Re: Usability Testing

[Janice Gelb <janiceg -at- MARVIN -dot- ENG -dot- SUN -dot- COM>]

Rowena Hart wrote:
>
>
> Carol Gasser asked:
>
>   Is this the kind of thing that is being referred to on the list, or are
>   technical writers out there being asked to perform actual usability
>   tests?  It really seems like a leap out of the tech writer job
>   description.
>
> As Carol and George Hayhoe pointed out, technical writers
> are not qualified to perform usability testing.  I would love to
> hire someone to do it but, as it stands, we don't have the cash
> or the time to bring in professionals.  That means the task
> will be given to the person who needs the data most -- me.
>

Although we have usability testers in-house, Sun once brought in a
trainer (Dr. Judith Ramey from the University of Washington) for a
course in usability testing for our technical writers/editors. This was
a great help in enabling writers to do small informal usability tests,
contribute to the more formal tests of their docs, and better
understand the results of those tests.

This might be an avenue worth exploring: "Give a man a fish and
you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him
for a lifetime" :->

-- Janice

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