While reading Chapter 12, I thought that it was a great topic to cover before putting our instruction manuals together. I am enrolled in a class (IE-577 Human Factors in Engineering) that’s whole purpose is for the usability of products. The types of editing and usability testing were all explained in detail in the class and are actually very useful. I think that when I make a usability test for my manual I am going to use the document markup method. For reference, my instruction manual is constructing a set of cornhole boxes or bean bag boxes. I chose this method first because the other methods did not make sense for my manual. I also chose it because when using a manual to construct something the steps sometimes become unclear and confusing. When using the document markup method the confusion can be found and explained how to make it better by the user. To help the usability test to go smoothly I am going to attach the copyediting symbols that were given in Chapter 12. Two different sets of symbols will be given whether they are for online revision or paper revision.
The most interesting thing in Chapter 12 was the case study on My (BAD) Style. I think that this is a definite problem with most writers today. I am probably one of the people that could be put into this category. I think that the problem is that people do not understand why the reviser is credible to give such advice. When I was a freshman my teacher handed my research paper back without a grade and said “Re-do it”. I was flabbergasted at this comment, but took the criticism and learned from the situation. In this situation with the worker that will not learn from his mistakes, nothing else can be done but fire him. If a person will not listen to their boss then there is nothing else to do. One thing learned in the beginning of this class was that people are liable for technical documents. Fired!
(Good) Title
I like your explanation about why you chose to you a markup style usability test. I think this really demonstrates how the best test is really dependent on context, and what type of process you're actually trying to explain. In your case, and based on your reasoning, I can completely understand how the markup method will provide the most useful feadback for you.
I also thought that the ending story, entitled My (Bad) Style, was pretty interesting and insightful. I think it kind of surprised me a little how this individual nearly was fired because of a technical document he'd written. This seemed irrelevant to the fact that he was very good at his job, and obviously pretty bright. For me, this story kind of elaborated on the importance of technical documents and professionalism, as well as the dangers that can come when editing and revising are neglected.
IE 577 Human Factors
I'm also enrolled in this IE course and have noticed the parallels between it and this class much more in the past 2 or 3 weeks. The last homework focused on a human factors professional and how his daily job is to perform the usability tests mentioned in this weeks readings. He deals with all aspects including instructions, physical buttons, and parts of printers. While his tests are usually much more formal, such as focus groups and customer feedback tests, he is always looking at ways to make things more user friendly.
This chapter does certainly
This chapter does certainly make since as we begin to bring together our instruction sets. As we spoke about in prior week’s it seems obvious that an instruction set is only useful if it can be adequately utilized by its users. The markup usability test does seem sufficient for instructions regarding the step by step construction of an object. I wonder if this markup test will be sufficient if completed by users who are just stepping through your instructions, but aren’t actually constructing the set described within them. I would assume that it would be best to have as many iterations of your usability test as possible, thus whether or not someone is actual constructing the set, it would be a good idea to let them do the markup test.
Thanks!
Jason Flittner
www.JFlitt.com
Lazy Testers
One problem that you might encounter is that the testers only mark a few comments on your instructions. They are discouraged to make more sophisticated and general comments about the instructions because they have to write them out. Consider in addition also having a conversation with the testers and asking them if they have something to add to their written comments.