Customer-Centered Publications  

The ultimate goal of today's technical communicator is to provide customers with product information that is clear, concise, and easy to use. Our panel will explore strategies for achieving excellence in designing and developing task-oriented user education materials.

Burgess, Gloria J., Chris Dahl, and Margy Kotick. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>TC>User Centered Design

Customer-Supplier Relationships in the Writing Process  

Do you know your customers? They may be in the next office. The collection of people involved in the writing process need certain things from each other; they compose a contained group of customers and suppliers. In order to effectively produce documents, these internal customers and suppliers must recognize and meet each other’s needs. Evaluating the documentation process and determining how well all parties’ needs are met will promote teamwork as well as process improvements.

Ward, Brian. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Writing>User Centered Design

Defining Feature Sets Through Prototyping

Defining requirements and features can be a daunting task under the best of circumstances. The Vision Prototype allows the user-centered vision to be seen—and discussed—by all team members and then easily translated into a set of functional requirements.

Quinn, Laura S. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Articles>User Centered Design>Methods

Defining the Out-of-the-Box Experience: A Case Study  

We’ve all had an out-of-the-box experience – it’s what you go through when you buy a new software product, open up the box, and are faced with a plethora of cards, CDs, books, and other media. What do you do? Where do you start? Depending on the product and the audience, you might define the desired out-of-the-box experience differently. We’ll talk about how we defined the out-of-the-box experience for our product, given the goals and expectations for the product.

McMurtrey, Katherine. STC Proceedings (2001). Articles>User Centered Design

The Design and Development of a Project-Oriented Information System    

In this paper, the idea of building a project-oriented information system based upon a specialized information database was discussed. It attempts to provide tools for helping researchers use Internet resources effectively in the course of their research. Based on this idea, a web-based project-oriented information system was constructed. The paper systematically expounds the design and development process of the project-oriented information system. Furthermore, examples of utilizing the project-oriented information system to obtain useful information and suggestions for specific projects were described. According to our discussion and utilization of the system, we believe that building a project-oriented information system can help researchers with their research projects.

Zhao, Yuehong, Chao Liu, Hao Wen, Hezhen Zhang and Zhihong Xu. Data Science Journal (2003). Articles>Project Management>User Centered Design

Designing an Effective User Study  

When it comes to learning about your users, a plethora of methods await you. But which one is best for your situation? The answer depends on many factors, including the kind of information you hope to discover, the time and budget you have available, and your access to users.

Hammar, Molly and Dawn Stevens. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Usability>Methods>User Centered Design

Designing for Quality: Visual Devices for Behemoth Systems  

Two of the panelists present visual devices they have used with large, multifunction systems. These devices are effective in presenting information about large systems to users performing diverse tasks and having different levels of experience, and are powerful tools to help writers or developers learn the system. The third panelist shows how these tools are effective in designing for fitness for use—whether you are maintaining legacy software or designing new products.

Bibus, Connie M. 'C.J.', Jennifer Bown and William D. Gearhart. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>User Centered Design>Visual

Designing Intersection Flows

When forms give users the option to continue in two or more alternative directions, such as registering as a new customer or signing in as a returning one, unfortunate users will take the wrong turn if it isn't unmistakably obvious which way they should go. In this article, we'll take a look at a few intersection flows that have caused users problems.

Olsen, Henrik. GUUUI (2005). Articles>User Interface>User Centered Design>Workflow

Designing the User-Centered Process Model: A Case Study  

The case study involved the redesigning of NCR’s performance improvement model for developing information products, documentation, and training interventions for our customers. This process model, the Quality Information Products Process (QIPP) seeks to move information product developers away from an adversarial, compliance type model towards a quality improvement system that is grounded in the everyday practices of the users. The redesign effort was initiated during a review of the existing process as it related to a new corporate-wide product creation process which was recently implemented.

Kabel, Mary Ann. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>User Centered Design>Usability

Developing and Implementing Effective Web-Based Surveys  

In this paper we will report on the development and implementation of the first part of a two-part web-based survey distributed to a university population of over 20,000 faculty, staff and students. This large-scale project presented multiple operational, technical and design challenges. User-centered design was crucial to the successful development and deployment of the survey. This survey tool was used to explore the richness and potential value of web surveys motivated by a combination of a desire to improve both the survey-taking process and results-computing process. The objective of this research is to design and implement an effective Web survey tool, record user participation, determine the value of implementing a two-part survey over time (longitudinal), and to identify improvements for future web-based surveys. The benefit to the organization will be the identification of service areas in need of improvements and the ability to match satisfaction level with actual product/service costs.

Andrews, Susan and Susan Feinberg. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>User Centered Design>Methods>Surveys

Developing Customer-Driven Quality Measurements For Documents  

This paper serves as a description of the demonstration on developing customer-driven quality measurements for documents. Originally presented as a workshop at the 1993 STC Conference in Dallas, the content was modified based on participant evaluations. In addition, the format was changed to a demonstration session to allow for a more flexible presentation method based on participation and time constraints. The session will use as many hands-on exercises as possible to reinforce its objectives.

Fisher, Charles D., Jr. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>TC>Assessment>User Centered Design

Devil's Advocate

The problem with wearing the technical support hat, I discovered, is that it tends to slip over your ears. Over time, you stop hearing the shrill cries of the users you're supporting, then you stop listening so carefully, then you stop speaking the same language as they do. And since you're busy putting out fires all over the building, who has time to start listening again? Problem is, once you no longer empathize with 'them,' you forget that they've got their own unending stream of crises to deal with. But if you want to tame those devils, you're going to need to take the time to understand their needs as well as you understand your own, and find a solution that meets both sets of needs. More often than you'd suspect, the result is a win-win solution.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. TECHWR-L (1999). Articles>Usability>User Centered Design

Digital Libraries, Knowledge Networks, and Human-Centered Information Systems

One of the most dramatic changes in the ongoing information revolution is the rapid convergence of computing, communications and content industries. Digital content, especially in the form of large, distributed, heterogeneous collections of electronic objects - text, voice, images, graphics, video, and others - is fueling the growth of the computing and communications in each other. This paper discusses the role of digital libraries, and knowledge networks in general, in this process, in the context of human-centered information systems.

