Using In-Country Reviews to Ensure Quality Translations  

Too often, in-country translation reviews are overlooked, even though they can document valuable feedback and save customers time and money on translation projects. The author provides several criteria for deciding whether such a review is right for your project.

Deschamps-Potter, Catherine M. Intercom (2007). Articles>Language>Localization>Methods

Using Personas: Bringing Users Alive

How do we communicate what we know about the people who use our products in an engaging, efficient way? How do we get beyond statistics to a portrait of users that helps us use this information to make decisions?

Quesenbery, Whitney. Usability Interface (2003). Articles>Usability>Methods>Personas

Using Site Evaluations to Communicate with Clients

How do you prove your worth to clients in today's difficult economy? Performed as part of a sales proposal or the discovery phase of a project, a site assessment can uncover opportunities for improvement and help you speak knowledgeably about solutions to your potential client's problems.

Rabinowitz, Dorelle. Boxes and Arrows (2003). Articles>Usability>Methods

Using Six Sigma to Improve our Technical Review Return Rate  

This is a brief overview of Six Sigma principles and an introduction to basic methods used in a Green Belt project in a technical publications department. This Green Belt project addressed the impact of declining return rates of technical reviews to both quality and cost. The author explains how the project originated and which Six Sigma methods were selected and implemented. She will review several examples of methods used to identify feasible solutions. The intended results of this project are to increase the return rate and, more importantly, to improve documentation quality and greatly reduce the department's cost of rework.

Walker McCombs, Sylvia. STC Proceedings (2004). Careers>TC>Quality>Methods

Using Statistics

Statistics are often tossed around as if they could speak for themselves. For example, advertisers claim 'Ivory soap is 99% pure.' (Pure what?) Or a researcher may claim that 'the average American today watches 5.3 hours of TV per day.' (What does 'average' mean?) All facts must be interpreted and presented in your argument; this handout presents five guidelines designed to help you use statistics responsibly.

Purdue University. Academic>Research>Methods

Using the 5Es to Understand Users

One of the exercises I find helpful is to look at usability requirements for different aspects of the user experience. For each of the five dimensions of usability (the 5Es), we think about how it is reflected in requirements for each of the user groups.

Quesenbery, Whitney. WQusability. Articles>Usability>Methods

Using Use Cases!  

A use case is a story written about a product which is only in the planning stages. It answers the question: 'How is this wonderful product I'm planning to make going to be used in real life?' Use cases have been used as a tool in software planning for about 15 years.

Karppinen, Anne and Mary Nurminen. STC Proceedings (2003). Design>User Centered Design>Methods

Utiliser les 5 E pour Comprendre les Utilisateurs

En matière d'amélioration de votre site web, produit ou logiciel, comment passer de la simple volonté à l'action? Que dites-vous de ceci pour commencer: si la réponse c'est l'utilisabilité, quelle peut bien être la question?

Quesenbery, Whitney. WQusability. (French) Articles>Usability>Methods

Visio Replacement? You Be the Judge

In the same way that the Internet took us to the next level of interaction, complete with rich visuals, simulations are doing the same for application definition. McDowell explores the ins and outs of new simulation tools. Will one of them work for you?

McDowell, Scott. Boxes and Arrows (2006). Articles>Information Design>Methods

Visual Mapping: A Multidisciplinary Communication Technique  

As members of multidisciplinary teams, technical communicators often are faced with the challenge of understanding products before the writing process begins. As a result, teams of this nature must be able to communicate and verify their understanding, and revise that understanding accordingly as their project progresses. “Visual mapping” is a term used to describe a technique that uses off-the-shelf graphics or flowcharting tools to capture knowledge about products, to communicate that knowledge, and to collaborate with other members of the team. The technique is not limited to technical communicators, but can be used by anyone within a development environment, including management, developers, human factors engineers, technical communicators, and visual designers.

