Communicating the Results of Field Studies to Support Usable Design  

When you have completed the study, analyzed the data, and organized the interpretations and conclusions along with supporting data, you have to communicate the results to the people who need to know about them. How you communicate the results depends upon who the intended audience is, content needs of the audience, and the scope of the content. Increasing the odds of this information being used in the design process requires an understanding of the company's culture and the barriers limiting its use in the development process. Various strategies such as computer-slide presentations, reference notebooks, bound reports, and memos have been shown to be very effective in various circumstances.

Carlevato, Denise, Judith A. Ramey and Erin Leanne Schulz. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Usability>TC>Reports

Issues and Questions on Usability Testing: An Open Discussion Session  

Many technical communicators are assuming new roles as usability specialists or are doing user analysis, task analysis, and usability testing for their own documents. Many others would like to start disability testing. In this open discussion session, you can ask questions and share experiences with a panel of four technical communicators/usability specialists and with other conference attendees.

Hackos, JoAnn T., Janice S. James, Janice C. 'Ginny' Redish and Chauncey E. Wilson. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Usability>TC

Kindred Spirits? Usability Practitioners and Technical Communicators

Technical communicators and usability practitioners are not simply kindred spirits--they are the same spirit: the spirit of communication.

Keirnan, Timothy. Usability Interface (2006). Articles>TC>Usability

Quantum Leaps  

The presenter describes a long series of technological assistive devices she has used to overcome a double disability--—blindness and deafness—--over the past 30 years in pursuing a highly successful career in technical communication. She also demonstrates the equipment and shows how it makes it possible for her to do her job.

Hogg, Maureen. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>TC>Accessibility>Universal Usability

Research-Based Observations

Every year since 1983, I have reviewed (and summarized) most of the usability-related research literature that was published during the previous year. This has provided the basis for the popular, annual 3-day User Interface Update course. My annual two-month read and review activity provides me with a number of research-based insights into 'what works' and 'what does not work' in usability. I have listed some of these insights below.

Bailey, Robert. Human Factors International (2001). Articles>Usability>TC

Review: STC Technical Communication Summit, Usability Track

The best part of my experience at the STC Summit was meeting people who, like me, are craving information on the trends of which we are such a large part--such as Web 2.0, user-centered design, and new software tools. For the most part, I got the information I craved. As a technical writer who is professionally heading deep into usability and user interface (UI) design, I actually went to the conference for the usability certificate program.

Marlett, Stacia. UXmatters (2007). Articles>Reviews>TC>Usability

Technical Communicators as Purveyors of Common Sense    

In this article I argue that technical communicators are in the position to foster users' commonsense understanding of products. The notion that technical communicators can increase the common sense of users is absent in the field of technical communication literature. Reasons for not recognizing the legitimacy of common sense range from its unexamined nature to a belief that it cannot be taught. After discussing different definitions of common sense, I suggest that including scenarios, common metaphors, and language that promotes procedural knowledge in product information can strengthen users' commonsense understanding of the products they use. Moreover, in failing to make use of commonsense appeals, technical communicators are ignoring a sound persuasive strategy.

Praetorius, Pete. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2002). Articles>TC>Usability>Rhetoric

Usability for Everyone

Both technical communicators and usability professionals share an interest in how easily someone can use technical information. How efficiently does the writer help the reader glean the meaning of technical text? Is the experience of acquiring information satisfying or difficult?

Harvey, Michael. Usability Interface (2008). Articles>Usability>TC

Usability Metrics: Drawing Borders Ourselves  

Two borders that are very important in a primarily undergraduate Technical Communication program are the theory/practice borders we face vis-à-vis our students, and vis-à-vis the practitioners who hire our students.

Benninghoff, Steve. CPTSC Proceedings (2003). Articles>TC>Usability>Theory

Usability: Lighting the Path to the Future of Technical Communication

The future of Technical Communication is something that we are all, as either practitioners, academics or students, keenly interested in. What is the future of our chosen discipline? What exactly is it that a practitioner in the field does today? This paper will explain that through examining one sub-discipline of Technical Communication, Usability, we may see an example of the beginnings of a pattern of professional development.

Torrence, Anthony. Orange Journal, The (2003). Articles>TC>Professionalism>Usability

Why Technical Communicators and Usability?

Why technical communicators and usability? Both writers and software development managers have asked me that question. In both cases, it springs from a narrow view of communicators as 'just writers.' It is a point of view that fails to see the many activities, from learning the subject matter to organizing the information or creating good document design, that are hidden behind that final task of writing the words.

Quesenbery, Whitney. STC Usability SIG (2000). Articles>TC>Document Design>Usability