#14691
The Undervaluation of Writing Expertise 
Main argues that technical writing departments should value writing expertise more than tool experience when evaluating job candidates.
Main, Michael D. Intercom (2001). Articles>Writing>Assessment
#19095
Untangling a Jigsaw Puzzle: The Place for Assessment in Program Development 
Assessment has long been a topic of conversation among technical communication teachers and program coordinators. Much has been written about how we assess and respond to work students do in our classrooms. We have also discussed methods to assess programs in technical and scientific communication (TSC). In fact, CPTSC offers a comprehensive self-study and program review. The purpose of the review 'is to help develop strong programs. . . not to compare or rank programs, and not to establish certification for programs or their graduates.' Of course, a focus on developing strong programs rather than ranking programs is an appropriate focus for an organization such as CPTSC.
Munger, Roger H. CPTSC Proceedings (2000). Academic>Education>Assessment
#20988
Changing needs means Web visitors need to have their interest profile updated.
Allen, Cliff. Allen.com (2003). Design>Web Design>Assessment
#19213
Usability and Gratifications -- Towards a Website Analysis Model 
This paper discusses website usability issues. Specifically, it assumes that the usability of a website depends more on the perception of the user than on the objectively assessable usability criteria of the website. Two pilot studies, based on theoretical notions of uses and gratifications theory and similar theories, are presented. In the first study, experts evaluated three websites on the national park Mesa Verde in a more formal approach based on criteria defined in the literature. In the second study, non-experts evaluated the same three websites in a more informal and personal approach, using concurrent, or “thinking aloud,” verbal protocol methods. Results show that overall assessment of the websites differs between experts and non-experts. Specifically, overall the website assessed as worst by the experts was liked most by the non-experts. Cognitive and emotional needs as defined by uses and gratifications seemed to make more of a difference with regard to website use, and less with regard to website evaluation. Results from these studies provide the basis for a user-centered website analysis model that may make use of but not depend on usability criteria defined by the literature.
Bunz, Ulla K. Rutgers University (2001). Articles>Web Design>Assessment>Usability
#30288
Usability Assessment: Coming In On The Ground Floor
Technical communicators possess some of the most critical skills and education backgrounds necessary for assessing usability issues. And they have a tremendous advantage over many human factors professionals--they can communicate clearly, concisely, and effectively. In this panel, three usability specialists discuss how technical communicators can use their skills to add usability assessment to their documentation processes, while working within existing organizational and budgetary constraints.
Corgan, Tiffany, Renee Getter and Janice S. James. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Usability>Assessment
#14883
Usability Is Next to Profitability
Throughout Corporate America, chief information officers have tightened their budgets. No pennies can be wasted -- especially on software that requires lengthy and expensive training to use. Nor is the only goal of usability testing to help customers save money. Software suppliers are benefiting, too, because by paying more attention to usability, they often catch mistakes that otherwise would make it into the final product. Two decades after Apple Computer revolutionized PC software with its intuitive, easy-to-use designs, dozens of top tech companies are finally getting serious about usability.
Black, Jane. BusinessWeek (2002). Articles>Usability>Assessment
#14513
The Use Of Computerized Readability Formulas: Bane Or Blessing?
A survey of 39 communicators in high-tech industries reveals low use of computerized readability formulas. Both technical and business communicators find current measures ill suited for the process or product of technical writing.
Shehadeh, Carol M. El. and Judith B. Strother. STC Proceedings (1994). Presentations>Writing>Assessment>Formulas
#25717
User Experience Accountability: Assessing Your Impact on Business Results
So often, user-experience designers are held accountable for process objectives. A successful project is one that meets budgets, deadlines, and specifications. There's a problem with measuring success this way-process-objective metrics don't really tell you how good you are at developing a strong user experience, only whether you completed the job specifications efficiently.
Hirsch, Scott. Adaptive Path (2003). Design>User Experience>Assessment
#30839
Using a Client Memo to Assess Critical Thinking of Finance Majors 
This article describes a holistic, discourse-based method for assessing the critical thinking skills of undergraduate senior-level finance majors. Rejecting a psychometric assessment approach in which component features of critical thinking are disaggregated, this study is based on a holistic scoring of student memos. Students were asked to recommend and justify a course of action to a lay client facing an ill-structured finance problem. Analysis of student memos reveals critical thinking weaknesses that may be ameliorated by changes in assignments or instructional methods. The memos reveal four kinds of critical thinking problems: (a) failure to address the client's problem, (b) random rather than purposeful application of finance tools and methodologies, (c) inability to translate finance concepts or methods into lay language, and (d) inability to construct rhetorically useful graphics. The curricular implications of this study are discussed.
