Field-testing

After proof-reading, test your first draft with colleagues to eliminate the most obvious glitches.

Then do your testing with persons of the target population who have not yet seen the materials nor had the training in any other form. People who already know the subject matter or saw previous drafts of materials won't be tripped up as if they were learning from scratch. If possible, observe them actually using the program.

If something is unclear, some will tend to stop and re-read it, which is quite observable. In some cases, they will be clearly frustrated. Others will just decide to "skip that bit."

Look for non-verbal clues – anything that makes them hesitate because they are confused. These will probably be:

• innocent questions that are not intended to indicate confusion
• re-reading things to figure out what the materials say
• confusing language
• unexplained assumptions
• language, literacy or numeracy difficulties
• out-of-sequence explanations
• not enough instructions on what to do
• confusing procedures
• too much or too little information
• incorrect information
• boredom: lack of options
• boredom: activities that are too too simple for the target population.
• frustration: activities that are too difficult for the target population.

Obviously, you will also ask for verbal feedback, but the non-verbal feedback can be more useful. Then make corrections.

While you're at it, keep an eye on the time to see how long it takes.

Then test your materials again on a new group of people from the target population who have never seen them before, and collate suggestions for improvement. You need to use different people each time, because they need to be working the program for the first time; they can no longer give their first impression of the meaning of the questions. If necessary, you can repeat this kind of test more widely with other new groups of people from the target population.

Decide when to stop: you can keep improving forever, so stop when your materials are good enough, that is, when the incoming suggestions are trivial and you are satisfied with the product. Any feedback after that can go into the next edition. Besides, it isn't necessarily a good idea to make your materials completely perfect from all possible misunderstanding. That might make them so boring and moron-proof they they would fail for other reasons.