Testing documentation with “low-tech” simulation

This paper introduces low-tech simulation as a technique for testing procedures and their documentation. The key idea is to test the interface-procedure-documentation set in the early stages of development, where changes can be still be made easily, using extremely low-cost simulation materials. Using this low-tech method developers can test and improve the usability of documentation for user interfaces that are still being designed. An extended example, involving a new aircraft cockpit interface for text-based air-traffic control communication, presents a look at the low-tech approach in use. An evaluation of low-tech simulation shows that the approach was practical. Qualitative analysis indicates that low-tech evaluation produces results that are different from those obtained using the cognitive walkthrough for operating procedures and similar to those obtained using traditional high-tech simulation