---
title: "Evaluating the user experience of documentation – Podcast with Bob Watson"
date: 2018-06-18
description: "You can listen to the podcast here: Listen here: <img..."
canonical_url: https://idratherbewriting.com/2018/06/18/podcast-on-the-user-experience/index.html
---

> For AI agents: a documentation index is available at https://idratherbewriting.com/llms.txt. Markdown versions of all pages are available by appending .md to any page URL.

# Evaluating the user experience of documentation – Podcast with Bob Watson

> This week I chatted with [Bob Watson](https://www.linkedin.com/in/docsbydesign/), an assistant professor of tech comm at [Mercer University](https://engineering.mercer.edu/academics/undergraduate/technical-communication/), about how to evaluate the user experience of documentation. The idea of doing a podcast came up during a comment thread on a previous post about [reconstructing the absent user.](https://idratherbewriting.com/simplifying-complexity/reconstructing-the-absent-user.html) We had a long exchange in the comment threads and thought it would be good to have a podcast about the topic.

You can listen to the podcast here:

**Listen here:**

[Audio](https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/idbwmedia.com/podcasts/evaluatinguserexperience.mp3)

[![](https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/idbwmedia.com/images/apple_podcasts.png)](https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id-rather-be-writing-podcast/id277365275) [![](https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/idbwmedia.com/images/watchonyoutubeblack.png)](https://www.youtube.com/@idratherbewriting) [![](https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/idbwmedia.com/images/spotify.png)](https://open.spotify.com/show/4HeOZfPGMMfViOhVS40QBD)

Here are a few questions we cover during the podcast:

- Should tech writers do user testing and research, or is this product team’s job in designing the product?
- Can’t we just leverage marketing personas for the user research we need?
- How can looking at the market and product angles help clarify user needs and behaviors?
- What kind of knowledge can we leverage from universal design patterns about how users consume docs?
- How do we avoid hasty generalizations from a user sample that’s too small?
- Is it feasible for tech writers to actually do user testing on top of all of their other duties?
- How can you make feedback forms on docs more likely to get responses from users?
- If you collect feedback at major milestones that users complete, how do you avoid just collecting responses from successful users?
- How does Twilio successfully collect info from their users?
- How can you successfully gather metrics that show user success or failure on tasks?
- How can you make your feedback surveys specific to the data so that you get better responses?

For more information about Bob Watson, see his site, [Docs by Design](http://docsbydesign.com/).