Response to the commentaries on Producing Quality Technical Information
Morris Dean · ACM Journal of Computer Documentation · 2002
The editor and principal writer of Producing Quality Technical Information (1983) responds to the commentaries: answering questions about the sources of PQTI; discussing what the System Information group at IBM's Santa Teresa Laboratory were doing about usability from 1979 to 1983; comparing the predecessor nine "ease-of-use factors" with the seven "qualities" of PQTI and the nine "quality characteristics" of Prentice Hall's subsequent editions of PQTI, published under the title Developing Quality Technical Information; and revealing his own motives and thought processes in working on several usability initiatives in the laboratory at that time, including the publication of PQTI.