Welcome
Growing up, I was always able to express myself most through my writing. But, it wasn’t until 2016 that I finally listened to my inner voice and challenged myself to become a technical writer. Thank goodness I did. These days, I’m fortunate to have translated this ability into a successful career.
I always strive to learn and develop my literary style and voice, approaching every challenge I come across as an experience to grow and develop as a technical writer. To find out more or to discuss a potential project, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
My goal as a technical writer is to bridge the gap between those who understand the technology and those who utilize it. My top goal has always been target audience analysis, followed by content accessibility, to achieve. Whether the result is an 80-page user manual or a two-line placard instruction, I meticulously investigate my target consumers to understand their purpose of contact with the content I generate.
Sridhar Murugan
simplifying complexity,
it's what I do.
The most popular answer when you ask a technical writer what they do is that they "simplify complexity." Technical writers find out user goals and create clear guidance about how users can achieve the goals in complex systems (supporting multiple activities, choices, functions, and information). The ability to simplify information in complex structures is the technical writer's most valuable asset.
However, despite all of the discussion about simplifying complexity, there isn't much information available about how to do it. How do you make complicated processes and definitions easy to understand? How do you assist users in achieving their objectives in the face of complex, confusing applications and code? It's a good start to explain concepts in plain language and to use task-based measures, but it's not the whole picture. Technical writers should focus on what users find difficult and use all of the resources at their disposal to increase the convenience factor in ways that bring real value to organizations.
The thought that my central value as a technical writer is to assist users in making sense of complex structures fascinates me. We should focus our efforts on the user's biggest issue because that's where we can provide the most value and also where the room is most interesting. We don't add value by recording plain, obvious instructions or by providing instructions for well-designed and intuitive interfaces and workflows. We add value by defining what users struggle with the most, their point of greatest difficulty and frustration, and then focusing our efforts on that whirlpool.
In the world of developer and API documentation, the job of simplifying complexity is much more challenging. Developers have a broader range of technological skills and knowledge than most technical authors. Despite this, technical writers can still help developers by simplifying knowledge in ways that are critical to their success.
I always believe that by learning the proper strategies and methods, we will be able to do a better job. In our positions, we will add more value. We will go beyond simply being seen as editors, authors, or publishers if we simplify ambiguity in deep ways. In information spaces, we become knowledge developers and usability experts.
Portfolio of Work
Past. Present. Future.