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The issue of user testing raises all sorts of interesting questions.
NCR (sorry Mary beth) has an extensive program on that, complete with
videotapes and workbooks. Contact Chris -dot- velotta -at- daytonoh -dot- ncr -dot- com for
information on that and the project he and several others are involved
in relating to quantifying quality. I think RPI, Carnegie Mellon, IBM,
and some others are involved. They gave a prelimianry report at the last
ITCC (now STC Annunal Conference) and a report is in the PROCEEDINGS
(check your local library or let me know. OSU is the holder of the STC
archives and you can order a copy of the article via interlibrary loan).
But the issue remains: are we measuring quality by fancy surface
features? Does counting noun phrases, etc. mean we have moved to a
higher level of FOG?
Tom Warren
twarren -at- vm1 -dot- ucc -dot- okstate -dot- edu
twarren -at- osuvm1 -dot- bitnet