Published Work
At conferences around the world and in industry publications, Tec-Ed shares innovative testing techniques, design experiences, and analytical methods. Our many published papers and book chapters are listed below.
Papers and Presentations
Strategic Usability
Not Just a Hammer: When and How to Employ Multiple Methods in Usability Programs
Why should usability programs incorporate many kinds of methodology to influence corporate decision-making? This paper describes what makes successful multiple-method usability programs. It discusses when to apply each method and how to justify usability programs to management.
[PDF version 289KB]
A Toolkit for Strategic Usability: Results from Workshops, Panels, and Surveys
Describes the organizational approaches and usability methodologies considered by HCI professionals to increase the strategic impact of usability research. Based on data collected at three conferences. In Human Factors in Computing Systems: CHI 2000 Conference Proceedings.
[PDF version 291KB]
User-Interface Design
Storyboards: a Dynamic Storytelling Tool
Stories can be told in many different ways -- word of mouth, written word, movies, plays. One of the fastest, most universally understandable and information-rich ways to tell a story is with a storyboard. Storyboards have been used throughout history to depict events through pictures. Even when created very quickly, storyboards can convey a wealth of information, showing a particular order of events in an interesting and easy-to-understand way. Presented at the 2006 Usability Professionals’ Association Conference.
[PDF version 890KB]
Visual Design
Measuring the Success of Visual Communication in User Interfaces
Discusses three key areas of visual communication—information access and navigation, icon recognition, and visual appeal—as related to usability research. In Technical Communication: Journal of the Society for Technical Communication 45 (November 1998).
[PDF version 178KB]
Web Usability
Following a Fast-Moving Target: Recording User Behavior in Web Usability Testing
Presents techniques for capturing user behavior accurately and completely in real time. In Common Ground 8 (May 1998), the publication of the Usability Professionals’ Association (UPA).
[PDF version 257KB]
Assessing Web Site Usability from Server Log Files
White paper (December 1999) on how to glean usability data from web server log files and how to use that data.
[PDF version 103KB]
Analyzing Usability of a Beta-Version Web Site Through Server Logs, User Profile Data, and Online Questionnaire Responses
This paper discusses the use of automated data collection to learn from hundreds of beta-test users of a web-based industrial product database how successfully the product met their needs. The collected data consisted of web server log data, opinion data from online questionnaires and follow-up interviews, and user profile data from telerecruiting and online registration was also collected. In the Proceedings of the 1998 Usability Professionals’ Association Conference.
[PDF version 179KB]
Usability Studies of WWW Sites: Heuristic Evaluation vs. Laboratory Testing
Describes the strengths and weaknesses of two usability assessment methods frequently applied to websites to illustrate issues of special interest to designers. In the Proceedings of the 1997 Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Documentation (ACM SIGDOC).
[PDF version 110KB]
Lab and Field Methods
Organizing Qualitative Data from Lab and Field: Challenges and Methods
Analyzing qualitative data collected in usability studies can be challenging. How can we efficiently organize our observations to discover usage patterns and build personae? What are the advantages and tradeoffs of different approaches? This paper describes three methods of organizing usability data based on study complexity and reporting requirements.
[PDF version 800KB]
Technology and Techniques for Conducting Instant-Messaging Studies
Designing usability lab tests of instant-messaging services, whether conducted on a hand-held device or a computer, presents unique challenges for the testing team. This presentation describes three instant-messaging studies and the technology and techniques used to instill realism and maintain rigor.
[PDF version 404KB]
Alternative Methods for Field Usability Research
This paper introduces three field research methods—condensed contextual inquiry, ethnographic interviewing, and field research—illustrated with a short case history of each method. The paper then describes when and why to use each method for different data-collection goals. In the Proceedings of the 2003 Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Documentation (ACM SIGDOC).
[PDF version 171KB]
Field Research in Commercial Product Development
This paper describes two field research methods appropriate in commercial settings and reasons to employ them: condensed contextual inquiry and ethnographic interviewing. The paper and accompanying slides also describe case studies using each method.