Hutcheson, Tracy D., Frederick Fusilero, Humberto Gutierrez-Rivas and Kevin M. McBride. STC Proceedings (2002). Articles>Collaboration>Methods

Voodoo Usability

The good news is that usability has been recognized as an important element of Internet success: the average speaker at industry conferences now promotes good user experience in preference to 'cool sites.' The bad news is that most sites employ horribly misguided methodologies that do not assess real usability. Sometimes the methods are simply worthless; other times they are directly misleading.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1999). Articles>Usability>Methods

Want Free Beer?

Whether you are testing the User Interface for a new technology or just re-branding your service, chances are that you could benefit from some sound market feedback. The good news is that you don't have to spend weeks on research or thousands of dollars to get it. Café testing - quick, low-cost, informal market testing at a café - can help you get the feedback you need fast. This article tells you everything you need to know to get started.

Burns, Erik. GotoMedia (2004). Articles>Usability>Methods>Focus Groups

What is a Behavioral Interview and Behavioral Interview Questions and Answers

What is a behavioral interview? Behavioral based interviewing is interviewing based on discovering how the interviewee acted in specific employment-related situations. The logic is that how you behaved in the past will predict how you will behave in the future i.e. past performance predicts future performance.

Doyle, Allison. About.com (2007). Careers>Interviewing>Methods

What's Going On? The Importance Of User Feedback

It is a basic assumption on the web that download times should be kept to a minimum. After all, the longer people are left waiting, the more likely they are to back out (quite literally) of a transaction and look elsewhere for the same service. But despite the general accuracy of this point of view, there is perhaps slightly more to it than this. What frustrates users about slow download times is not so much the wait as the uncertainty. The online environment remains somewhat unreliable - certainly unreliable enough for a user to be unsure that every page request is likely to be successful. In this situation, the lack of ability of the browser to accurately reflect progress is a serious issue in terms of web effectiveness and user satisfaction.

Farrell, Tom. Frontend Infocentre (2000). Articles>Usability>Methods

When 100% Really Isn't 100%: Improving the Accuracy of Small-Sample Estimates of Completion Rates    

Small sample sizes are a fact of life for most usability practitioners. This can lead to serious measurement problems, especially when making binary measurements such as successful task completion rates (p). The computation of confidence intervals helps by establishing the likely boundaries of measurement, but there is still a question of how to compute the best point estimate, especially for extreme outcomes. In this paper, we report the results of investigations of the accuracy of different estimation methods for two hypothetical distributions and one empirical distribution of p. If a practitioner has no expectation about the value of p, then the Laplace method ((x+1)/(n+2)) is the best estimator. If practitioners are reasonably sure that p will range between .5 and 1.0, then they should use the Wilson method if the observed value of p is less than .5, Laplace when p is greater than .9, and maximum likelihood (x/n) otherwise.

Lewis, James R. and Jeff Sauro. Journal of Usability Studies (2006). Articles>Usability>Testing>Methods

When Good Design => Bad Product

The prototypes looked great and tested well. The programmers did their usual competent job of implementation. The result was a disaster. What went wrong? Someone forgot the last, critical step.

Tognazzini, Bruce. Nielsen Norman Group (2003). Design>Usability>Methods

When Observing Users Is Not Enough: 10 Guidelines for Getting More Out of Users' Verbal Comments

One of the principles underlying usability testing is that observing a user perform a task provides more reliable information than simply asking the user how easy it would be to perform the task. By observing users, you can assess whether they are actually able to use a product. By asking them, you simply cannot.

Peyrichoux, Isabelle. UXmatters (2007). Articles>Usability>Testing>Methods

When the Field is Far Afield: Multiple-Country Observations of Complex System Use  

Describes the challenges of usability studies of complex systems that are used internationally, based on a case study of a multinational company's enterprise-wide call management system.

