KISMIF: Editing Your Own Manuals for Increased Usability  

Writers who must edit their own manuals for ease of use can adopt three basic principles for doing so. The first principle, 'give the user a map,' helps users find information in an unfamiliar manual. The second, 'start from the user's viewpoint, ' presents information in the order the user needs it. The third principle, 'keep it simple,' puts complex data in simpler terms and formats.

Femia, Jean W. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Documentation>Usability

Know Your Audience and Their Needs

When putting together a web document, understand who your audience will be and what their needs and motivations are. Use this information to decide how to organize and present the information. You need to answer questions such as: How much time will they spend with this document? Will they read all of it? Do they want to be amused? What questions will they be asking of the document? Will they read different parts at different times? Will they use the document as reference material?

Bricklin, Dan. Good Documents (1998). Articles>Writing>Usability

Language and Usability

Usability is an important part of good technical communication. Many writers incorporate usability techniques such as site visits, user task analysis and usability testing into their work.

Quesenbery, Whitney. WQusability (2006). Articles>Language>Usability

Language and Usability

If usability is part of technical communication, language – the building block of technical communication – is an important part of the usability of a web site or software application. The better a product communicates, the more helpful it is, the easier it is to use.

Quesenbery, Whitney. IEEE PCS (2005). Articles>Usability>Writing

Learning from EPSS  

Users have goals when they use software applications. Their goal is NOT to 'use' the application. Their goal is to complete an activity or task using the application. Performance support is defined as providing users what they need to be successful in completing their activity or task when they need it – at the point of need. Technical communicators can benefit from incorporating performance support elements into their work, even if they are not creating a performance support system.

Rupel, Roberta A. STC Proceedings (2003). Articles>User Interface>Usability>EPSS

Learning from Games: Seven Principles of Effective Design    

Why do players of computer games seem to approach those applications without fear, eagerly exploring and learning as they go, while users of business applications will go out of their way to keep from using the tools? Why do business applications require volumes of documentation when the most complex games come with a brief tutorial and a strategy guide for exploration? Why can games teach pilots to fly multi-million-dollar jets better than books and classroom training? These questions have led us to ask another question: Why can’t business applications be more like games? In this article, we attempt to lay the ground work for future research by defining seven design principles found in games that we believe contribute to the creation of more usable applications.

Houser, Rob and Scott Deloach. Technical Communication Online (1998). Articles>Usability>Information Design>Games

Learning from the Work of Others

Rolf Molich has conducted two experiments comparing the work of different usability teams, examining their practices, and looking for patterns and differences. His experiments provide extremely valuable material for sharpening individual usability practices.

Schroeder, Will. User Interface Engineering (2002). Articles>Usability>Collaboration

Learning How to Use a Cellular Phone: Comparison Between German and Chinese Users    

The objective of this study was to investigate whether and how 'cultural standards' influence the use of typical daily products, e.g. a cellular phone. The goal was to provide insight for technical communicators who design information products for Chinese or German users. Hypotheses about differences in learning and information gathering strategies were derived from Chinese and German cultural standards. Methods used were focus groups, usability tests and a questionnaire. In focus groups, the question was raised about how cellular phone users had learned to use the phone. Four focus groups were held in each country (number of participants: China: n=26, Germany: n=24). A questionnaire was designed to provide additional information. During usability tests, the actual information searching behavior was recorded. Results indicate that the following cultural differences exist: The main source of information for Chinese is the sales clerk, whereas for Germans it is the conventional user manual.

Honold, Pia. Technical Communication Online (1999). Articles>Human Computer Interaction>Usability>International

A Lesson in Usability

Usability testing brings with it images of sterile usability testing labs...users grappling with tasks set out for them, unsure if the test measured their merits or those of the help system...and experts talking in hushed tones of 'cognitivism, constructivism, behaviourism and what-have-you-ism'. A close observation and accurate record of user interaction with the artifact to be tested, in a real-life environment, can often ascertain if the document was worth its screen captures and fonts by establishing the only fact that counts - Did it help or not? As a writer, who began my career in communication at an advertising agency, I have often used a few 'tricks-of-the-trade' routinely used by copywriters, (like emphasis on the word FREE in advertisements), with predictably happy results, from the 'user-perspective'.

Babu, Harini. Indus (2007). Articles>Usability

Lessons from the Novartis InfoWeb: Creating a Successful Knowledge Management System  

Discussion of a global knowledge management system created in Lotus Notes for Novartis Consumer Health.

Quesenbery, Whitney. WQusability (1999). Articles>Knowledge Management>Usability

Lessons Learned from Discount Usability Engineering for the Federal Government  

This case study presents lessons learned from usability engineering in a federal government setting. Technical communicators are becoming increasingly involved in usability issues but may face difficulties in addressing them. For example, producing web communications for the federal government presents special challenges, such as time and financial restraints, legal requirements, technical constraints, and an internal focus. Discount usability engineering helped the CDC address these challenges in developing an injury data web application. The lessons learned can help technical communicators advance usability as a priority in their workplaces and overcome constraints and challenges they face.

Pettit Jones, Colleen. STC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Usability>Government>Case Studies

Lessons Learned from Discount Usability Engineering for the U.S. Federal Government    

Presents a case history of implementing discount usability engineering in a U.S. federal government agency. Discusses the case history's implications for technical communicators who must implement Web communications in a restricted environment.

