Technical Translation: Usability Strategies for Translating Technical Documentation

Conclusions 
This chapter introduced the genre of software user guides and placed it 
within the overall context of technical communication. In doing so it pro-
vides translators with an insight into the various features and characteristics 
of these texts as well as the expectations typical readers have of user guides. 
By understanding these issues, translators can gain a better understanding of 
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Conclusions
what it is they need to achieve in order to produce effective translations 
which will be accepted by the target audience. 
It is clear from this chapter that user guides are just one product of technical 
communication, yet they are, perhaps, one of the most visible products. It 
could be argued that they are one of the crucial types of technical docu-
ment because they are instrumental in allowing new users to learn how to 
use new software. We have seen that the perceived ease of learning as facili-
tated by user guides can be a decisive commercial factor for software prod-
ucts. 
This chapter also examined in detail the components of user guides. 
From this it emerged that a “good” user guide is more than just a collection 
of clearly phrased instructions or a repository of all information relating to a 
piece of software. Rather, user guides should ideally contain information 
that is targeted at the needs of the users and what they want to do. They 
present users with the knowledge they need in order to perform a task, 
when they need to perform it. Information is “fed” to users in a measured, 
logical and timely way. 
Beyond the purely stylistic and content-related issues, a range of other 
factors such as layout, typography, presentation, structure etc. influence the 
effectiveness of user guides. All of these factors paint a more holistic picture 
of the nature of user guides than that which is reflected in the methods 
commonly used to assess the quality of user guides. Readability tests such as 
the 
Flesch Readability Test
, the 
Fog Index
or the 
Clear River Test
coupled 
with technical accuracy checks merely assess a small part of user guides.
Line spacing, white space and information chunking point to some form 
of understanding of how humans read text and perceive information. Sim-
plicity of language, clear instructions, the use of parallel structures and ac-
tive verbs and the avoidance of euphemisms etc., all draw on characteristics 
of the way humans decode, understand and absorb information. It is clear, 
therefore, that we need to examine these factors from the point of view of 
the person reading the user guide. 
One area raised in the chapter which will be discussed in much more de-
tail later on is that of usability and usability testing. Unlike readability test-
ing, usability testing seeks to understand all of the factors that influence how 
well users can use a user guide, whether it is an original source language 
text or a translation. Usability testing adopts a suitably broad approach 
which centres on the reader and it will give us a deeper understanding of why
some user guides are easier to
use than others. The following chapter 
will begin by defining usability and discussing its importance for users. We 
will then look at the processes and systems that are called into play when 
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Technical Communication 
we read a user guide. By understanding readers’ cognitive abilities, prefer-
ences and limitations, we can begin to identify those aspects of user guides 
that facilitate the transfer and assimilation of knowledge necessary to use 
software – the stated purpose of user guides. Thus, any discussion of usabil-
ity requires a thorough understanding of the human cognitive system and 
its processes. 
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Chapter 3