Listen to Your Readers.

How can you tell if your attempts at plain language have worked?  How can you increase the likelihood that your communication will be effective and achieve its goal?  Listen to your readers.

Test it with real members of your intended audience.  Don’t be afraid to revise an existing document or write another draft of a new document based on feedback you receive.

How to conduct usability testing to assess your documents and forms

You should be routinely testing all existing and new written materials with your intended audiences. Here are some suggested steps for conducting individual usability tests:

• Gather a sample of 5-6 individuals from your intended audience who agree to read the documents or forms and give you feedback.  They should represent the range of ages, educational backgrounds, and occupations of your intended audience.
• If you are writing or revising a document or form for existing clients, recruit existing clients, but do not repeat testing with the same ones.  If the purpose of your document or form is to convince someone to do something (e.g., apply for benefits, sign-up for an email list), recruit individuals who are not currently doing that thing.  Explain the goal and what their role is.  Be sure to convey the session is not intended to test them.
• Have the test members read the documents or forms.  It is often helpful to test more than one version of the same document and to present information with different levels of complexity.
• Ask your readers to explain what the document or form means in their own words, including what the reader is expected to do – according to the document or form.  You can also ask them what their reaction would be and what they would do if they received that document or form from your company.
• Try to identify any conflicts in the understanding among the test participants.  Remember, this is not a test of whether they “got it.”  It is a chance for you to understand what your audience is thinking and how they will react to what you have written.
• Ask the readers what would make the communication more helpful to them.
• Use your readers’ feedback to revise the document or form.

Usability testing can help you determine if your documents or forms need to be revised.  While this is a suggested step before finalizing your documents or forms - testing and revising your documents should be something that is done repeatedly over the life of the document or form.