need to be understood in order to support professionals in the industry. With the help of interview data, the authors explore the tensions experienced by technical communication professionals in the face of such changes. This analysis leads to the formulation of a hypothesis of historical contradictions currently at play in the field of technical communication. Developmental potentials stemming from these contradictions are outlined as potential ways forward for technical communicators who notice similar tensions in their own environments.