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Subject:Re: Usability studies and online help From:"Phillip St. James" <saint0 -at- verizon -dot- net> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Mon, 13 Jun 2005 22:00:32 -0700
On behalf of myself as one who has been a part of usability studies, Steven,
I wonder whether you are looking for answers that may not really exist. In
a way, usability studies, even when done well by experts from the fields of
psychology and sociology, can be a bit dicey. I think that in usability
studies, you're looking at the responses of one "jury" and then hoping to or
expecting to accurately extrapolate toward useful generalizations about the
quality and direction of your work and toehrs who fit the profile of that
usability "jury".
That said, it's good to see or determine whether your customer or audience
is being served well. How you do that is where subjective evaluation comes
in...
In my own experience of working alongside NASA scientists and technicians
who were measuring an extensive set of electrical and physical responses as
well as participating in much less rigorous tests of focus groups for major
corporations, I cannot in all honesty tell you that this is efficacious or
widely beneficial.
Most tech writers must change places with the reader or user. Meaning, we
must put ourselves in their place as best we can and provide essential,
organized and hopefully memorable information.
Again, I wonder if documentation usability studies, even when done by top
notch experts, are practically helpful to tech writers who don't and/or
won't have that luxury and its time slot at their disposal. I'm looking for
academic corroboration that shows that such studies can improve writing in
this area. Is there any?
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