Ivanka Radkova

Staff Technical Writer, VMware Bulgaria Ltd.

Ivanka has an MSc degree in Mathematics and Informatics at the Sofia University. Ivanka has been working as a Staff Technical Writer at VMware Bulgaria for more than 5 years. Ivanka used to be a freelance Web Developer with 15 years of experience.
At VMware Ivanka has been working on various projects, including the design and development of a visuals training program. Ivanka is passionate about reading, writing, and communicating. As a technical writer Ivanka enjoys making other’s life much easier and more productive by writing about complex features in a simple and easy to understand way.

All Sessions by Ivanka Radkova

  • May 25


  • 14:00  - 15:40
    In today's era of visual-rich content, technical documentation seems to be always catching up. You want to increase the visual effectiveness of your content and struggle to find the right trainings to meet your needs and improve your skills? Accept the challenge, take over the leadership, and develop the most effective visual training not only for you, but for the entire team. It's not easy, but it's fun!

    Highlights: We'll introduce the audience with how to create a training for visual effectiveness for their teams based on our own experience with creating such a training. This workshop provides both theoretical knowledge and practical exercises that will help you to effectively build and lead a team for developing visual training materials. The workshop consists of the following parts:
    Problem statement. The challenges most writers face when trying to increase the visual effectiveness of their content:
    - Technical writers experience difficulties to determine which types of visuals to implement for their content, as well as what is the optimal number and place for these visuals.
    - Most technical writers believe they don't have good design skills.
    - Lack of appropriate and comprehensive trainings for visual effectiveness specifically targeted at technical communicators.
    - Lack of knowledge about common design principles, tools, as well as unclear procedures and standards for implementing visuals in a doc set.
    - Lack of predefined graphic templates which the technical communicators can effectively use.
    The solution. Technical communications teams can create visual effectiveness trainings that address the specific needs of the writers and are aligned with the company's overall standards, strategy, and vision. We'll describe the process that teams can follow to create their own visuals training based on our experience:
    - Form a team and determine the training development process.
    - Determine the project objective, measurements, and possible threats.
    - Organize the work between the team members.
    - Create the first training draft.
    - Pilot project – organization, collecting, and implementing feedback.
    - Launch the training program.
    - Maintain the training program - conducting follow-up surveys to constantly improve the training program
    - Tips and tricks about how to lead the team toward success and keep their motivation strong. We'll also discuss ways to advertise your training.
    Fun facts during the project:
    - Ways to show appreciation and build the team - e-Card recognition
    - Creating a project horoscope
    - A personal gift surprise to show the leader's gratitude.

    Where
    Workshop Room

  • May 26


  • 14:05  - 14:50
    Creating and implementing more visuals in the technical documentation is no longer a matter of decoration. It is a necessity. Therefore, we not only write about complex features, but also create various graphics types. What are the best practices when creating graphics for your publication? There is a list of aspects you should consider making sure that your visual content is consistent and will improve the customers' experience.

    Highlights: The presentation will start with a problem statement including a discussion on the following areas that represent the technical communicators' pain points when creating graphics for their publications:
    Low number or even complete lack of visuals in a technical documentation due to:
    Technical communicators do not know where to start, what type of visuals to implement, and where is the most appropriate place in a document
    Lack of skills to create visual elements – which graphic tools to use and how to work with them
    Lack of knowledge about the common design principles
    Lack of visual consistency that leads to bad user experience with the documentation
    Various or inappropriate graphic tools being used when creating or updating visuals
    The second part of the presentation will focus on identifying the best practices when creating graphics as follows:
    Common design principles when creating diagrams – compositional flow, colors, shapes, font size, proportion of elements, whitespaces, alignment, proximity, arrows, legibility, and so on
    Attributes that each visual element should consist of – titles, labels, icons, and so on
    Ways to highlight important areas of a visual element
    Ways to determine the complexity of a diagram and represent it in the most appropriate manner
    The third and final part of the presentation will provide the audience with useful information about:
    - What to consider and what questions to ask yourself before your start creating visuals
    - Where and how to check whether the colors you use are compliant with the accessibility standards for people with sight impairment
    - Additional information about how the visual elements in your publication improve your documentation SEO

    Where
    Main Room




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Ivanka Radkova