Chapter 4: Considering Users and the Way They Use Procedural Texts: Some Prerequisites for the Design of Appropriate Documents
Franck Ganier, Javier Barcenilla · 2007
This chapter supports the idea that the design of documents matching the users' needs depends not only on knowledge of the user's characteristics and technical writing principles, but also, and on the knowledge of the user's functioning when interacting with the document and equipment to operate. It aims to relate studies emphasizing the different connections in the user/document/equipment interaction with those emphasizing the user's difficulties in this interaction. It also summarises research conducted on use of procedural documents. The chapter focuses on each of the factors present in the interaction and then studies the interaction itself. This synthesis is aimed to have a better understanding of difficulties faced by people using this type of document. It proposes some recommendations concerning the design of procedural documents, which aim to reduce these problems. It then proposes production/revision procedure to enable the creation of more efficient documents suiting users' needs more appropriately. Keywords: design of documents; efficient documents; equipment interaction; procedural documents; production/revision procedure; technical writing principles; users' needs