How do you uncover user's mental model?

How many times have you heard someone say something is not usable because it does not fit the user's mental model? The comment may well be right, but how do you know what a user's mental model is?
Indie Young, one of the co-founders of Adaptive Path, has just released a book Mental Models: Aligning Design Strategy with Human Behavior(Rosenfeld Media is the publisher) that explains some methods of uncovering user's mental models.
Chris Baum talked to Indie and writes up that interview in What Is Your Mental Model? - Boxes and Arrows: The design behind the design.
The interview includes links to excerpts from the book and a Flickr set of images from the book. Boxes and Arrow readers also get a discount if they buy the book from Rosenfeld Media.

Say goodbye to the smile sheet

If you end usability tests with a questionnaire asking for a user's opinion of the product they have just used, chances are you get a more positive response than your observations of that user working with the product suggest.

David Travis at UserFocus suggests another approach, the guided interview. Measuring satisfaction: Beyond the usability questionnaire

Technical Communication Courses for Spring, 2008

I am teaching the following courses at Bellevue Community College in Bellevue, WA this coming spring. If you are thinking of improving your technical communication skills, check out the course descriptions.

Testing Documentation Usability begins June 10 for three Tuesdays.

Fundamentals of Document Design begins May 7 for four Wednesdays.