Guest post by Kristi Leach.

So, You Need a Book about Usability

A while back, I asked Karen Bachmann, a usability expert in our STC chapter, to recommend some books for our tech comm department. I was looking for a place to start with the topic. Without hesitation, she told me everyone should read Steve Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think.

So, I ordered both Krug’s books: Don’t Make Me Think and Rocket Surgery Made Easy. Rocket Surgery is an expansion on his explanation of how to do simple, cheap usability testing. It comes with great check lists and sample scripts that you can download, along with a free chapter of the book and recommendations on equipment.

Once I had read Don’t Make Me Think, I wanted to send recommendations to our developers. That seemed like an overwhelming undertaking, so instead, after reading Rocket Surgery, I decided to implement a testing schedule for our documentation, with the long-term goal of getting to test our products.

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