TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:RE: Usability Assessment: A Common Sense Activity From:"James Jones" <doc-x -at- earthlink -dot- net> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Fri, 12 Nov 2004 13:03:28 -0600
Steve, I like your writing but I have to disagree:
Steven Oppenheimer opined:
>>Technical Writers are not usability experts. Not by a long shot.
Sure,
>>they can be, but generally tech writers are about as equally savvy in
>>usability as developers, marketeers, and garbage collectors.
Anyone who uses a product, whether during development or real-world use,
is
ibso-facto a usability expert. The idea of specialized expertise in
this
area is ludicrous . . . software usability assessment . . . Ivory-tower
theoretical frameworks . . .
Jim says: This specialized expertise in Usability is important and
valuable and people need it. In fields outside of computers it's called
Human Factors. See my rewrite article 'Be a User Advocate' at
stc-chicago.org. Like many technical communicators, I'm trying to
develop in myself some of this Usability expertise. But I am by no means
a Usability expert.
Jim says more: What is 'Common Sense'? Because I'm a writer, people hire
me to help prepare their documents. The people who hire me could look at
the things that I do and say that it's all just Common Sense. But it's
not really. Each of the many little things that I do to improve someone
else's communication product might make sense to me, but few of them are
Common Sense. Some of the little things that I do are indeed common
sense. The final thing that I give them (an edited article, say) is
deceptive because of the simplicity of my improvements. 'Makes sense'
the recipient probably says, and that person might say something like
'It's only common sense' about relatively few of my improvements.
Again, Jim says more: Usability, Usability expertise, Human Factors are
all very important in our modern world. Studies, theories and labs
concerning this stuff abound in our modern world. Usability is a very
applied thing. It's all good.
Jim Jones
TECHNICAL writing, editing, illustration || cartooning |schematics
|other
Chinese, German, Spanish to English translation
Chinese Characters
Now you can get to my simple unadorned Web page (www.tinyurl.com/4arjc)
from the STC Chicago Chapter site at http://www.stc-chicago.org. Mine is
the second (freelancer. . . ) under Chapter Member Web sites (Resources
> Web Links).
ROBOHELP X5 - SEE THE ALL NEW ROBOHELP X5 IN ACTION!
RoboHelp X5 is a giant leap forward in Help authoring technology, featuring all new Word 2003 support, Content Management, Multi-Author support, PDF and XML support and much more! View an online demo: http://www.macromedia.com/go/techwrldemo
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archiver -at- techwr-l -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Send administrative questions to lisa -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
