Most of my work over the past twenty years has been spent designing and creating communication components which are delivered digitally – Help files, wizards, UI text, knowledge-bases, etc. A recent project got me back in touch with the print medium and allowed me to apply usability testing techniques that weren’t on the radar for technical writers a few years ago. Blink Interactive asked me to lead a project for one of their clients – ACT. This is the ACT that develops and administers the test that is so familiar to hundreds of thousands of high school students. The ACT had suspicions that several of their printed publications were not well suited to their student customers. The content used in these printed publications was also used on their web site and they wanted to make sure the students were getting important information related to the test.The session describes the usability testing that led to significant changes in the design of the documentation.

1. Joe Welinske joe@welinske.com  twitter: welinske

2.  ACT testing service and Blink
 16-page “Using Your ACT Results”
 Findings
 (1) students resisted existing text-intensive
design
 (2) there was information they thought valuable
– if they had found it
 Results
 Expository text replaced by infographics
 A narrative focused around the student
 A more contemporary design

3.  General review of the content and
design
 Interviews with ACT stakeholders
 Detailed study of customers
 Interviews in Seattle, Lincolnshire, IL, and Iowa
City
 16 students: male and female; public, parochial,
and private; sophomores, juniors, and seniors.
 Review and analyze the information

4.  The focus on the student report when
the scores arrived rendered the booklet
“invisible.”
 The small, dense text and newsprint
stock were a deterrent to the students
wanting to explore the booklet.
Recommendations. The text, layout, and
production of the booklet should be
designed to have a more accessible, more
visually interesting style.

5.  A few of the topics were of high interest
to most of the students. Others were of
no interest.
 For the topics of interest, they generally
wished they had known it was available.
Recommendations.
Integrate the high interest topics directly into
the student report. –OR-
Reorganize with high interest topics up front.
Redesign layout to improve usability.

7.  Adjustments to the text, images,
page design
 Elements of high interest moved to
front
 Much text replaced with infographics
 Text revised to tell a story

10.  Page count reduced from 16 to 8 pages
 Savings in printing/mailing costs
partially diverted to higher-quality
paper stock.
 A more contemporary design through
typeface, line-spacing, and gradients.
 Landscape orientation improves
reading with a two-page spread for the
content of companion pages.

11.  Applicationof formal user research
to printed documentation uniquely
illuminates development direction
for teenage readers
 for stakeholders
 for designers/writers