Chien, Y.T. ISRDP in Digital Libraries (1997). Articles>Publishing>Online>User Centered Design

Dimensions of Usability: Defining the Conversation, Driving the Process

Have you ever wondered if your colleagues or clients really understand usability? Too often, standards or guidelines substitute for really engaging our business, technical and design colleagues in a discussion of what usability means. By looking at usability from five dimensions, we can create a consensus around usability goals and use that definition to provide the basis for planning user centered design activities.

Quesenbery, Whitney. uiGarden (2006). Articles>Usability>User Centered Design

Dimensions of Usability: Defining the Conversation, Driving the Process  

Have you ever wondered if your colleagues or clients really understand usability? Too often, standards or guidelines substitute for really engaging our business, technical and design colleagues in a discussion of what usability means. By looking at usability from five dimensions, we can create a consensus around usability goals and use that definition to provide the basis for planning user centered design activities.

Quesenbery, Whitney. WQusability (2003). Articles>Usability>Consulting>User Centered Design

Do Students Really Feel Integrated With Computers?  

This paper reports the results of a survey of senior Business and Engineering majors conducted at the University of Cincinnati. The survey's goal was to examine whether or not students felt integrated with computers yet, since the technological trend is towards a human-computer interface.

Stibravy, John A. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>User Centered Design>Human Computer Interaction

Do Users Use a User Guide?  

Technical writers make distinctions between the types of documents they create: user guides, reference manuals, tutorials. But do users really understand these document types? How do users look for different kinds of information--and how do we, as technical writers, make it clear to them what types of information are available? This paper presents results of usability evaluations of documentation for electronic design automation software, showing how a writing team tried to improve the categorization and presentation of document types.

Heninger, Barbara L. and Michael J. Miller. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design>Genre

Do Your Manuals Put Children in Danger? A Survey of Juvenile Products Consumers  

What can manufacturers do to improve the readability of manuals that accompany juvenile products?

Manual Labour (2003). Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design>Children

Document Design: A Brief Primer  

Today's documentation must be designed with information retrieval as its key objective. When information is organized and mapped into a consistent, logical structure that uses retrievability aids such as labels that facilitate scanning, blocks of information, advance organizers for the information, keywords, meaningful indexes, and a hierarchical organization, readers can quickly locate and use the information that they need.

Flanders, Melanie G. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Documentation>Document Design>User Centered Design

Document to the Question: Understanding What Users Ask and Where They Look for the Answers  

The user's idea of the problem is often very different than the help or program designer's. The online help topics often reflect the designer's viewpoint, not the user's.

STC India (2003). Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design>Help

Driving Product Improvements through Customer Surveys: A Case Study  

IBM WebSphere Commerce is a software product that enables merchants to sell goods and services online. The user audience who has the task to understand the product complexities and build stores for the customers consists of store developers - a large group of users from external companies or within IBM. Conducting a survey to gather their feedback on store development proved to be a powerful method for understanding the various store development scenarios and identifying areas for product improvement. Some of the techniques that helped us create a successful customer survey involved using a multidisciplinary group to create the survey questions, tirelessly communicating the results, and following up on the issues.

Markova, Uliyana. STC Proceedings (2003). Articles>User Centered Design>Methods

Effective Control of Unanticipated On-Site Events: A Pragmatic, Human-Oriented Problem Solving Approach

Unanticipated events on building sites are inevitable. The frequency of unanticipated events is usually high due to the inherent complexity and dynamics of construction projects.

Magdic, Ales, Danijel Rebolj and Natasa Suman. ITcon (2005). Articles>Knowledge Management>User Centered Design

The Effects of Motivational Elements in User Instructions    

Should instructional texts be purely technical, with a focus on effectiveness and efficiency, or should they also focus on satisfying and motivating users? Good arguments have been made for paying attention to motivational aspects. But only analyses of existing instructions have been published so far, and guidelines for making user instructions motivational have not yet been studied carefully. This article presents motivational strategies and an experiment to test their effects. The results show that motivational elements have little effect on users’ effectiveness and efficiency in performing tasks, their product appreciation, and their self-efficacy, but they do increase users’ appreciation for the instructions.

Loorbach, N., Steehouder, M., Taal, E. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2006). Articles>Documentation>Rhetoric>User Centered Design

The Effects of Using Colored Paper to Boost Response-Rates to Surveys and Questionnaires    

Many people have speculated over the last 80 years or so about the possibilities of using colored paper to boost response-rates to surveys and questionnaires, and several studies have been carried out. Most of these enquiries report no significant effects from using colored paper, although there have been some exceptions. In this investigation we pooled together the results from all of the experimental studies known to us on the topic and we carried out a meta-analysis to see if there might be a positive effect for colored paper overall. The results indicated that this was not the case, for we found no significant differences between the response rates to white and to colored paper in general. However, when we considered separately the most common colors used, it appeared that pink paper had the greatest effect. "One of the first considerations [to obtain a high response-rate] is the color of paper used in mail questionnaires. United States government officials who are responsible for the mailing of several million questionnaires every year have definitely determined that yellow paper gives the highest percentage of returns, with pink next in effectiveness, while all dark colors give much smaller returns" [1, p. 142].

Hartley, James and Andrew Rutherford. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2003). Articles>Document Design>User Centered Design>Color