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> * What criteria do you use to verify if a document is good, in the
> absence of user feedback ?
The only reliable metric I've found has been usability testing,
measuring things like "how many hints do we have to give the
user before they complete a task" and "how long does it take
the user to complete a task."
Often, I discover that my initial concept of "good" was completely
off the mark. For example, for some products, most users consistently
look at only one section of the manual; for them, the quality of that
section IS the quality of the manual. For them, it doesn't matter
whether the other sections are gems of perfection or defect-ridden trash.
Lacking real users, I use surrogate users (anyone I can find who
matches what we think are the important characteristics of real users).
Of course, such testing is expensive (more in terms of time than money),
so I reserve it for precedent-setting documents or for manuals for the
most important products.
Paul
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