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:When to conduct useability testing on Procedures From:Hillary Russak <hrussak -at- SLAC -dot- STANFORD -dot- EDU> Date:Thu, 23 Oct 1997 09:41:36 -0700
I'm writing small (5-7pg) procedure documents for hazardous and radioactive
waste management. The procedures are coming out one at a time and I'm
sending them to my experts and authors for review. My plan was to conduct
usability with non-experts/non-authors after that review. Can you-all give
me feedback about whether you think my timing is correct on this?
Should I be running a useability check of my written recipe prior to the
review instead? The current process seems to be working, but I have
concern that if I find that steps are left-out, I'll have to send the
documents around again for review. This would be a waste of the first
review.
When do you-all do useability on hands-on procedural documents?
-hil
Hillary M. Russak, Technical Writer
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
ES&H Division, Waste Management Department
hrussak -at- slac -dot- stanford -dot- edu
Office: (650) 926-3193
Pager: (650) 940-0741
Opinions expressed are mine and mine alone.