My hopes for this semester are focused on preparing for my capstone project. I’ve been asked to develop a solution that will help student clinicians better orient themselves to electronic medical records (EMR). My project draws from usability studies, user experience (UX) research, and the rhetoric of health and medicine (RHM).
Usability is one of the ways the field of technical communication is visible in my project design. Usability testing is my collection method for the data I’ll use for solution development. Both interviews and observations will be used.
According to Redish and Barnum’s (2011) arguments in “Overlap, Influence, Intertwining: The Interplay of UX and Technical Communication,” technical communication has been coevolving with usability since the 1970s. This was before it was even called usability.
My second area of study is UX research. I’ll be using UX methodology in the development and implementation of a solution. Technical communication’s connection to UX is more debated. Redish and Barnum (2011) highlighted a controversy that has held back technical communicators from contributing their skills to UX teams. The backlash started when the field of UX opened to technical communicators in the 1990s. Redish and Barnum (2011) quote Joe Dumas, who wrote a history of usability emerging from human factors engineering. Dumas wrote that “some people with psychology and human factors backgrounds saw this as a watering down of the skills of the profession,” a view Dumas doesn’t agree with (Redish & Barnum, n.d., para. 66).
Redish and Barnum (2011) shared how this attitude is counterproductive to UX teams, product development, companies, users, and technical communicators. Technical communicators have struggled to make it onto UX teams, even though technical communicators bring skill sets such as user analysis, user advocacy, team collaboration, multidirectional communication, rhetoric, usability testing, adaptability in complex environments, and an ability to simplify complex information for users.
Redish and Barnum (2011) share a call to action to improve interdisciplinary collaboration between UX teams and technical communicators. Their reasoning—why wait until after the development of a less than user-friendly product to then ask technical communicators to write documentation to help users with the issues they will encounter. There are missed opportunities for all parties here.
UX and usability play a key role in human-computer interaction (HCI). HCI was included under sociocultural theories in our first lecture. My capstone project is designed to move me closer to my dream career in HCI—improving usability of assistive technology based on UX research. According to Redish and Barnum (2011), I have more of an uphill battle than I previously anticipated.
The last area of study in preparation for my project is RHM. The field of rhetoric is visible through RHM. I’m less clear if this also includes digital rhetoric, or how RHM aligns with technical communication. My directed readings course this semester will help me answer these questions. Additionally, during my studies, I’ll be looking for greater clarity on how usability and UX are distinguished from each other and are related to technical communication and digital rhetoric. Feedback to this blog post will likely provide some additional clarity.
Reference
Redish, G., & Barnum, C. (2011). Overlap, influence, intertwining: The interplay of UX and technical communication. JUX Journal of User Experience, 6(3), 90-101. https://uxpajournal.org/overlap-influence-intertwining-the-interplay-of-ux-and-technical-communication/
