RE. User questionnaire?

["Hart, Geoff" <Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

Barbara Yanez is <<... doing a  User Questionnaire so as to better meet the
needs of our users.>>

Congratulations! Very few people get the chance to do this, it seems, and
it's a great idea. Just be aware of one unpleasant fact: response rates to
questionnaires and surveys in general are ridiculously low (5% is considered
a reasonably good response). You need to figure out some way to motivate
people to reply: perhaps a free copy of the software, a t-shirt, or
whatever. Your promise that "we're doing it for your benefit" generally
isn't a strong motivating factor.

<<I am trying to gather info about (1) the users themselves (we recently
acquired several new users and I am not very familiar with them - how they
approach tasks, etc.)>>

Forget about standard demographic questions such as "how old are you? are
you male or female? how many years of education do you have"; the answers
provide stereotypical information that gives you no guidance on how to
adjust your docs. Focus on questions whose answers directly affect your
writing style and approach: do you need more or less explanation? would you
like more information in print or online? are we using too many/not enough
graphics? is our vocabulary appropriate for your needs, or should we speak
more plainly/using more techy jargon/in another language entirely? And so
on.

<<(2) what they need in terms of presentation of info in manuals - to make
sure we are servicing their needs as best we
can>>

Presentation depends strongly on how they actually use your product. What
tasks do they actually do? What tasks would they do if only they knew how?
What tasks do they think they can't accomplish with the software? What tasks
don't work the way the documentation claims they work? Which tasks require a
printed manual, set down beside the computer for ease of reference, and
which ones require integrated help (either embedded or online)?

<<(3) document delivery formats - which ones they like best, what they want
to see more of>>

Just be careful about how you interpret this information; as noted in my
recent techwr-l message concerning AVI files, "liking" something may have no
relationship to how well they can use it and how well they perform after
using it. Also be wary of the political implications: if your management has
decided to produce print documentation only as PDF files, and all the users
hate this and want a bound manual, you're treading on shaky political
ground.

<<anything else that I have not thought of.>>

Your best allies in getting good data are the sales, training, and technical
support departments. They deal with the users daily, and can provide you
very pointed information based on their ongoing experience. Even better than
that, try enlisting them on your side to help gather information. For
example, I've asked our trainers to spend a few minutes in each training
session going over how to use the online help, and at the end of it, to ask
for feedback on the help and remind the users they can easily contact us to
request improvements. For example, why not ask the support staff to try the
following: "I'm glad I could help you solve your problem. Would you be
willing to spend a minute helping me figure out how to solve the problem for
someone else in the future? You would? Thanks. What do you think made it
hard for you to solve the problem: couldn't find it in the docs, found it
but couldn't understand it, etc." For example, ask the sales staff during
site visits or phone calls to determine whether the client would be willing
to host you for a day while you sat with actual users of the product and
observed how they use it. And always include at least one open-ended
question that lets respondents provide answers to questions you hadn't
thought to ask.

Last but not least, design your surveys for ease of analysis. Open-ended
essay questions are great in principle, but in practice, they take enormous
amounts of time to analyze. Although numeric values seem to be useful
because they're quantitative, many (how would you rate this: from 1 to 5)
are strongly subjective. However, if you can ask questions that provide
answers in clear, distinct categories, you can easily tally how many
responses fell into each category. How do you know you've accomplished this
goal of clear answers? Test the survey on a few colleagues, and ask them to
come up with reasonable misinterpretations of your questions. You'll be
amazed at how unclear the questions suddenly seem, and will gain powerful
insights into how to revise them.

--Geoff Hart, FERIC, Pointe-Claire, Quebec
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
"User's advocate" online monthly at
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