Evaluating the effects of document design principles

The authors present a model of the process of designing documents. The model can he used as a joh aid for writers and as a framework for testing document design principles. The final step in this model is evaluation — testing how easily readers can understand and use the document. They then describe an audience-centered evaluation in which a traditional bureaucratic document was compared with a shortened,reorganized, and rewritten version. Subjects using the revised document answered more questions correctly, were significantly better in identifying the correct section, took less time to answer questions, and rated the revised document as much easier to use.