Re: Usability Testing

[Toni Williams TPG/SG <towilliams -at- PROCYONGROUP -dot- COM>]

I would venture to guess that this situation is familiar to at least 90%
of tech writers. I haven't had a position in the last 15 years that
didn't encompass it to some degree. In short, I would say that it *is*
ubiquitous.

Even when I've managed to express these "concerns" to a usually
understanding management, I get much head-nodding and sympathetic noises
but no changes.

It can be very discouraging. You just do the best you can.

Toni
whose opinions are only her own.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Lynn Perry [SMTP:clperry -at- WALLDATA -dot- COM]
> Sent: Tuesday, June 23, 1998 10:03 PM
> To:   TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
> Subject:      FW: Usability Testing
>
        >> Barbara Karst-Sabin wrote
        >>(heavily snipped)
        >>... the real driving force in all of this is marketing.  They
sell the
        >>product as soon
> >> as someone has ... begun brainstorming.  The engineers are then
> driven
> > >to provide something that will ... do the job that marketing has
> >> promised, and as quickly as is humanly possible.  Quicker.
> >>
> >> Meanwhile, the tech writers are there madly trying to develop a doc
> plan
> > >on
> >> something that doesn't exist and are then forced to begin preparing
> the
> > >documentation when there are still numerous, significant issues
> regarding
> > >the
> > >products actual functionality still to be decided.
> >>
        >><snip> My attempts to query things
> >> that obviously weren't going to work were met with annoyance, at
> the very
> > >best
> > >of times. <snip> so that the developers could be forced to iron out
> the
> >> wrinkles
> >> the writers had already shown them.  To add insult to injury, the
> problems
> > >were categorized as "documentation faults"!
> ...
>
        >Well said. I have encountered exactly this situation in most of
the tech
        >writing positions I've had in the past 10 years. <snip>.
        >
        >I wonder how prevalent this situation is. It seems ubiquitous.
Is it?
        >LyP
        >clperry -at- walldata -dot- com
        >My opinions do not necessarily reflect those of Wall Data
International and
        >vice versa.


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