Structuring and Evaluating Scitech Communications    

The basis for effective scitech communications is formed by: focusing on the needs of the audience; structuring the substantive and language content accordingly; concentrating on accuracy, clarity and brevity; meeting logical requirements; and presenting in a communicative style and layout, including the use of visuals. In many scitech communications, the Appendix is the right place for detail not of immediate interest to most readers; this option is grossly under-utilized.

Mandersloot, Wim G. B. and Clive G. Bruckmann. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2000). Articles>Scientific Communication>TC>Assessment

Success Rate: The Simplest Usability Metric

In addition to being expensive, collecting usability metrics interferes with the goal of gathering qualitative insights to drive design decisions. As a compromise, you can measure users' ability to complete tasks. Success rates are easy to understand and represent usability's bottom line.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2001). Articles>Usability>Assessment

A Syntactic Approach To Readability    

Focusing on the issue of readability, this article examines problems that readability formulas present to the technical communicator, especially in terms of interaction with government agencies, and focuses on readability formula requirements mandated by The Office of Health and Industry programs [OHIP] for medical technology product support literature. Because the Flesch Reading Ease and the Flesch-Kincaid formulas are widely available, they are probably the ones most frequently used. Contemporary readability scholars have overlooked the Golub Syntactic Density Formula, which evaluates prose according to a sentence's syntax at a deeper level than the number of words per sentence and the number of syllables per word. The authors recommend it as a tool for evaluating readability. How it might be applied with current computer applications is discussed.

Giles, Timothy D. and Brian Still. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2005). Articles>Writing>Assessment>Rhetoric

System Usability Scale and Non-Native English Speakers  

The System Usability Scale (SUS) was administered verbally to native English and non-native English speakers for several internally deployed applications. It was found that a significant proportion of non-native English speakers failed to understand the word 'cumbersome' in Item 8 of the SUS (that is, 'I found the system to be very cumbersome to use.') This finding has implications for reliability and validity when the questionnaire is distributed electronically in multinational usability efforts.

Finstad, Kraig. Journal of Usability Studies (2006). Articles>Usability>Assessment>Methods

Teaming Up to Define Your Users  

Demonstrates how technical communicators can be leaders in the effort to create thorough descriptions of a product's users.

Filippo, Elizabeth G. Intercom (2002). Design>User Centered Design>Assessment>Personas

Technical Communication, Engineering, and ABET's Engineering Criteria 2000: What Lies Ahead?    

The tools engineers use have changed so dramatically over the past 30 years, universities and colleges have adapted by offering their engineering students classes in the latest technologies so they are better prepared to enter the engineering workplace. Engineers often feel less prepared, however, for the nontechnical demands of their jobs. They may possess the technical skills necessary to solve a machine problem in a manufacturing line but feel less prepared to tell the owners of the line what needs to be changed and why. As a result, industry and business have complained to universities and colleges (and particularly to engineering programs) that engineering students are not ready to take on the nontechnical challenges of modern engineering work. And because engineering programs rely on industry and businesses to hire their students, they have taken these demands seriously.

Williams, Julia M. Technical Communication Online (2002). Academic>Education>Engineering>Assessment

Technical Communications and Customer Support: Partnering to Publish What Customers Want to Know  

Most customers do not provide direct feedback on product documentation. Instead, when documentation fails to provide the information that a customer needs to use a tool effectively, he or she calls Customer Support for advice. To find out what information was missing or incorrect in our product documentation, I analyzed the Cadence Customer Support call logs that pertained to my products to find out what questions customers ask most about each product. I then partnered with teams of applications engineers (AEs) to improve our documentation by answering common questions, both on the Web in FAQ documents and in product manuals.

Guglielmetti, Krista. STC Proceedings (2000). Presentations>Documentation>Assessment>FAQ

Techno-Experiential Design Assessment  

Techno-Experiential Design Assessment (TEDA) is a method for systematically studying the effects of a specific technology or service on user experience and identify the opportunities and constraints for design.