Anscheutz, Lori, Deborah Hinderer and Janice Anne Rohn. Tec-Ed, Inc. (1998). Articles>Usability>Methods>International

When To Introduce Usability

On the basis that user-centred design, user testing and other forms of usability engineering are a 'good thing', it is worth asking how they are best integrated into the development process. Specifically, the issue of timing is critical to the successful implementation of a usability strategy. At what stage of development should these techniques be introduced? Of course the answer to that question rather depends on the unique circumstances of each particular project, but the general principle seems to be 'as early as possible' - with the important caveat that any user involvement is better than none, even at a late stage in the day. But the accepted wisdom that usability engineering should be introduced as early as possible in the development process has many arguments in its favour.

Farrell, Tom. Frontend Infocentre (2000). Articles>Usability>Methods

Where Are We And Where Are We Going?—A Model Of The Maturity Of Technical Publications Organizations And Their Ability To Produce Documentation  

If we look at many publications organizations today, we find many examples of process gone awry. Deadlines are routinely missed, original schedules are considered impossible, little or no planning occurs, plans that are written are ignored, project management is virtually unknown, and writers madly write and rewrite until someone blows the whistle and insists that the whole mess be shipped to the unwitting customers. This scenario is so common that many technical communicators hardly believe any other is possible.

Hackos, JoAnn T. STC Proceedings (1994). Presentations>TC>Methods

Who Is "The User" Anyway?

As we have pointed out before, understanding the user is a pre-requisite of high quality interface design, whether online or offline. This means taking the time to find out what motivates typical user groups, what they expect from a given site or application, and how they prefer to work (or play). The alternative to proper user profiling is simply plucking an imaginary 'user' out of the air - usually to add weight to personal preferences or prejudices. The latter situation often consists of a so-called expert dismissing design features because 'the user wouldn't like it', when he or she is really saying 'I don't like it'. This common reference to a single undefined 'user' conjures up amusing images of a God-like entity casting judgment on interfaces from on high. In the real world, as we know, things are a little more complex. If 'the user' is frequently invoked but never defined, it may be time to rethink your usability strategy. Of course, after profiling has taken place, or when talking in generalities, there is nothing wrong with 'the user' being used as a convenient shorthand. But during specific projects it is essential to think in terms of real people rather than abstracts. This approach creates both better design and makes usability more understandable, in concrete terms, for others involved in the development process.

Farrell, Tom. Frontend Infocentre (2001). Design>Usability>Methods>Personas

Why a Completion Rate is Better with a Confidence Interval

Confidence intervals have been lauded by the APA (American Psychological Association) as the preferred technique when presenting data for any size sample, and this has been echoed in the usability literature as well.

Sauro, Jeff. Usability Professionals Association (2006). Articles>Usability>Statistics>Methods

Why ask Why in a Usability Evaluation?

If you've ever kept company with a 5 year-old you have experienced how their incessant desire to understand life results in an unending stream of 'whys?' Over the years I've found myself becoming impatient with my children and grandchildren. So I was surprised to find that 'asking why' in a usability evaluation had a more profound effect on the outcome than I had anticipated.

Wood, Larry. Usability Professionals Association (2000). Articles>Usability>Methods

Why Doing User Observations First is Wrong

How many times have you had to fight hard for the ability to do field studies and other observations at the very start of the project? How many times have you patiently explained that taking time now would be rewarded by faster time to market overall? And how many times were you successful? The HCI community has long complained about product processes that do not allow time to start with good observations. The more I examine this issue, the more I think that it is we, the HCI community, who are wrong.

Norman, Donald A. uiGarden (2006). Articles>Usability>Methods

Why You Only Need to Test With Five Users

Some people think that usability is very costly and complex and that user tests should be reserved for the rare web design project with a huge budget and a lavish time schedule. Not true. Elaborate usability tests are a waste of resources. The best results come from testing no more than 5 users and running as many small tests as you can afford.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2000). Articles>Usability>Testing>Methods