Technical Translation: Usability Strategies for Translating Technical Documentation

Section 3: Overall User Reactions to System 
terrible/wonderful: The Control group gave an average rating of 5. The 
Experimental group were 20% happier with average rating of 6. 
awarding it an average rating of 3.4. The Experimental group were ap-
proximately 76.4% more satisfied with an average rating of 6. 
awarding it an average rating of 6. Experimental group were 12.5% happier 
awarding it an average rating of 6.75. 
garded the system almost 44.7% easier to use than the Control group which 
gave an average rating of 3.8. 
the Experimental group with average ratings of 3.8 for the Control group 
and 5.75 for the Experimental group. 
While these criteria do not directly relate to the incidence of Iconic 
Linkage (IL) in the user guide, they do show that the increased usability 
caused by the inclusion of IL results in improved user attitudes towards a 
product. In this case it is clear that users have a better opinion of the soft-
ware simply because the user guide is more usable. 
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rigid/flexible: The Control group felt that the system was more rigid than
difficult/easy: With an average rating of 5.5, the Experimental group re-
frustrating/satisfying: On average, the Control group found it frustrating,
dull/stimulating: The Control group found the system stimulating overall,
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Results of Usability Evaluation
Section 5: Terminology 
This section deals with the terminology used in the user guides. On the 
whole, both groups felt that the level of terminology used was appropriate 
and consistent. The Control group did, however, feel that computer termi-
nology was used slightly too frequently. Bearing in mind that both user 
guides contained exactly the same information and that if anything, terms 
were more likely to be repeated in the Experimental version, it is difficult 
to understand how this perception arises. We might presume that the over-
all difficulties encountered by subjects resulted in “spill-over” into other ar-
eas of the user guide with the result that difficulties in one area can result in 
lower levels of satisfaction throughout the user guide in a form of “guilt by 
association” effect.