Social and Cognitive Effects of Professional Communication on Software Usability      

We designed and piloted a technical communication course for software engineering majors to take concurrently with their capstone project course in software design. In the pilot, one third of the capstone design course students jointly enrolled in the writing class. One goal of the collaborative courses was to use writing to improve the usability of students' software. We studied the effects of writing on students' user-centered beliefs and design practices and on the usability of their product, using surveys, document analyses, expert reviews, and user test results. When possible, we compared the usability processes and products of teams who did and did not take the writing class. Our findings suggest that the synergy of this interdisciplinary approach effectively sensitized students to user-centered design, instilled in them a commitment to it, and helped them develop usable products.

Mirel, Barbara E. and Leslie A. Olsen. Technical Communication Quarterly (1998). Design>Software>Usability>Rhetoric

Usability in Software Development

Usability does not begin and end with the web. In fact, long before the Internet was a gleam in the Pentagon's eye, computer professionals were already aware of the need for human-computer interaction to be as natural and intuitive as possible. In fact, there are many compelling reasons to suggest that usability is even more critical to successful application design than it is for winning websites.

Farrell, Tom. Frontend Infocentre (2001). Design>Software>Programming>Usability

The Usability of Open Source Software  

Open source communities have successfully developed a great deal of software although most computer users only use proprietary applications. The usability of open source software is often regarded as one reason for this limited distribution. In this paper we review the existing evidence of the usability of open source software and discuss how the characteristics of open source development influence usability. We describe how existing human-computer interaction techniques can be used to leverage distributed networked communities, of developers and users, to address issues of usability.

Nichols, David M. and Michael B. Twidale. First Monday (2003). Design>Usability>Software>Open Source

If It’s Not Easy to Use, It’s Not Used

Debates about Microsoft Word vs. Adobe Framemaker appear with regular frequency on the tech-writing mailing lists I am subscribed to. Everyone agrees Frame is an awesome publishing tool. Yet, everyone keeps cribbing about it. So, why does a bright bunch of people who are masters at figuring out stuff, otherwise known as tech-writers, only hesitatingly agree Frame is “kind of great”? I think it’s mostly because Frame is so difficult to use.

Info Developer (2008). Articles>Document Design>Software>Usability