Ron, Are you documenting hardware products or screen-based interfaces?

I'm curious about this topic because it seems like the emphasis should
be on the evaluation, design or problem solving, with less emphasis on
any specific type of documentation only. Shouldn't the documentation
should fit the communication need?

Personally, I'm worried about having become pigeon-holed into having
experience with one type of documentation vs. another, even though the
process in the end is basically the same.


--- In houstonhfes@yahoogroups.com, Ron Vutpakdi <vutpakdi@...> wrote:
>
> Good topic!
>
> My documentation mainly consists of clickable PDF
> files.  The files are usually in landscape tabloid mode with mockups /
> wireframes at full scale.  Often, I will make the mockups/wireframes
> "clickable" by embedding hyperlinks to "buttons" and such. 
>
> Mockup/wireframe goes on the left with annotation running along the
right side.
>
> PDFs
> seem to work well because they can be viewed at full scale (to give a
> better impression of what an interface will look like), can be
> hyperlinked (for navigation and a better impression of "feel"), and can
> also be printed to regular paper or tabloid paper with scaling handled
> automatically by Acrobat Reader.  Each of our floors has a Xerox Print
> Centre with letter, legal, and tabloid paper loaded.
>
> That said,
> if I can just give a quick answer or a quick sketch, I will do that and
> leave no formal documentation (other than a notation in my daily notes).
>
> Ron
>
>
============================================================================

> Ron Vutpakdi
> vutpakdi@...
>
> --- On Tue, 10/28/08, alliwalk1980 <alliwalk19@...> wrote:
> From: alliwalk1980 <alliwalk19@...>
> Subject: [houstonhfes] Documentation in Human Factors Engineering
> To: houstonhfes@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Tuesday, October 28, 2008, 6:07 PM
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> I'm curious to know some of the methods that HF or
Usability Engineers
>
> document design solutions for products. For instance, I used to work on
>
> the design of printers, and our documentation took the form of written
>
> specifications to describe how the devices worked. If I was working
>
> with something screen-based, visual mock-ups might be my documentation
>
> of choice.
>
>
>
> How do you provide your documentation to the developers or mechanical
>
> engineers you work with?
>
>
>
> Allison
>