(Agora rakennuksen 1. kerroksen aula) (Agora Building, 1st floor hallway)
Juho Suokas: Evaluating the usability of The Guitar Handbook´s Finnish translation
Guitar players use a variety of different self-learning methods, including printed books. One well-known example is Ralph Denyer’s The Guitar Handbook, whose Finnish translation Suuri kitarakirja has received negative criticism of its language, which is said to make it difficult to understand the contents.
This study uses two usability methods, heuristic evaluation and usability testing, to evaluate an excerpt of the translated book describing certain playing techniques. The heuristic evaluation was done by a group of language experts with experience with playing guitar. The usability test participants were students in their 20s, who play guitar, but are not students or experts of languages or translation.
The focus of the study was the application of usability methods in translation evaluation, but the evaluation also produced interesting insights about using the book as learning material. For instance, there was a notable age gap between the usability test participants and the language experts, who were familiar using books as learning material for music, while the younger participants were more familiar with on-line material such as videos and tablatures. Similarly most of the found usability problems did not concern language, but had more to do with using the book as an interface.
