Invitation to an STC meeting

["Focus on 3 things: Quality, Quality, Quality" <raven -at- USABLE -dot- ENET -dot- DEC -dot- COM>]

Hi members of TECHWR-l:
Below is an invitation to a meeting of the Northern New England STC
chapter meeting; I know many of you are FAR FAR FAR from New
Hampshire. However, for those who might be able to make it,
I"m posting the announcement. You do NOT have to be an STC member to
attend (you just have to pay $$).
Mary Beth Raven
STC NNE second VP
Raven -at- usable -dot- enet -dot- dec -dot- com
____________________________________________________________________
           STC Northern New England Chapter September Meeting:

                10th Anniversary Party with Featured Speaker!

Topic:  Measuring the Usability of Manuals: The U-Metric Questionnaire

On the 10th anniversary of the NNE chapter of the STC, let's celebrate
some of the major documentation changes of the last decade. Three
related changes are:

        * The shift from system-centered documentation to
                user-centered documentation
        * The shift from documentation as a late-stage activity to
                documentation as an integral part of the product
        * The shift from technical communicators being "just writers
                or editors"  to technical communicators being involved with
                the total product

These changes are all part of the new focus on usability engineering.
To do usability engineering, technical communicators need a rich
toolkit of techniques. Our speaker, Dr. Janice Redish, will speak in
general about that toolkit and in detail about one technnique for
measuring the usability of manuals: the U-metric Questionnaire.

Dr. Redish will discuss how the U-metric is an extremely useful
supplement to both contextual design and usability testing. She will
describe the research project that led to the U-metric and show some
of the most interesting research results. She will finish by inviting
some discussion of the implications of this research.

Dr. Redish is currently an independent consultant. From 1977 to 1992
she worked with the American Institutes for Research (AIR) and she
created the AIR's Document Design Center.

WHEN AND WHERE

Tuesday Sept. 28
6:00    Social Time
6:30    Dinner  (Chicken Florentine, salad, vegetables, and Apple Granny)
7:30    Presentation
Nashua Country club
Fairway Drive, Nashua (Off exit 4 from Rt. 3)
Directions (from the north or south): Take route 3 to exit 4 (FAA,
Dunstable Rd. in Nashua, NH). If coming from south, turn right at the end of
the ramp (from north, turn left). Follow the road to a set of lights.
Bear right onto Main St. Take a left at the fork--onto South Main St.
Take the second left onto Fairway St. The Nashua Country club is at
the end of the road.

MAKE YOUR RESERVATIONS

Make your reservations by Sept. 24 by sending a check made payable
to NNE-STC to Joe MGuire, 117 Hill Rd. Groton, Ma 01450
(For dinner and program; for program only, you can pay at the door,
however, please call Joe to let him know so that we will have enough
chairs. Call him at: 508-448-2515).

Dinner and Program:
NNE members : $14
Non-NNE members and Non-STC members: $19

Program only:
Free for NNE members
Non-NNE members and Non-STC members: $5

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