Sullivan's influential article draws attention to the problem of the end-of-the-line problem solving approach in usability study in technical communication. Sullivan argues that technical communicators should broaden their understanding of usability from "usability study" to "usability research," which will enable them to utilize knowledge from other communities interested in usability. To do so, Sullivan "situates" usability in specific "places" and according to its structure. She points out three "filters" that affect usability research results: identities of the researchers, methods, and research questions. The a survey of these three areas, Sullivan argues that using usability testing as a product/document validation method at the end of development process is only one narrow way to look at usability research. Different groups of researchers, different models of research methods, different research questions shape usability research in different ways.
Sullivan's big argument in this article is that usability research is more than testing all-but-finished documents for validation, but include broader inquiries in various disciplines and from various perspectives. Her argument, however, is not specifically a call for iterative usability research throughout the development of the product as many hold today, although it certainly provide a theoretical ground for such an argument. The purpose of this article is to introduce practice and perspectives from other disciplines on usability to technical communicators so as to enrich our field. Although this article does not primarily aim to offer practical knowledge, parts of it are of practical use to researchers. For instance, the section on how to analyze the structure of the usability study, the survey of the methods, and categorization of research questions are all helpful in usability research method design for researchers.
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