Things to Consider for Your Revisions

Revise User Docs for Final Portfolio

To help guide your revisions, I wanted to give you a few things to consider. Let's discuss these, and please ask questions. To quote a former professor of mine, "Today's a good day to ask."

• Put text for steps ABOVE the image
  • There is some debate about this, but having text below an image in procedures doesn't go in a logical, as in sequential order.
  • Readers need to be oriented to do something, so the text tells them first, and then the screen shot or image shows them.
  • Readers will already be drawn to the image over the text, so having the text first let's the users know what they're about to do.
• Figure X and captions
  • Now, these, of course, go below extratextual elements.
• Circles, arrows, and callouts
  • Try using circles or boxes
  • Arrows are quite cheesey and 1990s looking
  • Legends work well
• "Results may very"--search results change
• Set certain text, such as URLs, commands, and menus, a part from instructional text using quotation marks, highlighting, bolding, underlining, etc.
• Step Text: Open up a browser and go to www.google.com and type in the search paramter ABBA’s Agnetha Faltskog Is Open To A Reunion and click I'm Feeling Lucky
• Revision:
  Open up a browser and go to www.google.com
  Type "ABBA’s Agnetha Faltskog Is Open To A Reunion"
  Click I'm Feeling Lucky
  --or--
  Click
  
• Show how to refine searches to expand your user documents.
• Get right to the search then discuss alternatives.
  • Give commands
  • Don't tell the user "If you want to..."; tell them to do it!
• Be realistic about where, how, or if these will be used.
  • Printed out
  • Online
• Use screen shots
  • Clear, good-sized screen shots
  • Entire screen captures aren't effective
• Personas (Cooper pp. 142-147)
  • Discuss technological literacy instead of motive to use the specific document.
  • Have pictures of your personas.
• Be more efficient (we'll come back to this)

A Note on Screen Captures

It is practically never effective to use an entire screen capture in a document. Instead, use a cropped one or capture an active window (e.g., a dialog box). Take a look at the following screen captures, and consider how effective or ineffective they are.

• The Start Menu Faux Pas. (Click Image for larger view)
  
  

 

• Entire screen capture with menu bar containing applications.
  
  

 

• An effective cropping of the Google.com homepage.
  
  
  Shouldn't this have a box around it, though?
  
  
• The Cheesey Arrow...
  
  
  
  
• The better-looking red circle.
  
  
  
  
• Cropping drop-down menus (Click image for a less-cropped view)