Carrithers, David and John C. Bean. Business Communication Quarterly (2008). Articles>Education>Business Communication>Assessment
#30610
Using a Database as a Feedback Mechanism
The success of any technical document depends on the reliability of information presented in the document. A database can provide an informal mechanism for exchanging information about product development and support, The database system should have a user interface that is easy to use and does not require too many operations. Factors that must be addressed in the design, testing, and implementation of the database include the type of information, ownership, system maintenance, access control, and system development tools. Writers, who have special expertise in information gathering, can take the initiative and build support for the project.
Govindan, Anumarla and Nancy E. Jacobs. STC Proceedings (1993). Design>Documentation>Assessment>Databases
#24276
Using a Plain Language Assessment Tool to Improve Business Communication
Our company has been involved in a joint public/private sector initiative to bring the benefits of plain language campaigns to business communication. For the project we developed a plain language assessment tool that identifies problem documents, estimates costs associated with poor documents, analyzes their usability, profiles their authors and readers, and helps create action plans for improvement. Two organizations have run pilot projects with the assessment tool, and we did follow up research on them and on some organizations that were exposed to the tool in a workshop setting. The tool is an effective vehicle for improving business documents and performance.
Mierau, Maurice. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Business Communication>Assessment>Minimalism
#31995
Using Calculators for User Engagement
Calculators can play important roles on websites. They are especially popular for financial sites, where they can help users calculate mortgage payments, retirement needs, interest earned, and so on. They also appear on other sites, where users can calculate things as varied as their BMI (body mass index), carbon footprint, life expectancy, or gas mileage.
Zhou, Yun and Cliff Anderson. Usability Professionals Association (2008). Articles>Usability>Assessment>User Centered Design
#29088
Using Corporate-Based Methods to Assess Technical Communication Programs
Assessment continues to be an important issue for technical communicators in both practitioner and academic contexts. In this article, we investigate methods of program assessment used by corporate learning sites and we profile value add methods as a new way to both construct and evaluate academic programs in technical communication. Our goal is to introduce value added assessment methods as one way to supplement and expand current methods of program assessment. The article initially reviews Return on Investment (ROI) indicators as a widely used model for assessing programs. However, we are critical of these indicators, suggesting that they are biased against technical communication in both practitioner and academic contexts. The article then examines and critiques assessment methods from corporate training environments. These include methods employed by corporate universities and value added process-based assessment methods. The second half of the article profiles value added methods by applying them in a brief assessment of a technical communications certificate program. We conclude that while the program uses ROI indicators as a marketing device, the value the program brings and adds to its university is the "portal" it creates for university and business community collaboration. This value cannot be fully demonstrated solely through the use of ROI indicators. The article then discusses the kinds of programmatic negotiations value added processes require within university contexts that may impose non-value added activities on departments and programs. The article concludes by critically examining the appropriateness of corporate assessment methods for academic contexts.
Faber, Brenton D., Linn Bekins and Bill Karis. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2002). Articles>Education>Assessment
#29099
Using New Technology to Assess the Academic Writing Styles of Male and Female Pairs and Individuals
Background: Previous research suggests that there are advantages to writing in groups or in pairs compared with writing individually, and that men write differently from women. However, as far as we know, no one has yet used new technology to assess published academic articles written in these different modes. Method: We assembled 80 papers from recent issues of the Journal of Educational Psychology as follows: 21 authored by individual men, 21 by individual women, 19 by pairs of men, and 19 by pairs of women. We then used two computer-based measures to assess various textual features of the Abstracts, the Introductions, and the Discussion sections of these 80 papers. Results: Several differences were found between these various parts of the journal articles (e.g., the Discussions were more readable than the Introductions and these in turn were more readable than the Abstracts). However, there were few differences between the writing of pairs or individuals, or between that of men and women. Conclusions: There was no real evidence to support the notion that writing in pairs would lead to better quality articles or that there would be differences between the readability of papers produced by men and women. Such differences may occur, however, before peer review.
