Technical Translation: Usability Strategies for Translating Technical Documentation

Section 7: User Guide Content & Structure 
In response to 
Question 7.2.1
“Information for specific aspects of the sys-
tem was complete and informative”, the Control group gave an average 
rating of 4.2 compared to the Experimental group which gave a rating of 
6.4. While both user guides had identical information, the apparent diffi-
culty encountered by subjects in finding information would suggest that 
they had problems assimilating or recognising information and as such they 
could not recognise the information content of what they were reading.
248

---

Conclusions
For 
Question 7.2.2
“Information was concise and to the point” the aver-
age Control group rating was 5.8 compared to the Control group’s rating 
of 7.6. The average ratings for the Control group can be interpreted as 
meaning that the presentation of information in the Control user guide (de-
spite the slightly higher word count) was not substandard, i.e. it was of an 
acceptable standard. The Experimental user guide, however, was more than 
acceptable in comparison. 
For 
Question 7.3
“Tasks can be completed: with difficulty/easily” the 
average rating for the Control group was 4 while the Experimental groups 
average rating was 6.2. This represented a 55% improvement in the Ex-
perimental group’s rating. 
This result is borne out by task completion figures for both groups. In 
the Control group, three out of the five subjects (60%) failed to complete 
all of the tasks. In comparison, all of the subjects in the Experimental group 
completed all of the tasks.
For 
Question 7.3.1
which asks whether subjects found the instructions 
for completing tasks clear or confusing, the average response for Experi-
mental group was 6.8 in contrast to 5.4 for the Control group. The Ex-
perimental group, therefore, found the instructions 25.9% clearer. 
For 
Question 7.4
, “Learning to operate the system using the user guide 
was: difficult/easy” the Experimental group gave an average rating of 7.4 
compared to the average Control group rating of just 4. This represents 
quite a drastic difference with the Experimental group finding it 85% easier 
to learn to use the system. 
Question 7.4.1
“Completing system tasks after using only the user guide 
was: difficult/easy” provided similar results with the Control group giving 
an average rating of 4.2 compared to 6.4 given by the Experimental group. 
Again, these figures are echoed in the error rates for each group and the 
task completion rates.