[PDF version of paper 282KB]
[PDF version of presentation overheads 1,112KB]
Usability in Practice: Field Studies
Field methods are a collection of tools and techniques for conducting studies of users, their tasks, and their work environments in the actual context of those environments. The promise of such methods is that they help teams design products that are both useful and usable by providing data about what people really do. This paper reviews ways to adapt these methods to practical constraints, with brief case study summaries.
[PDF version 201KB]
Stalking the User: Practical Field Research
Understanding the target audience has always been a key element in effective communication. Describes how technical communicators can use field research—observing people in their workplaces, homes, and schools—to gain a better understanding of user behavior. For example, one of these methods is the “think aloud” protocol in usability testing, in which people say out loud whatever comes to their minds as they use a product.
Intercom article [PDF version 188KB]
Voice Recording: Tips for Non-Audiophiles
This paper describes how to achieve optimal sound quality when recording field usability sessions. In the Proceedings of the 2004 Usability Professionals’ Association Conference.
[PDF version 143KB]
Usability Case Studies
Shoes for the Shoemaker’s Children
A usability company redesigns its website to market itself and better support clients, associates, prospects, employees. The process involves obstacles and benefits that give fresh insights into customer experience and usability processes for customers and practitioners. The process -- and the site -- demonstrate how usability works when it happens at home. Presentation given at the 2006 Usability Professionals’ Association Conference.
[PDF version 1,853KB]
Balancing Rigor, Adaptation, and Mentoring: Field Study at Customer Sites to Initiate a Corporate Usability Program
Describes how Tec-Ed mentored new usability staff at a client company in performing a field usability test with the client’s customers. co-authored with the client company. In the Proceedings of the 2004 Usability Professionals’ Association Conference.
[PDF version 128KB]
Ethnographic Interviews Guide Design of Ford Vehicles Website
Describes ethnographic interviews with vehicle buyers to learn how they make purchase decisions. Despite a tight schedule, limited budget, and difficulties in finding suitable participants, we obtained valuable data that helped J. Walter Thompson refine the Ford Vehicles website. In the Proceedings of CHI 2003.
[PDF version 556KB]
Combining Usability Research with Documentation Development for Improved User Support
Describes two case studies where Tec-Ed leveraged usability research and documentation activities to create solutions that met the needs of both our clients and their customers. In the Proceedings of the 2002 Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Documentation (ACM SIGDOC).
[PDF version 292KB]
When the Field is Far Afield: Multiple-Country Observations of Complex System Use
Describes the challenges of usability studies of complex systems that are used internationally, based on a case study of a multinational company’s enterprise-wide call management system. In the Proceedings of the 1998 Usability Professionals’ Association (UPA) Conference.
[PDF version 105KB]
Multiple-User Testing: When One Person Can’t See Everything
Describes the pros and cons of the methods used in designing two usability tests where constraints prevented observation of all participants by one person. In the Proceedings of the 1997 Usability Professionals’ Association (UPA) Conference.
[PDF version 80KB]
Testing the Sizzle of the Steak: Usability Testing of Packaging
Provides the rationale for usability testing the packaging of high-tech products, including lowered support costs, improved customer satisfaction, and increased sales. In the Proceedings of the 1997 Usability Professionals’ Association (UPA) Conference.
[PDF version 79KB]
Iterative Usability Studies
Web Tool for Health Insurance Design by Small Groups: Usability Study
If you find evaluating health insurance benefits to be challenging, imagine evaluating the usability of a Web-based collaborative health insurance benefits planning tool. The application, created by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and the University of Michigan, improved with each iterative testing cycle and is now ready for widespread use.
[PDF version 377KB]
How Usability Engineering Can Improve Clinical Information Systems
Describes an integrated laboratory and ethnographic study of MIRACLE (Medical Information Retrieval Application for Clinical Enhancement). In the Proceedings of the 1999 Usability Professionals’ Association (UPA) Conference.
[PDF version 86KB]
Iterative Usability Methods: Why Testing Isn’t Enough
Discusses how to choose different usability methods for iterative research. Slides only. Presentation for MOCHI Southeastern Michigan and Northern Ohio SIGCHI Chapter, October 13, 1999, Ann Arbor, MI.
