Exam 13: Reviewing, Evaluating, and Testing Documents and Web Sites

Evaluation refers to having other people read your document or use your website and then communicate with you about its strengths and weaknesses.

You work for a company that makes high-volume photocopiers for use in business settings. Your team is going to test the usability of the new repair manual for the company's Series 400 photocopier system. You are helping to write the test materials. Which of the following is an effective task to ask a user of the Series 400 repair manual to complete?

Usability refers to five aspects of a person's use of an item. What are two of these factors?

Generally, it is best not to use company employees as participants in a usability test.

Reviewing a document or website is the same thing as testing it.

A printed form is the standard way to obtain informed consent from a test participant.

Which of the following is the most important difference between observing users in a usability evaluation and observing them in a usability test?

which type of person is NOT typically involved in a usability evaluation?

What kinds of questions should a test administrator ask of a usability test participant who is unable to complete a task?

In which one of the following pairs are the two paired techniques most similar?

In which stage of the reviewing process are you most likely to benefit from using your word processor's outline view?

You are a technical writer for an electrical contractor. You have finished writing a draft of the procedures to be used by your company's electricians when installing gas dryers and water heaters. You have just learned that your county has updated the code that gives the allowable length of the gas-input pipe used for dryers and water heaters. What is the name of the process you will engage in when you look at your document to determine how to change it in light of the revised code?

During which phase of usability testing is it important to tabulate the information?

what is a prototype?

You are a technical writer for a company that makes electrical control devices such as thermostats. You have just finished writing a draft of a document to be used by electricians who install your company's devices and by homeowners who purchase them. Now your supervisor has decided that the company should publish one document for electricians and a separate one for homeowners. What is the name of the process you will engage in when you look at your document to determine how to change it in light of the decision to make two separate documents?

What are the three main principles of usability testing?

One factor affecting your decision about whether to review, evaluate, or test a document is that document's relative importance. What are two other factors?

Which word best summarizes the role of a test administrator relative to a participant in a usability test?

In performing usability testing, why is it a bad idea to use your own company's employees as test participants?

Proofreading is the process of looking again at your draft to see if your initial assumptions about your audience, purpose, and subject still pertain, then making any necessary changes.