Usability Testing of User Manuals

Many guidelines and several standards exist for the development of good user manuals. But even though technical writers comply with all guidelines, problems will typically arise when users apply the manual in practice. Therefore, it is useful to have real users test the manual before it is published. This article discusses user tests in the form of think-aloud tests, with examples from the research project ”User Manuals for older adults”

EDITORIAL

Editorial to the second issue of CLa

INTERVIEW: Knowledge and Terminology Management at the Danish National Board of Social Services

Margrethe H. Møller interviews David Rosendahl(translator/coauthor: Birthe Toft)“We need to do more than simply create classifications” The concept secretariat of the Danish National Board of Social Services carries out terminology and classification work in connection with IT projects, among others, in the field of social services. This work is interesting for several reasons. On the one hand, terminology work obviously contributes to enhanced efficiency and transparency from the points of view of all types of users. On the other hand, some social services professionals are skeptical vis-à-vis the terminology projects because they fear unification and standardization of their professionalism and working procedures in connection with the introduction of new IT systems. And finally, a number of ethical issues have to be taken into consideration when deciding on terminology in the social services field. All in all, target group and communicative aspects become central to the effort.David Rosendahl Terminology consultant at the Danish National Board of Social ServicesThe Danish National Board of Social Services(“Socialstyrelsen”) is an independent subdivision of The Ministry of Social Affairs and Integration. The Board aims to promote new development and initiatives in social services while also supporting and counselling local authorities in providing services to citizens, i.e. children, young people, socially marginalised groups, elderly and disabled

INTERVIEW: Quick, Social and Collaborative - wiki-based user documentation at APC by Schneider Electric

In the software documentation department at APC by Schneider Electric in Kolding, Denmark, Technical Writer Pernille Bagger Nielsen writes user documentation for the software developed by the company. In cooperation with Localization Manager Stanislav Kalianov she reorganised the user documentation for publication as wiki-based documentation on the internet. The new platform supports their strategy of using agile and iterative, topic-based, collaborative writing when developing user documentation. Their experience will interest readers who consider introducing a similar new strategy

Buiding a controlled language lexicon for Danish.

A controlled language (CL) is a set of writing rules for the technical texts of an enterprise specifying constraints on lexicon, grammar and style with the purpose of reducing ambiguity, thus making texts easier to understand and process - by human readers and/or by translation systems. So far, most CLs have been designed for English documentation. The present paper is a preliminary result of our work within the project "Controlled Language for Danish Enterprises" and focuses on problems related to building the controlled-language lexicon, e.g. on whether it is possible to enforce the principle of “one word – one meaning”