This article was originally published in the Feb 2009 issue (Vol 14, No. 1)

STC UUX Community Newsletter
Usability Interface

Webinar Offered by UUX

The UUX is proud to offer its first webinar. Mary Deaton will be speaking on the topic of planning usability research of documentation. To register, go to the Web Seminars page of the STC site at http://www.stc.org/2009/03/02/Planning-for-Documentation-Usability-Testing.asp

Title: Planning Documentation Usability Research

Description: Need some help getting started doing usability evaluation on a documentation project? This seminar walks you through:

• The steps for determining how to define your target audience
• How to set usability goals
• How to determine an evaluation method appropriate to the goals
• How to report your findings in a way that helps prioritize what changes need to be made to improve usability

Speaker: Mary Deaton began as a technical editor at Microsoft in 1987 and this soon sparked an interest in improving the quality of both software products and documentation. This interest expanded over the years to a focus on online information design, interface design, user experience, and usability. In 2004, she earned a Masters in Technical Communication, with an emphasis on usability. She now does information architecture and usability for a variety of private clients. She also teaches usability, document design, and help authoring in Bellevue Community College's Certificate in Technical Communication.

Audience: Technical communicators new to applying usability and user-centered design principles to evaluating and improving the documentation they produce.

Date: March 19th, 2009 - Noon Eastern, 9AM Pacific

Cost: $10.00 for STC Members. $15.00 for Non-Members.

Questions? Eric Hughes, eric@simplexity.net, 510-384-4907