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Sean D. Williams, PhD, is Professor and Chair of the Technical Communication and Information Design  (TCID) department at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs. TCID is the only stand-alone technical communication department in Colorado, and currently partners with major companies on projects ranging from user experience design to cybersecurity research to designing professional development courses in engineering writing.

Sean’s research has taken many forms over the years, beginning with information architecture in complex web environments to social media in technology start-ups and user experience design for 3D virtual reality. Most recently, his work focuses on user experience design in environmental communication, where his central focus is understanding how best to communicate science to drive personal conservation behaviors and public policy changes. His new book, Technical Communication for Environmental Action, (SUNY Press) due out in fall of 2022 investigates this question in detail and presents essays from 12 notable scholars who write about the intersections of environmental communication, science, and social justice.

In addition to his work in the academic sector, Sean has been a founder or co-founder of four technology start-up companies, and he has consulted extensively with industry clients on a range of projects that include electronic health care records, intranet redesign, corporate training design, and usability assessments of mobile cybersecurity software. 

In this episode of Room 42 we discuss Sean’s recent research with water companies to describe the critical role that technical communication can play for environmental action and how technical communication might work at the edge of marketing, public relations and science communication. He will also reflect on recent advances in technical communication that connect issues of social justice and environmental justice, specifically with respect to how we use, allocate, and access water.

For transcript, links, and show notes: https://tccamp.org/episodes/how-technical-communication-can-impact-climate-change/