Hartley, James, James W. Pennebaker and Claire Fox. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2003). Articles>Writing>Assessment>Gender
#13916
Using Portfolios to Evaluate Service Courses as Part of an Engineering Writing Program
Assessing the efficacy of technical communication service courses is a complex task, yet it is a task that service course providers should embrace as an opportunity to learn more about student and faculty needs and to update and improve curricula. This assessment has become more immediate for many educators because of ABET 2000 (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology), a comprehensive revamping of the way engineering programs are accredited. ABET 2000 criteria require that engineering programs provide evidence of the efficacy of all instruction, including communication. When the new ABET criteria were released, we had already begun a comprehensive evaluation of not only our service courses but also the total writing experience of engineering students at the University of Washington. This paper gives a theoretical rationale for a portfolio evaluation project and describes a directly applicable structure and procedure for such a project.
Scott, Cathie and Carolyn Plumb. Technical Communication Quarterly (1999). Articles>Education>Engineering>Assessment
#29704
Using Scenarios for the Evaluation of Municipal Web Sites
It appears to be difficult for experts to predict the problems users of documents and websites experience. Realistic usage scenarios may help experts to achieve better prediction rates, since they focus the experts' attention explicitly on the users and their use situations. We developed a set of scenarios for evaluating municipal websites, and used them to evaluate 15 websites. In this paper, we will describe the scenario evaluation method, and the feedback it helps to provide. The results suggest that a scenario-based evaluation method may be a fruitful way of enhancing experts' sensitivity for detecting user problems. open, except for the instruction to concentrate on potential reader problems.
de Jong, Menno D.T. and Leo R. Lentz. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Web Design>Assessment>Government
#29746
Using Scenarios to Select a CMS
Scenarios are narrative descriptions or stories that concisely outline how something will work in practice. In the context of a content management system (CMS) project, scenarios are a very effective way of documenting key CMS requirements, and they complement the formal lists of functional requirements typically found in tender documents.
Robertson, James. Step Two (2007). Articles>Content Management>Assessment
#13803
Using Usability Testing to Determine "Related Links" in An Online Brokerage Web Site
In content-rich web sites, success is defined by the user's ability to locate relevant content quickly and efficiently. To achieve such success, information architects and usability specialists direct their efforts towards developing intuitive and well-organized navigation structures to support user content search tasks. However, the rich content of the site may lend itself to more than a single navigation scheme that might satisfy the navigation demands of the site. In such cases, to decide on the best approach, usability tests are conducted. Observing users navigating through the site provides the critical information needed to finalize the information structure of the site. We used this technique to redesign the navigation of the www.harrisdirect.com web site, an online brokerage web site. This site is very rich in content. In addition to online trading, the site allows users access to a multitude of news, investment research, market research and educational content resources. The inherent inter-relationships of this content enabled us to further improve on the final navigation design by introducing related links in a manner that was derived from the usability test.
Vasmatzidis, Ioannis, Eliot Jablonka and Hsin Eu. Usability Professionals Association (2002). Design>Usability>Assessment
#21268
Using Wellness Assessment in Career Planning
Wellness assessment provides a means of adding balance to our lives. When approached from an occupational perspective, wellness is a useful tool in career planning and skill assessment. A basic understanding of wellness can provide the foundation for helping technical communicators better define their career options.
Stertzbach, Lori A. and Sharlyn A. Dimick. STC Proceedings (1997). Careers>TC>Assessment
#26773
We aren't yet on web 2.0, or internet 2.0, or computing 2.0. This is a dynamic change that will continue to happen whether or not we apply version numbers. The mass of netizens has triggered the implementation of web based applications, not a developer meeting that decided on the version change.
List Apart, A (2006). Design>Web Design>Assessment
#26774
What I love about the Web is everything: the good, the bad and the ugly.
List Apart, A (2006). Design>Web Design>Assessment
#14696
The Value Added by Technical Communicators
Edelman lists several arguments technical communicators can use to specify the value they add to an organization.
Edelman, Mark. Intercom (2001). Careers>Workplace>Assessment
#18550
Recently on INDEX-L, the indexer’s listserv, there was a thread on quotes about the value of indexing. See the article for some select examples.
Brown, Fred. Allegro Time! (2001). Articles>Indexing>Assessment
#24001
Why an awareness of good design has increased at such a dramatic rate in recent months.
Zambito, Tony. Cooper Interaction Design (2001). Design>User Interface>Assessment
#23014
WAVE is a free web accessibility evaluation tool provided by WebAIM. It is used to aid humans in the web accessibility evaluation process. Rather than providing a complex technical report, WAVE shows the original web page with embedded icons and indicators that reveal the accessibility of that page.