Hsieh, Angie, Ryan Semeniuk, Dan Schick and Roman Onufrijchuk. University of Alberta (2003). Articles>Technology>Assessment

Ten Problems With Single Sourcing  

Though there have been numerous conference papers, articles, and books devoted to the topic of single sourcing, there have been fewer works about potential problems that should be identified before adopting a single-source documentation strategy. This study looks at ten specific problems (including issues of training, productivity, and morale) that can arise during the implementation of a mature single-sourcing model of documentation management. This list of problems, while not comprehensive, does provide some points of reference and a framework within which technical communicators can consider the implications of adopting a single-sourcing documentation model.

Yeats, Dave and Heather Hull. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing>Assessment

Ten Tips for Effective Performance Appraisals

Well-written performance appraisals are among the most effective tools for managing by objective and for developing people. Use these 10 Tips for Effective Performance Appraisals to significantly increase your team's effectiveness and perceived value within your organization.

ULiveandLearn.com (2005). Careers>Management>Assessment

Ten Usability Heuristics

A collection of ten heuristics applicable to most usability evaluations. Nielsen originally developed the heuristics for heuristic evaluation in collaboration with Rolf Molich in 1990.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1994). Articles>Usability>Assessment

Ten Ways to Engage Online Learners  

Online courseware is being simultaneously hailed and criticized by experts and learners. We're succeeding in delivery and accessibility, but failing in interactivity and interest. What makes online courseware work? This article looks at how online course authors engage their audiences. What kinds of interactivity are successful in Web-based courses? This article reviews strategies for pulling learners into scenarios, encouraging experimentation, and using gaming techniques in e-learning. This article also glimpses into the world of m-learning on a handheld device.

Grissino, Ann-Marie and Harman Singh. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Education>Online>Assessment

Tenure and Promotion: Should You Publish in Electronic Journals?  

The rapid growth of information and communication technology since the early 1990s has greatly influenced the accessibility of information on a global level and also has played a critical role in restructuring the mechanisms by which specialized academic knowledge is validated, distributed, and made available to consumers. The primary mechanism for validation and distribution of academic knowledge is that of peer-reviewed publication, and it is this mechanism and its intersection with Internet-based electronic publishing that constitute the focus of this study of attitudes toward scholarship presented in electronic formats.

Sweeney, Aldrin E. Journal of Electronic Publishing (2000). Academic>Publishing>Assessment

Testing the Visual Consistency of Web Sites    

Consistency in the visual appearance of Web pages is often checked by experts, such as designers or reviewers. This article reports a card sort study conducted to determine whether users rather than experts could distinguish visual (in-)consistency in Web elements and pages. The users proved to agree on the elements and pages that were consistent, even when they demonstrated different approaches in describing why elements or pages belonged together. Color, background, and font proved to be the main visual cues that users paid attention to. Card sorting with visual elements is not only a suitable tool for testing visual consistency, but also offers new ways to investigate the effects of particular visual elements of Web sites.

van der Geest, Thea and Nicole Loorbach. Technical Communication Online (2005). Design>Web Design>Assessment

Text-Based Document Testing  

Probably the most common type of document testing in the workplace is text-based. Text-based testing is common because it’s cheap and easy—with current word processors, running a test is as simple as selecting “Grammar” from the “Tools” menu in Microsoft Word or WordPerfect (6.0 or later). Text-based testing is very efficient at catching spelling errors (although it doesn’t catch homonyms, like accidentally substituting “threw” for “through”) and some grammatical mistakes. However, such testing doesn’t take into account visuals, forecasting, design, or other elements that have a great deal to do with a document’s usability. For this exercise, you will explore the plusses and minuses of text-based testing by working with a small group of classmates to test and revise a short but complex document. You will then compare your improved document to that of other groups and discuss the value of text-based testing.

