Response to the commentaries on Producing Quality Technical Information: the common sense of producing quality technical information

ABSTRACT

The editor and principal writer of Producing Quality Technical Information (1983) responds to the commentaries: answering questions about the sources of PQTI; discussing what the System Information group at IBM's Santa Teresa Laboratory were doing about usability from 1979 to 1983; comparing the predecessor nine "ease-of-use factors" with the seven "qualities" of PQTI and the nine "quality characteristics" of Prentice Hall's subsequent editions of PQTI, published under the title Developing Quality Technical Information; and revealing his own motives and thought processes in working on several usability initiatives in the laboratory at that time, including the publication of PQTI.

REFERENCES

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.7 DOCUMENT AND TEXT PROCESSING
      I.7.5 Document Capture

Keywords:
common sense, ease of use, guidelines, learner, learning, memory, persona, psychological basis, psychology, quality, reader, reading, task-orientation, usability