[PDF version 108KB]
The Best of Both Worlds: Combining Usability Testing and Documentation Projects
Describes two cases in which usability testing and documentation projects were performed in conjunction with one other. It describes how usability testing affected the design and content of the documentation and how follow-on usability studies added significant new data not revealed in the initial tests. In the Proceedings of the 1997 IEEE International Professional Communication Conference (IPCC).
[PDF version 144KB]
Accessibility
Usable Computers for the Elderly: Applying Coaching Experiences
Research studies have been conducted with older users to identify better ways to design user interfaces for the elderly and the best ways to train older users. To augment this research, Tec-Ed has begun collecting and analyzing the observations of people who informally coach the elderly. This paper reports the results of our preliminary research. Presented at the IEEE Professional Communication Conference (IPCC) in Orlando, Florida, in September 2003.
[PDF version 180KB]
Participant Recruiting
Participant “Bill of Rights”
A critical component of participant recruiting is how we treat participants throughout their entire usability-study experience, not just during screening and scheduling. This document summarizes guidelines for improving the “care and feeding” of usability test participants. The guidelines emerged from an Idea Market discussion led by Tec-Ed’s Deborah Sova at the Usability Professionals’ Association Conference in 2003.
[PDF version 72KB]
Challenges in Participant Recruiting for Usability Testing
Describes techniques for effective participant recruiting—crucial to collecting reliable data during usability testing—based on case studies. In the Proceedings of the 1998 IEEE International Professional Communication Conference (IPCC).
[PDF version 136KB]
User Assistance
Don’t Make Users Cry Help!
Could the “help” label be a major barrier to users’ successful access of assistance? How can we employ progressive usability testing to identify the best help-access labels and identify what information belongs where? This 40-slide presentation considers these questions and more about how to help users use help. Presented at the WritersUA 2006 conference in Palm Springs, CA, on April 9-12, 2006.
[PDF version 1,862KB]
Helping Users to Use Help: Results from Two International Conference Workshops
All too often, users fail to use the help systems available to them. This paper presents the results of two workshops that drew members from the information and the interaction/interface design communities together, from four different countries, to focus on effective integration of help systems into users’ environments. Presented at the 2005 IEEE Professional Communication Conference in Limerick, Ireland, July 10 - 13, 2005.
[PDF version 330KB]
Structured Heuristic Evaluation of Online Documentation
Increasingly, online documentation is the only documentation that companies provide with their products. To minimize customer resistance and encourage its use, online documentation (PDFs and help systems) must be at least as easy to use as a printed book. This paper presents a structured process for evaluating the usability of online documentation, based on a list of heuristics for navigating through and finding content. Presented at the IEEE Professional Communication Conference (IPCC) in Portland, Oregon, on September 19, 2002.
[PDF version 271KB]
Expanding Roles for Technical Communicators
Stephanie Rosenbaum and Lori Anschuetz co-authored this book chapter in Reshaping Technical Communication: New Directions and Challenges for the 21st Century. Edited by Barbara Mirel and Rachel Spilka and published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, the anthology of essays by the field’s top thinkers and leaders from academia and industry examines the status of technical communication and envisions a broader, nontraditional future for the field.
Audience Analysis and Document Planning
Tec-Ed has contributed this chapter to the 2nd edition of Science and Technical Writing: A Manual Of Style, edited by Philip Rubens. The manual’s broad range of topics includes referencing paper and electronic communication products, working with linked and archived web sources, and using specialized symbologies. The American Library Book Review calls this manual “a must for all scientific and technical writers, editors, educators, and students.”
Project Management
Managing Geographically Distributed Teams
Summarizes recent literature on virtual organizations, comparing Tec-Ed’s experiences and practices. Presented at the 1998 IEEE International Professional Communication Conference (IPCC).
[PDF version 171KB]
Techniques for Managing a Usability Test
For readers who have performed a usability test or taken a course on usability methods, provides project management techniques to ensure that a usability test meets its information-gathering goals. In Transactions on Professional Communication 37 (September 1994), the publication of the IEEE.
[PDF version 243KB]