Technical Translation: Usability Strategies for Translating Technical Documentation

Motivation 
Often the people who read user guides are under no obligation to actually 
follow the instructions provided in a user guide. It is also the case that they 
may not even want to read the user guide in the first place. Schriver main-
tains: 
Bad experiences with documents influence not only our thinking about 
documents we’ve used but also our attitudes about documents we have 
not yet seen. People appear to generalize their bad experiences (Schriver 
1997:4). 
In such instances perhaps one of the most important functions of user 
guides (apart from pure instruction) is to motivate the reader, to make it 
seem worthwhile for the reader to read and follow the guide. Examples of 
such “motivating” guides would include the “…
For Dummies
” books pub-
lished by 
IDG books
, which take a range of different subjects and present 
them in an easy to follow way for people who, for whatever reason (often 
because the subject is perceived to be too difficult), may be reluctant to 
learn.
With this in mind it is, according to Borowick (1996:176), important for 
the writer to explain the importance of the guide and the instructions it 
contains. Borowick maintains that a conversational tone, among other 
things, will encourage the readers to co-operate. Borowick begins by saying 
that it is necessary for the writer to discuss at the very outset the “desire to 
achieve a common goal” (
ibid.
) or to express concern for the satisfaction 
and success of the reader as a user. The results and benefits should, there-
fore, be explained to the readers. The explanations or justifications for cer-
tain instructions must be clearly separated from the actual instructions. 
Borowick says this can be achieved using italics, parentheses or other “liter-
ary mechanical devices.” 
Software User Guides & Quality 
Previous sections have alluded to various factors which can influence the 
quality of a user guide but this only part of the picture. The reality of user 
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Software User Guides & Quality
guides means that there are numerous ways in which the quality of user 
guides can be affected and these cover several areas including linguistic is-
sues, organisational factors, social considerations involving users, technical 
and visual features to name, to provide a few examples. The best way of 
understanding user guides and how to improve them is to look at the vari-
ous factors that feature in their production. In the following section we will 
examine the problem of poor user guides and explore a wide range of issues 
affecting their production. This will help us to understand user guides and 
how we can improve their quality.