Technical Translation: Usability Strategies for Translating Technical Documentation

Error Tolerant 
In an ideal world, every system and interface would be free from errors and 
the people who use them would not make any errors. However, it would 
be naïve to expect users not make at least 
some
mistakes. Consequently, a 
usable system should pre-empt the types of errors a user is likely to make 
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correct, the system is regarded as usable. Quesenbery (
ibid.
) states that 
effectiveness can sometimes be confused with efficiency. She clarifies this by 
accurately. If a user’s goals are met successfully and if the user’s work is 
saying that where 
effectiveness
relates to 
how well
a task is carried out, 

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Usability Engineering 
and either make it very difficult to make these errors or at least provide 
ways of identifying and rectifying errors when they occur. In the case of 
user guides, clear and precise information and instructions are essential. 
Similarly, warnings and precautions should be given in good time to pre-
vent users “jumping the gun” or performing potentially invalid actions. 
Easy to Learn 
Like the idea of learnability described earlier, ensuring that a system is easy 
to learn should allow users to quickly become familiar and confident with 
the fundamental workings of the system and provide them with a basis for 
continued learning. A common barrier for users is the typically steep learn-
ing curve required for new users. Making systems easy to learn, Quesen-
bery (
ibid.
) maintains, involves more than just presenting information in a 
way that is easy to understand. Ideally, users should be allowed to build on 
their prior knowledge which they bring with them to the interaction (see 
Constructivist Approaches
in Chapter 3).
Similarly, if we make the interface as consistent as possible, it should be 
possible for users to re-use interaction patterns they acquire. This serves to 
reinforce the information they have already learned as well as that which 
they will learn. Consistency and predictability are also key factors in Que-
senbery’s description of the ease with which users learn to use systems. If 
we use familiar terminology and functionality, users develop expectations as 
to how the system will behave and this in turn inspires confidence in the 
user. 
We can see that usability is much more than just making sure that every-
thing works with as few problems as possible. It requires a deep understand-
ing of users, what they want to do and what they are capable of doing. 
Similarly, making sure a product is usable is much more than “tightening 
bolts, smoothing off rough edges and applying a coat of paint”. Rather, it is 
a much more involved and complex process. According to Dumas & Re-
dish (1993:5) “usability means focusing on users” and in order to develop a 
product that is usable, it is essential to know and understand people who 
represent real users. 
So how do we set about making systems usable? More specifically, how 
do we improve the usability of user guides? We need some way of engi-
neering them to make sure that they take into account the problems faced 
(and posed) by users, particularly their cognitive capabilities. The following 
sections will examine the process of reading a user guide to learn how to 
use a software application. This will allow us to identify those aspects of 
reading user guides which can present problems for readers and it will help 
us explore ways of alleviating these problems. 
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Understanding How We Read User Guides