English 421: Technical Writing

The link is not quite a typical article, but it is certainly a very well detailed checklist of items to keep in mind when you are creating usability documentation. It is a comprehensive list that was compiled by the Society of Technical Communication.   It is fairly lengthy, but the sections are broken up so that they cover all possible aspects of online documentation, and the reader is not forced to pour through every bit of information that is presented, you can just skip to what you need (or want) to read. 

The document is broken up into 3 different sections: Usability, Retrievability, and Media. The section on usability deals with topics that we’ve already covered in class, especially what we’ve read in the handouts and in the book. Elements such as style, structure, consistency, ease of use and instructions are just a few of the aspects covered. Retrievability deals with how the content is organized. Of main concern is the appropriateness of the organization of the content, the ease of navigation, the detail and clarity of the table of contents, a comprehensive index, search features, hypertext links, and graphics. For the media section, the checklist asks the creator to consider if their choice of media was appropriate and to look over every aspect of the media, ensuring that every feature works and is appropriate. If the media uses animation, is it suitable and useful? If there is audio, would text be better? For music, does it suit the presentation and audience appropriately? Do other sounds make sense, and do video choices fit the documentation? 

While this is by no means an all inclusive list, it is definitely a good bench mark to start off from. It is well detailed, and forces the writer to critically think about every choice and decision that they make. If something doesn’t make sense, then it should be changed or deleted.