There was a time, in the not-too-distant past, when technical writing as a profession held a comfortable, well-established place in the development of products and software. At least, among mature organizations who understood the value that a technical writer brings to the process. Particularly in the software industry, technical writers could count on a fairly predictable routine that coincided with a development cycle that (usually) provided ample time to write 500-page user manuals, plus the online help topics.

Even when “agile” development processes came into vogue that condensed development cycles from months or years into weeks and largely dispensed with the 500-page manuals, the tech writers could keep up by insisting on being a part of the design/development/testing loop from the beginning. They could still provide the high-quality documentation and online help that users needed.

Then along came mobile.

The advent of the mobile platform, specifically smartphones and tablet computers, has changed the landscape (and not always for the better) for many industries and professions, from doctors and nurses to interior designers to taxi drivers. So too has mobile changed the software industry itself, with new ways to think about developing software, new channels for distribution, and new business models.

What affects the software industry affects technical writing too:

• Simpler apps reduce perceived need for user-assistance content. Because mobile platforms typically are less capable than their laptop and desktop counterparts, applications on these devices are typically much simpler, with smaller feature sets and less functionality than PC applications. Development teams who (usually erroneously) equate “simple” with “intuitive” believe there is less (or no) need for documentation of any kind.

• Small form factor affects user-assistance content delivery. Even where user documentation is recognized as a need, the small form factor severely constrains the way such content is delivered. Writing must be pared down to its minimal essence – no one wants to read a long explanation on a smartphone screen, and because the screen can typically display either the app interface or the user-assistance content, but not both, the content has to be written in a way that users will remember when they go back to the application. And, of course, in many cases it must still be translatable.

So, technical writers in the software industry must adapt if they expect to support mobile apps. The fundamentals haven’t changed: you still have to know your audience, understand the capabilities and limitations of the apps, and be an active participant on the development team. But you will need to adjust your writing style to get the maximum impact with minimal words. If you write like you’re being paid by the word, you won’t make it very far in mobile.

Morris Vaughan is a technical writing consultant in Los Angeles, California.