ABSTRACT
Modern communication situations are no longer highly structured; instead, they have shifted to complex situations revolving around information seeking, problem solving, and decision making. In response, most of the information that writers produce and most of the information that people want are complex, not simple. From a usability-testing standpoint, for a complex situation the focus must be on how people integrate multiple information elements. This integration depends not on the content of a text element itself
CONTENTS
Introduction ......................................................................................................... 110 Importance of Relationships and Contextual Awareness .................... 112 Usability Tests for Relationships and Contextual Awareness ............. 117
Building a Test Plan for Contextual Awareness Usability ............................. 120 Factors to Consider When Building the Test Plan ................................. 121
Mental Models ................................................................................ 122 Information Salience ...................................................................... 123 Information Relationships ............................................................ 123 Contextual Awareness ................................................................... 124
Collecting Data .................................................................................................... 124 Tests While a Person Is Still Developing Contextual Awareness ........ 125 Tests of the Quality of a Person’s Contextual Awareness .................... 125 Data Analysis .............................................................................................. 126
Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 126 Reader Take-Aways ............................................................................................ 128 References ............................................................................................................. 129
but on forming relationships between those elements. A reader needs to figure out what information is relevant and how it connects to the current problem. Without proper information relationships, the reader does not gain an integrated understanding of information. As a result, he or she fails to have a clear understanding of the situation and its future evolution, and is unable to effectively make decisions that influence it. This chapter presents an argument for why focusing usability tests on how people understand relationships is important, and presents basic guidance.
