Technical Translation: Usability Strategies for Translating Technical Documentation

Implementing Usability Measures 
In the preceding sections we looked at how humans perceive, process and 
store information. We also looked at the process of reading and examined 
those aspects of reading a user guide which place the greatest burden on our 
cognitive abilities. However, this knowledge is of little value unless we 
have some way of connecting it with the practical aspects of producing user 
guides, i.e. writing, translation and editing. The challenge here is to formu-
late and implement a series of 
principles
, 
guidelines
and 
rules
(Dumas & 
Redish 1999:53-61; Schneiderman 1998:52ff ).
Principles, Guidelines and Rules of Usability 
ate of human frailties (Raskin 2000:6) 
In order to ensure that an interface is both “humane” and usable, we need 
to take the various characteristics of the human cognitive system - as de-
transforming them into practical and workable methods for improving in-
teractions and ultimately the usability of the interface. 
Dumas & Redish (1999:52-53) assert that many of the usability problems 
encountered in practice are dealt with in the wealth of information ob-
tained through interface design research and usability testing. They make 
the point that interface and documentation design both draw on the same 
body of knowledge albeit from slightly different angles. They claim that in-
terface design is concerned with designing software to ease the interactions 
160
An interface is humane if it is responsive to human needs and consider-
scribed in the preceding chapters - into account when implementing an
interface design. Using principles, guidelines and rules provides a way of 
selecting key cognitive issues which are of relevance to cognetics and 

---

Implementing Usability Measures
with users while documentation designers design documentation that 
“works for users” rather than documentation that just describes the system 
(
ibid.
). Experts from both disciplines ask similar questions such as “
How do 
I make sure users’ abilities are catered for?
” etc. The mass of knowledge is 
“distilled into general principles and guidelines” (Dumas & Redish 1999:53; 
see also Preece 1996:488-491). 
Defining a principle as “a very broad statement” that is usually based on 
research into how people learn and perform tasks, the authors provide an 
example which applies both to computers and to documentation (Dumas & 
Redish 
ibid.
): be consistent in your choice of words, formats, graphics and 
procedures. This principle is based on the fact that we learn faster when 
what we see and do is consistent.