How can technical documentation support your usability test presentation?

1 Define your goals and scope

Before you start writing your technical documentation, you need to define your goals and scope for your usability test presentation. What are the main objectives and questions you want to answer? Who is your audience and what are their expectations and needs? How much time and resources do you have to prepare and deliver your presentation? These factors will help you decide what type of documentation you need, how detailed it should be, and how to structure and format it.

2 Choose your documentation format

When planning a usability test presentation, you can choose from different technical documentation formats depending on your goals and scope. A test plan outlines the purpose, scope, methods, participants, tasks, scenarios, and schedule of your usability test and helps you plan and organize it. A test script guides the facilitator and participants through the usability test with instructions, questions, and prompts for each task or scenario. Lastly, a test report summarizes the results, findings, and recommendations of your usability test with data analysis, key insights, usability issues, and suggestions for improvement. This helps you present evidence to your audience and persuade them to take action.

3 Follow the documentation best practices

Regardless of the format you choose, you should follow some best practices to make your technical documentation effective and user-friendly. For instance, use clear and simple language that avoids jargon, acronyms, and technical terms. Additionally, visuals and examples can illustrate your data and findings, while headings and subheadings can organize your content. Moreover, bullet points and lists can highlight key points, steps, or actions. Lastly, use

tags for code blocks to make them stand out from the rest of the text and preserve their syntax. Following these best practices will ensure that your technical documentation is easy to read and understand.
###### Review and revise your documentation
Before you finalize your technical documentation, it's important to review and revise it to ensure its quality and accuracy. To help you do this, you can use a checklist. Check for spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors with a tool like Grammarly or Hemingway. Make sure your content is clear, consistent, and complete, avoiding ambiguity, contradiction, or gaps in your information. Also check for relevance, accuracy, and validity of the content, ensuring that it is relevant, accurate, and valid. Lastly, make sure your tone and style match your audience and purpose. Aim for an objective, informative, and persuasive tone while avoiding being too formal, informal, or emotional.
###### Test your documentation
Finally, you should test your documentation to ensure it works for your audience and presentation. Consider using peer review for errors, clarity, readability, and persuasiveness. You can also ask a representative user or stakeholder to test your documentation for comprehension, usability, and usefulness. Additionally, you can practice your presentation using your documentation to see how it flows and supports your speech. Technical documentation can support your usability test presentation by helping you plan, conduct, analyze, and report the test. Following the steps and tips in this article will enable you to create effective and user-friendly documentation that will improve your presentation and make a lasting impression on your audience.
######Here’s what else to consider
This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?