Technical Translation: Usability Strategies for Translating Technical Documentation

Questionnaires 
Questionnaires are less flexible than interviews but they take less time to 
administer, can reach a larger audience and the resulting data is easier to 
analyse (Dix 1998:432; Hill 1995:130; Downton 1991:334). However, a 
questionnaire, because of its static nature, needs to be carefully worded to 
ensure that participants understand the questions fully and provide the de-
sired information. 
Questionnaires can be either self-administered or interviewer-
administered. Self-administered questionnaires are completed by users alone 
and are frequently posted out to users. While the staff resources are gener-
ally less than for interviewer-administered questionnaires, this particular 
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Survey Methods
benefit is outweighed by the fact that clarification cannot be given to users. 
Consequently, there may be instances where users either do not answer 
questions or misunderstand them and give a false or misleading answer. 
An additional problem with self-administered questionnaires is the fre-
cites a response rate of less than 40% for postal questionnaires. This can re-
sult in extreme bias of results because of small, unrepresentative subject 
populations (
ibid.
). 
Self-administered questionnaires also place greater pressure on the de-
signers of the questionnaire to produce absolutely clear and unambiguous 
questions in order to ensure that users understand all of the questions. In 
order to do this a continual process of design, evaluation and redesign needs 
to be carried out until there is absolutely no room for confusion (Faulkner 
1998:117). This would undoubtedly result in a lengthy and time-
ances and other resources. 
Interviewer-administered questionnaires involve an interviewer asking 
the questions and completing the questionnaire with the user’s responses. 
Although this method requires the availability of an interviewer, the inter-
viewer does not need the same level of skill or experience as for interviews. 
Furthermore, interviewer-administered questionnaires make it possible to 
better control the data gathering process (Downton 1991:335) and any con-
fusion as regards unclear questions can be clarified immediately. In addition, 
the use of interviewers ensures that the poor response rates associated with 
self-administered questionnaires are avoided.