Queer Usability

Toward TPC-UX: UX Topics in TPC Journals 2013–2022

“…Ultimately, Acharya (2022a) argues for an approach to usability that is attuned to social justice and its attendant sociocultural concerns. Such an approach to usability appears to have some traction within the discipline (e.g., Ramler, 2021), but Acharya's (2022a) discussion of usability appears to bleed into user experience territory:Building usability into a product requires more than achieving pragmatic and/or user experience goals of usability. It also requires understanding users’ entire perceptions of use, their interpretation of those perceptions, and resulting changes in their personal and social lives .…”

“…Green (2021a) argues that, at the level of theory, “integrating unruliness, risk communication, and UX helps explain how digital health technologies… reinforce normative constructions of risk” and by “turning attention toward these unruly user experiences reveals alternative practices of risk assessment and ulterior understandings of health that go unsupported by digital interfaces” (p. 272). In a similar vein, Ramler (2021) has advanced an approach to usability— queer usability —that serves as a counter to “digital inhospitality” (p. 345). This approach to usability is guided by inclusion and safety (Ramler, 2021, p. 345) rather than the “extreme usability” of the Nielsen Norman Group that is guided solely by ease of use (see Dilger, 2006).…”

“…In a similar vein, Ramler (2021) has advanced an approach to usability— queer usability —that serves as a counter to “digital inhospitality” (p. 345). This approach to usability is guided by inclusion and safety (Ramler, 2021, p. 345) rather than the “extreme usability” of the Nielsen Norman Group that is guided solely by ease of use (see Dilger, 2006).…”

“…Ultimately, Acharya (2022a) argues for an approach to usability that is attuned to social justice and its attendant sociocultural concerns. Such an approach to usability appears to have some traction within the discipline (e.g., Ramler, 2021), but Acharya's (2022a) discussion of usability appears to bleed into user experience territory:…”

Trans Oppression Through Technical Rhetorics: A Queer Phenomenological Analysis of Institutional Documents

“…In the last few years, technical communication's professional organizations have given several of their highest awards to articles advocating for social justice in both practice and research (Colton et al, 2017; Edenfield et al, 2019b; Jones et al, 2016; Jones & Williams, 2018; Walton & Hopton, 2018; Walton et al, 2015). As part of this social justice stance, various aspects of scholarship in technical and professional communication (TPC) have come under increased scrutiny, including cross-cultural and intercultural communication (Agboka, 2013; Ding & Kong, 2019; Sun, 2006; Walton et al, 2015; Walton & Jones, 2013), design (Moeggenberg & Walton, 2019; Ramler, 2021; Rose, 2016; Walton, 2016), localization and translation (Getto & Sun, 2017; Gonzales, 2018; Gonzales & Zantjer, 2015), and dis/ability studies (Colton & Holmes, 2018; Colton & Walton, 2015; Zdenek, 2015), among others.…”