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		Usability—during the planning stages In assessing the usability of a document, it often helps to become the user and perform the tasks yourself. This exercise is useful for assessing the usability of an existing document; the assessment could then be used to develop a plan for revising the document for enhanced usability.
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		Writing and organizing information for usability The following Web resources can help guide you in assessing documents for usability:
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		Practicing What We Preach? A Usability Evaluation of the HFES Proceedings CD-ROM This article from Usability News offers a detailed look at how the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) performed a usability test on its conference proceedings CD-ROM. Structured Heuristic Evaluation of Online Documentation (PDF file; Adobe Acrobat Reader required.) In this paper from IPCC 2002 Proceedings, the annual conference of the IEEE Professional Communication Society, Laurie Kantner, Roberta Shroyer, and Stephanie Rosenbaum of Tec-Ed, Inc. present a structured process for evaluating the usability of online documentation. Measuring the Usability of Reading on the Web This short piece by Jakob Nielsen is a sidebar for an article on reading online. Nielsen discusses which usability metrics he and his colleagues used to measure the usability of the useit.com site. Although metrics for print documents will vary in some of their particulars, you will see that usability tests for Web site design and those created for document design share certain features. Check out the rest of the site (http://www.useit.com) for more advice on Web usability. STC Usability SIG Web Site This extensive Web site of the Usability Special Interest Group of the Society for Technical Communication offers plenty of in-depth information about usability testing and user-centered design.

		Resources for uability testing
3.3		Resources for uability testing
		W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has begun addressing design standards in Web development to make Web pages more accessible to people with disabilities, including visual and hearing disabilities. Organizations are advocating strict adoption of these standards in all HTML design. Useit.com: Jakob Nielsen's Website For many, a biweekly bible on usability unrelentingly focused on functional information products. For others, a source of controversy over methodology, inelegant design, and a general excuse to rant. Regardless, friends and foes still read the site on a regular basis. Straightforward and easy to understand, full of critiques of both good and bad Web sites. HCI Resources: Guidelines, Style Guides, Standards A comprehensive list of Human-Computer Interaction links to begin to establish some consistency in a new and often uneven field. Usability Special Interest Group Newsletter Quarterly publication of the Society of Technical Communication SIG to help technical communicators stay current with the latest developments in usability research and methodologies. Usability Professionals' Association Professional organization to provide networking opportunities and share techniques and methods in usability testing, as well as promote the viewpoint of usability professionals to the general public. Includes a job bank and low-cost student membership. Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Professional organization centered on the interactions between human beings and the design of systems and devices. Many technical communicators find themselves part of human factors workgroups, Human-Computer Interaction groups, or information architecture groups. Usability Experts Are from Mars; Graphic Designers Are from Venus Curt Cloning takes up for designers in the onslaught of usability experts, taking issue with shortcomings in Jakob Nielsen's approach and offering some ideas why graphic designers have a hard time articulating their views in the face of the usability field's prescriptive but often ugly standards. Elegant Hack: Information Architecture, Usability and Interaction Design Issues, Plus the Odd Thought In the late 1990s, hypertext theory morphed into something called information architecture (IA). Do they even still resemble each other? The question is up for debate. This site explores user experience design and information architecture on the Web. Includes articles on IA, IA organizations, and case studies. Experience Design Resources Nathan Shedroff's creatively designed and in-depth resource site on interface design, information design, interaction design, multimedia, and visual design.

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