Usability and Technical Communication

Usability has many natural ties to the field of technical communication and the information life cycle. As the primary user advocates within the development organization, technical communicators are uniquely positioned to add their usability-related expertise through the product design, development and testing cycles.

User Research and Analysis

A key role of technical communication is to serve as the primary user advocate within development organizations. If audience research exists, technical communicators should use and maintain it. If it does not exist, technical communicators should employ their specialized skills to develop research methods that are within the scope and budget of their organizations. Such research should be used rigorously throughout both the product and information design and development cycles.

Human Factors

Technical communicators should understand the basic tenets of human factors research, thereby acknowledging physical or physiological limitations of their audience. As with user research and analysis, technical communicators should be considered the primary user advocate within the organization, and thus be able to:

  • effectively disseminate human factors research.
  • act as human factors subject matter experts (SMEs) on development teams for user interface and product design.

User-Centered Design

Technical communicators should be familiar with a wide range of user-centered design issues. They should be able to:

  • implement user-centered design strategies in the development of online and print-based information.
  • serve as subject matter experts (SMEs) for product teams engaging in user-centered design methodologies.
  • become user-centered design advocates within their organizations.

Usability Testing

Usability testing comes in all shapes and sizes, and technical communicators should be familiar with the full range of testing options. Technical communicators should be able to:

  • design, develop, and perform usability tests for information products.
  • serve as SMEs for usability testing of products and software.

Resources

See the resources on the Usability Research page.

Credits

This page supports the usability needs of persona Margy Statler.