March 21st: Visual and Intercultural Communication

Announcements/Overview

• Becoming a W.I.S.E.R. Woman
  Tues., March 22nd at 3:30pm
  Student Union--GHI
• "The Myth of Having it All" Christine Hassler
  Tues., March 22nd at 7:00pm
  Student Union--GHI
• Patricia Hill Collins
  March 30th at 7:00pm
  McKnight Hall--Cone Center
• Midterm Review
• Persona Research--Think about the types of audiences you may serve and technological literacy

Midterm Review

The midterm is closed in Moodle, but I have a copy up on the big screen. Let's go over the questions.

Chapter 12 Highlights:

This chapter isn't the most effective way to discuss "culture," but it does provide some points for us to take up. I normally prefer to discuss culture by asking students to consider their ideas related to social situations and then think about times when things got messy or confusing in intercultural settings. I'm not a proponent of essentializing or making sweeping generalizations about culture, but patterns do emerge, so we ought to be aware of them. Just recognize the limitations our generalizations may have.

• Translation is never word-for-word p. 202
• Localization: designing for a particular culture pp. 202-203
• Internationalization: designing to be as culturally neutral as possible p. 203
  • Language
  • Design conventions
• Technological (tool) limitations
• Content can be inappropriate across cultures p. 203
  • Mailboxes
  • Internet
  • Gender roles/relationships
  • Humor...any takers?
• Geographic issues
  • Middle East
  • Persia
  • Arabian World
    How about the Arab League?
  • Islamic World
• Idioms pp. 204-206
• Mores p. 206
  • Level of formality
  • Chain of command
  • Browsing vs. asking for help
  • Privilege...who wants to tackle this one?
• Keep it simple pp. 206-208
  • Diction is appropriate and consistent
  • Sentences
  • Limit metaphors
  • Culturally specific references: politics, celebrities, rites of passage, etc.
• Images and taboos
• Restroom/toilet signs
  • Check Out Home Slice Pizza
• Text expands 20%-30% when translated from English

Visual Culture

Being the cultural, social creatures that we are, much of our visual world is shaped by our experiences. I know some don't like to hear this, but we are rarely able to free ourselves from the cultures into which we're born. Even the choices you think you have are simply choices on a cultural menu, a group that's socially constructed.

A former professor of mine told our class that people hate being told that their culture is based on societal constructions and has no connection to absolute truth: (paraphrased from memory) "cultural pride deals in absolute value or worth—they don’t want to hear it’s contextual" (Thomas Van, 9/16/2003).

But there's good news about cultural constructions and perceptions. Because members of a culture share commons backgrounds and ideologies, designers can tap into that shared knowledge. You might not be conscious of it, but, when you use idioms, refer to Seinfeld episodes, and use language, you're engaging in socially constructive activities.

Some additional things to discuss about culture and visuals are below (not in the book):

• There is no monolithic US or American culture
• Visual cues
• Language conventions (visual language)
• Intercultural Communication
• Semiotics: how meaning is constructed or understood; signs and symbols for objects in the referential world.
• Hegemony and Jingoism
• Ethics or "Why so many American flags in advertisements?"

The Wonderful World of Machines

We're going to start getting into Degani's Taming Hal: Designing Interfaces Beyond 2001. This will probably start after the break, so be thinking about abstractions and there relation to interfaces and diagrams of interfaces, systems, phenomena, etc. Also, consider the fact that some abstractions of interfaces help or hurt user understanding. Remember this abstraction of a system (often called a diagram)?

Hal: Chapters 1 & 2

I would like you to think back to an earlier time when you first learned how to ride an elevator. It might be difficult to recall, but I want you to try to see if you remember how you learned that you could walk into a closet-sized room with Star Trek doors, push a button, and expect to go up...or down. If this doesn't get your mind going, list or describe elevator etiquette or procedures you adhere to and expect of others. Logon to Moodle and respond to the "Elevator Prompt."

Below (the strikethrough text) was the original plan, but I want to give you a chance to have more participation credit, so let's attempt to do this activity as a larger class. Review all the questions for the next 10 minutes and be ready to say something about them.

This activity is related to your reading for today. Create a Web page that you will link to from your homepage for these responses and write them in paragraph form.

1. Explain abstraction and its relation to interfaces and diagrams of interfaces, systems, phenomena, etc. Why are such "items" important for users, specifically, and technical communication in general?

2. Describe a machine's "state" in your own words. Why is it important to think about machines having "states." In other words, why might knowing a machine's state help a writer of user documents?

3. Look at the following abstractions of the Washington, DC metro (the world's greatest mass transportation system):
   
   All the images are on the Abstractions page
   
   Question A: What systems do the above abstractions replicate? Why are they considered "user documents."
   
   Question B: If you haven't already, read the note for Ch. 2 (pp. 286-287). How are the above abstractions better than the "actual" image (below)?
   
   Image 4 on the Abstractions page
   
   Question C: Refer back to the first three abstractions. What is the average distance between metro stops? Is the average distance relative to distance from the center? Which areas of the DC metropolitan region have greater average distances? Why might distances not be to scale?

User Doc #2 User Testing

This week you'll have a more in-depth user test to accompany your more in-depth User Doc #2. I know all of you will work hard to help your fellow classmates by being as objective as possible. The first change, though, will be that I want you all to come up with three personas for the instrument you'll document. Also, ideally I would like for you to have something a user could test in class, but that's not a requirement. Your fellow classmates can still give you feeback on your documents.

I also want you to include the following in what you'll turn in to me on 3/28:

• Describe the instrument

• Explain how the user will approach the set of instructions {online, printed out, on the moon, etc.}

• Plan how you will test your draft

  • Develop a pre-test briefing strategy: make a statement to tell each user (a script), ask questions about comfort level, and/or have them watch something (this last one works best for descriptive documents like natural or mechanical proceses).
  • Come up with five post-test questions that use a Likert scale and have a comments section
  • Set at least four goals and make sure they're measurable
    • User did all steps in XX minutes...
    • User completed the instructions in XX minutes...
    • User used the help menu less than XX times
      -or-
      User never had to look at the help menu or ask for help.
• Describe three personas you had in mind when creating the document--these are Cooper personas and not the detailed ones for your Persona Research assignment
• Come up with five post-test questions that use a Likert scale and have a comments section (just ask the user to comment)
• Set at least four goals and make sure they're measurable

Note: measurable goals mean that users can not only accomplish tasks but they can accomplish them within or under quantifiable standards. For instance, a vague, immeasurable goal would be, "create a user friendly set of instructions"; whereas, a measurable (operationalized) goal would be, "create a document that gets users to setup the instrument within five minutes with no more than two lookups in the help menu." Additionally, a Likert scale could be an attempt to quantify qualitative data: On a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being the highest), please rate your satisfaction with the product."

But let's be critical of our Likert Scales and quantifying subject data in general.

User Test Setup

I decided not to choose who you should get to user test your document. Please have at least two classmates test your document. I'll be coming around to note who has their drafts. Make sure you give the users the post-test questions.

Before We Go...

Your Individual User Doc #2 is due next week. Keep reading Degani's Taming Hal: Designing Interfaces beyond 2001--Ch. 3 and 4 are supposed to be read for next week. Also, don't forget to bring your books with you next week.

We'll start planning for User Doc #3 next week.

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