Using Usability

This week I produced an outline to manage the 'Usability' project that hasn't really been able to get off the ground. Everyone knows we need product improvements (almost as urgently as website re-design) but the 'to-do' list is so daunting that it seemingly never gets touched.
On Monday I created a comprehensive outline that breaks down the Usability Project into five stages. Because we don't have the resources to do usability testing, I thought I could instead just use a bunch of competing products to get a better sense of what works and what doesn't.

I have completed documentation of the first two stages (Product Page and Download & Installation Process) and have a TON of nitpick ideas for improvement. By the end of the day yesterday I was feeling a bit down, thinking that all this data might never see the light of an open application window again, so I started to think of simpler ways of presenting this mass of information.
Today I began compiling this information into a Word Document that has Field Tags. Once the document is complete I will use Adobe Acrobat Pro to convert the document and create PDF tags. That way, this massive document can be easily traversed through an expanding tree to easily jump directly to any page containing the visual reference I require.

Pretty exciting!
Check out del.ico.us tag PDF for how-to, and other references.