Usability Testing of Your Documentation

Yea, it is possible. Let's say you have created a user-guide. The user-guide is aimed at helping users in performing various tasks on the product.

1. Choose a representative user (anyone, even your mother-in-law is all right). If you can't recruit a user read List-item:



2. Ask the user to perform tasks on the product using the instructions from the guide



3. Ask the user to Think Aloud, but don't interrupt or help the user in performing tasks



4. Make notes. Note the reactions of the user. That frown. That click of the tongue indicating frustration. People are nice; they wont tell you to your face 'Your guide sucks.' It is our duty to find out what they think



5. Make a list of your findings; identify action points; compile a report, and go to work on the guide



6. Once you have incorporated changes/enhancements to your guide, test it again on the user and make sure that your enhancements have made the guide usable



7. If you can't recruit users, you and your other technical writer can review the guide (individually) against a heuristics check-list. The check-list is intended for a software application but you can use it for your guide as well, if you know what to keep and what to throw away (discretion my lord!)

Disclaimer: If you thought this idea of testing is stupid, please tell me, I am just thinking aloud and sharing the thought with you; maybe you and I can discover a method that would be world renowned, who knows!



write to me: Suman@sumankumar.com