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The questionnaire I designed for my first company asked, among other things:
Could you find what you needed in the index? If not, please list some of
the terms you could not find:
This told me where I had holes in the index.
Could you find what you needed in the TOC? If not, please list some of the
topics you could not find:
This told me if I had named the sections usefully.
I also mentioned at the top of the survey that they should keep copies of
the survey by their workstations and fill it in over the course of about
six weeks or so. (This was a daily-use type of program.)
I didn't get a lot of responses back, but those I did receive were very
useful and informative (usually -- I got a couple of brain-deaders). The
more specific questions you ask, the better answers you'll get. Try to
allow for, but don't focus on, negative answers. I had to fight this
through Marketing (the department I was in at the time) because they
basically just wanted ego-stroke answers, which would help me not at all.
B.
Bonni Graham
Manual Labour
Director, Region 8 Conference
bgraham -at- electriciti -dot- com
