Re. Usability of documents through field visits

[Geoff Hart <geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

     Mark Levinson asked for examples of people who
     actually visit their customers to obtain feedback
     on their reports/user manuals/etc.

     We do this... sort of. FERIC is funded by the
     forest industry, and to make sure we are focusing
     our research on their specific needs, we have
     spring and fall advisory/program update meetings
     with any of our clients who wants to attend. In
     spring, we hold regional meetings (centrally
     located in each region); in fall, they come to us.
     There are folks specifically appointed to
     participate, but anyone can attend. (We also
     regularly visit each company during the course of
     research to find out how our relationship is
     working.)

     The purpose of the meetings is really to report
     our research and then ask for feedback on new
     directions, but as publications coordinator, I
     also attend to get a feel for the audience. This
     poses an opportunity to chat informally with
     people to get feedback on our publications.
     Doesn't work as well as formal interviews, but we
     do get occasional feedback this way. FWIW!

     Also, we're beginning a few computer modeling
     packages (decision-making tools), and I'm
     proposing to work closely with beta testers on the
     documentation and online help. There's support for
     this idea in principle, but we'll see what
     actually happens many months down the road.

     --Geoff Hart    @8^{)}
     geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca

     Disclaimer: If I didn't commit it in print in one
     of our reports, it don't represent FERIC's
     opinion.