As technical editing practitioners, we put a lot of time and effort into ensuring that the documentation we send our readers is of the highest possible quality. We want to make sure that it helps our readers do the tasks they need to do or understand the concepts they need to know.
But what do we mean when we talk about “documentation quality”? What do our readers mean when they talk about it? And is it the same thing we mean?
For the past seven years, I’ve been researching these questions. As a practicing technical editor, I don’t always have time available to investigate what readers want. But because I see myself first and foremost as a “reader advocate”, I feel that it is critical that we as technical editing practitioners have solid and empirical evidence to help us do our jobs better.
On 1 September 2021 at 0830 PDT (click here for your local time zone), join Liz Fraley, Janice Summers, and me in Room 42 for a lively and interesting discussion about how readers see documentation quality and how we can use this information to make them happy. And, after all, who doesn’t want happy readers?