Pettit Jones, Colleen. Technical Communication Online (2003). Articles>Usability>Government

Lessons Learned from Usability Testing of the Documentation  

This presentation and demonstration will first establish the principles behind usability testing of the documentation, then show examples of lessons learned from testing both print and online documentation. Video clips of actual tests will be used to make some compelling points. The session will be especially useful to those who are interested in usability testing but haven't done it yet.

Barnum, Carol M. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Documentation>Usability>Testing

Lessons Learned from Usability Testing Web Pages  

This session brings you actual case studies and specific advice based on 'lessons learned' from usability tests of Web sites.

Redish, Janice C. 'Ginny', Janet R. Borggren, Meghan R. Ede and Laurie A. Roshak. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Web Design>Usability

Let's Get It Started!

STC communities have moved from trying to figure out how they will work in the new model to starting to make the kinds of fundamental changes and undertake initiatives that will build value for members. We are starting to understand how to 'play' within and succeed with our new rules. For UUX to undertake new initiatives, we need more members to volunteer.

Bachmann, Karen L. Usability Interface (2006). Articles>Usability>User Experience>Volunteering

Let's Learn How Not To Mess Up With Your Web Site Content

Every web site is conceived and designed keeping in view a particular purpose to serve. The aim of web site may vary: some web site intends to showcase products or services of the company it belongs to, some provides information to its target audience, or some just exposes its company on the web in a brand building exercise. This is to note that whatever be the nature of web site, web copy plays it own crucial role in furthering the interest of the site. It is imperative that web content is easy-to-read, easy-to-find, and easy-to-understand.

Azam, Rahbre. Insider Reports, The (2008). Articles>Web Design>Content Management>Usability

Let's Work Together

I’ve been working with a product development team for over a year and I think the world of them. Not only are they good at what they do, they are also concerned about creating a product which is both usable and technically robust. They are also serious about their process in which cross-functional teams work together on different parts of a large product. Recently when things got a little busy, we decided to invite another interface designer to help ease the workload. With a robust process and a good interface design, I didn’t think there would be much trouble to integrate a new designer. Imagine my surprise when one member of the group came to me in distress. It turned out that she had been walking the new person through all of the existing designs, showing her both the screen layouts and the analysis behind them. She said, 'As I showed her the prototypes, she kept asking questions. They were good questions, but I felt as though she had found every usability battle I had lost in the last six months.'

Quesenbery, Whitney. Usability Interface (2001). Articles>Usability

Link List Color on Intranets

Lists of links are an intermediate case between content-embedded links and menu items. Showing listed links in blue or in the site's main link color is the recommended design — and the one most intranets follow.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2008). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Color

The List of Reasons Ease of Use Doesn't Happen on Engineering Projects

For many projects ease of use is never a stated project goal. It may be an assumption among managers or developers that the project will result in something easy to use, but if it’s not a first order goal of the project, tradeoffs can never been made in favor of ease of use (and can implicitly be made against ease of use). Often the lack of a clear statement of ease of use occurs because the team managers or leaders are unfamiliar with how to make ease of use operational in the development process, and one way to avoid this issue is not to make it an explicit goal.

Berkun, Scott. ScottBerkun.com (2003). Articles>Usability>Engineering

List Provides Way for Developers to Reach Testers with Visual Impairment

A mailing list now connects users with visual impairments willing to act as testers and website developers concerned with accessibility.

Light, Ann. Usability News (2003). Articles>Usability>Accessibility

Listening to the Learners: A Case Study in Health Information Website Design  

An important mantra of user-centered design is to 'know thy user.' Accomplishing this requires one to decide what should be known about the user and how to gather the information. In this paper, we focus on the specific instance where the user is a learner. Specifically, we describe our efforts to listen to the learners of an information website, the Arthritis Source, and to act on this information.

Turns, Jennifer and Tracey S. Wagner. STC Proceedings (2002). Articles>User Centered Design>Scientific Communication>Usability

Little Machines: Understanding Users Understanding Interfaces    

This paper questions the ubiquitous practice of supplying minimalist information to users, of making that information functional only, of assuming that the Shannon-Weaver communication model should govern online systems, and of ignoring the social implications of such a stance. Help systems that provide fast, temporary solutions without providing any background information lead to the danger of users completing tasks that they do not understand at all. (Word will help us write a legal pleading, even if we have no idea what one is.) As a result, we have help systems that attempt to be invisible and to provide tool instruction but not conceptual instruction. Such a system presents itself as a neutral tool, but it is actually an incomplete environment, denying both the complexity and alternative (and possibly improved) modes of thinking about the subject at hand.

Johnson-Eilola, Johndan. Journal of Computer Documentation (2001). Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design>Usability

Localization. It's Big in Japan

How do you carry out usability research in a country where you don't speak the language and where the customs are very different from you own? How can you perform a study where you need to largely rely on an interpreter for communications between you and your participants? And most importantly, how do you translate research findings into a design that is culturally appropriate and yet in alignment with corporate directives?

Malcolm, Casey. Usability Professionals Association (2007). Articles>Usability>Localization>Japan

Long vs. Short Articles as Content Strategy

Information foraging shows how to calculate your content strategy's costs and benefits. A mixed diet that combines brief overviews and comprehensive coverage is often best.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2007). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Writing

Looking Forward to A New Year in Usability

A common theme in most stories is that introducing usability into a company, or even just into your own technical communication work, is often a long-term effort. In my own experience, my first effort to introduce usability at my then employer took almost two years to move from a few isolated activities and providing occasional design advice to interface developers into a fully recognized user interface design role.

Bachmann, Karen L. Usability Interface (2004). Articles>Usability>Planning