Specialized technical documentation in the form of product manuals, user guides, API or SDK documentation is created to describe the functionalities and features of a product. Creating it efficiently and accurately is a critical task which can decide how the products or features are actually used by the intended user.
In this blog post, we’ll talk about the challenges that come in the way of creating specialized technical documentation and how they can, in turn, impact the quality of translation.
Challenges in creating specialized technical documentation
Clarity: Content needs to be written in clear, precise language. To enable this, the terms used in the content must themselves be clear and precise. If not, the reader can struggle to understand the meaning.
Accuracy: Information documentation in fields such as medicine and industry needs to be accurate to avoid injury and ensure the safety of people and property. There is often no room for error, hence necessitating a terminology database which accurately documents the meaning of a particular term and how it can be used.
Consistency: Terminology needs to be used in a consistent manner across several versions by a team of technical writers. If the term conveys different meanings to different departments in the company, that too must be specified in the database.
Over time, the same term may take on more meanings, discard old ones, or change its original references. Terminology management needs to reflect this evolution in the term use.
Version control: Technical documents are continuously updated with each new feature release or product update. Efficient version control is necessary, so that it is easier to roll back document updates when necessary or refer to previous versions.
Collaboration: Usually, a team of technical writers work together but asynchronously on the documentation. It requires that cloud-based platforms are necessary for the team to collaborate seamlessly.
The Domino effect: inadequate technical documentation leads to unreliable translation
If the original content is ridden with errors, inconsistent with style, and is not easily understandable, it can impact the translation. The translated versions will carry forward these same errors and make it a much more difficult and expensive process to fix the errors later on.
Lack of consistency: It can be confusing to translators when a term is used varyingly in the content. They may then end up using the term in erroneous or outdated ways. It may not be in agreement with the company style and may convey a different meaning. A central, managed repository of terminology which provides a constant reference for the terms can take care of this issue. It can guide the technical team in using the term consistently in the source content.
Lack of clarity and accuracy: If the correct terms are not used in the source content to describe the product or service, the translators will also make the same mistakes in multiple languages. It will then cause issues to the customers when they use the product or service. It can cause injury or inconvenience to the user and may result in important information getting lost, misinterpreted, or omitted.
Lack of context: Without context, translators are working blind. They have no idea of understanding how a particular word would be used in the document. A well-defined terminology database sets the right context for each term and makes translation go easier and quicker.
Delay in translation: All of the above issues result in slowing down the translation process. Back-and-forth ensues between the translators, project managers, clients, and other collaborators. The same issues may come up again and again, causing deadlines to be missed and product launch schedules to go awry.
Mounting costs: The cost of translation can exceed the estimated budget with the many errors, delays, and revisions.
Messed up user experience: Help guides produced in this manner do not help the user, but may often leave them confused. It may not provide the answers they seek, instead it may cause accidents, too, in the worst case scenario. Needless to say, users are disgruntled and the reputation of the company is lost. They may discontinue the use of the product or service. They may also leave negative feedback on social media, causing further disrepute.
Possibility of legal disputes: If the user suffers losses or injuries because of errors in the technical documentation, it may lead to lawsuits. This can cause losses to the tunes of millions to the company.
It should be obvious from reading the above that high-quality terminology management needs to be introduced at the time of source content creation to take care of all the issues that may crop up later. In our next post, we will talk about terminology management, consistency, and whose responsibility it is to develop the terminology.
Vijayalaxmi Hegde
