Technical Translation: Usability Strategies for Translating Technical Documentation

Flexibility 
The design must be able to accommodate all variable data such as depart-
ment names, people, etc. without any formatting changes. 
Readability 
Schriver (1997:263) maintains that the best length for a line of printed text 
is approximately 40-70 characters or 8-12 words as it is easier to read. A 
similar point is made by D’Agenais & Carruthers (1985:101) who say that a 
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Software User Guides & Quality
sentence should be between 10-15 words in length. The page should also 
have plenty of white space (see below). 
Functionality 
The page margins should allow for binding and double-sided printing and 
the headers/footers should use as little space as possible in order to maxi-
mise the amount of space available for the actual text of the user guide. 
White Space 
Perhaps one of the most important factors in page design is the relationship 
between printed matter and white space. Borowick (1996:132) defines 
white space as “any part of a page that is blank and used to separate ideas.” 
This relationship is known as spacing and includes spaces between lines, 
paragraphs and margins. 
Margins 
Margins should be wide enough not just to facilitate binding (Austin & 
Dodd 1985:50) but to increase the amount of white space and “prevent the 
reader’s eyes from running off the end of the page” (Borowick 1996:130). 
It is generally agreed that the page margins should be at least 1 inch on all 
sides with an additional 0.5 inch for the inside margin (Borowick 1996:130) 
although D’Agenais & Carruthers (1985:185) suggest a 0.7 inch margin. 
Columns 
White space can be increased by using a two column format where the left 
column is used for headings and the right is used for body text (Mancuso 
1990:139). The following diagram illustrates this concept. 
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Technical Communication 
Figure 1: Two Column Page Layout