Burnett, Rebecca E. Thomson (2001). Academic>Course Materials>Editing>Assessment

Thank You, Thank You! Or: How External Reviewers Help Out

Conversations about assessment for technical communication programs often focus on evaluating features internally, through means such as course evaluations and portfolio reviews.

Rehling, Louise. CPTSC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Education>Assessment

Three Worlds of Online Education: Evaluation of Commercial Courses  

Courses delivered over the World Wide Web, are an important element in today’s training programs. You can evaluate them by analyzing their content, handling of audience, interactivity, and cost.

Murphy, Avon J. STC Proceedings (2001). Articles>Education>Online>Assessment

Time Well Spent: The Magazine Publishing Industry's Online Niche    

This article compares the uses of the print and online versions of the same magazine by its readership. Combining surveys of the readership and commercial data from the publisher and web designer, the study examines how one magazine has developed an online publication for its readers. Group Leisure is a niche magazine which has been in print for over a decade and online for two years. This article analyses the usage of the magazine in terms of age, gender and modal occupation of its readers and examines how their understanding of spending and saving time on the magazine underpins their perceptions of its value. The results and conclusions of this research have relevance to the publishing industry and to the study of online journalism.

Ingham, Deena and Alexis Weedon. Convergence (2008). Articles>Publishing>Online>Assessment

Top Ten Mistakes When Selecting a CMS

Selecting a content management system (CMS) can be a complex task, and organizations often run into pitfalls with processes, politics, and understanding the CMS environment. James Robertson outlines a common-sense approach to avoiding the most common mistakes.

Robertson, James. IdealWare (2007). Articles>Content Management>Assessment

Total Cost of Adoption: A Framework for Evaluating Content Management Solutions  

Total Cost of Adoption is the missing link to forecasting and maximizing return on investment.

Holst, Sebastian. Gilbane Report (2004). Articles>Content Management>Assessment

Toward an Informed Citizenry: Readability Formulas as Cultural Artifacts    

After World War II, the United States government and citizenry were concerned with truth, propaganda, democracy, and national security as they entered the Cold War era. This was a time when technocrats, engineers, and scientists could lead our free-world government through the perils of our tense relationships with Russia, Red China, and Korea. In the early 1940s, Rudolf Flesch began developing what he termed a "scientific rhetoric" to help writers of functional documents more effectively communicate technical information to a general public. He came up with a readability formula to help writers evaluate whether their writing was effective and this readability formula has profoundly shaped notions of "clear writing" for the last 60 years. This article explores Flesch's development of this readability formula, placing his work in a historical context, as well as discussing how the readability formula fit into a larger project to make effective writing more of a science than an art.

Longo, Bernadette. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2004). Articles>Writing>Assessment>Formulas

Traffic Log Patterns

The relative popularity of a site's pages, the number of visitors referred by other sites, and the traffic from search queries continue to follow a Zipf distribution.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2006). Articles>Web Design>Assessment>Log Analysis

Understanding Risk: Informing Decisions in a Democratic Society

Understanding Risk addresses a central dilemma of risk decisionmaking in a democracy: detailed scientific and technical information is essential for making decisions, but the people who make and live with those decisions are not scientists. The key task of risk characterization is to provide needed and appropriate information to decisionmakers and the public. This important new volume illustrates that making risks understandable to the public involves much more than translating scientific knowledge. The volume also draws conclusions about what society should expect from risk characterization and offers clear guidelines and principles for informing the wide variety of risk decisions that face our increasingly technological society.

Stern, Paul C. and Harvey V. Fineberg, Eds. National Academies Press (1996). Books>Risk Communication>Assessment

Understanding the Need for Content Quality Management

An interview with Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler that's both a bit controversial and inspiring that looks at how good content quality management can be a great benefit for tech pubs departments.

Wieland, Diane. Writing Assistance (2006). Articles>Interviews>Content Management>Assessment