Technical Translation: Usability Strategies for Translating Technical Documentation

Participants 
For the purposes of the main study, it was felt that greater realism could be 
achieved by conducting the test in the same environment as real users 
would use the software. In this case, the software would be used in the Irish 
Parliament. It was also felt that because of the venue for the tests, it would 
be possible to gain access to subjects who more closely reflect the real users 
of the software.
With the assistance of 
DigiTake Software Systems Ltd.
, contact was 
made with Fianna Fáil, the political party in Government at the time of the 
study, and permission was obtained to recruit the party’s personnel assistants 
as subjects in the study. This particular group is much more suitable for par-
ticipation in the study because, in addition to having a very high proportion 
of graduates with appropriate levels of computer knowledge, potential sub-
jects are working in the same environment as parliamentary reporters and as 
such demonstrate an excellent understanding of politics and current affairs. 
As such, by drawing subjects from this group, it was possible to achieve a 
much higher level of realism. 
The same selection criteria were used in the main study as were used in 
the pilot study: subjects must be graduates, must be native speakers of Eng-
lish with excellent communication skills and beginner to intermediate level 
computer skills (i.e. 1-3 years experience). A total of 10 suitably qualified 
participants were selected at random. The details of each participant were 
recorded in the Tester ID form and each person was assigned a unique ID 
number. 
237

---

Assessing Usability 
Method 
The main study was conducted in three stages over four weeks. During the 
familiarisation stage, the same product brochure was emailed to participants 
to explain the nature of the product and the context in which it is used.