Usability testing: what are we learning? Guidelines for writers, editors, and designers

Case studies provide anecdotal support for writers who are urging their companies to incorporate usability testing into the development cycle. Through formal lab testing and heuristic evaluation, testers have helped companies create award-winning products, reduce customer service calls, and ensure user productivity. Testers have also gained insights that affect documents on three levels: improving access at the overall design level; guiding users at the section level, and interpreting information at the sentence level