(section 090)
February 9th: User Test for
User Document #1

Reminder from the Bookstore

Dear Professor Toscano,
I just want to inform you that the book "Taming Hal" for your ENGL 4181 and 5181 classes has arrived at the bookstore.
Please inform your students in case some of them might still need this copy of the book. They will be available for your students to purchase at the University Bookstore at the Student Union Building.

Technical Writing 101: Chapters 3, 4, & 5

Obviously, the textbook is presenting you with ideas that couldn't possibly be done in a semester class.  That doesn't mean the reading isn't important, though. As a few of you know--even if you hate it--I don't see class as a place to learn skills A, B, and C to apply to corresponding problems A, B, and C. Instead, I think class (and higher education in general) is a place to explore theories that shape practices. You don't have to PRACTICE everything to get value from what you read. Discussions should open up perspectives that make us "test" our own assumptions.

Chapter 3 Highlights:

Chapter 3 provides us with something I've never seen in a technical communication textbook--an entire chapter devoted to outlines and planning. Although the material is general and might not apply to all situations, there is value.

• Product Description: you're asked for something similar in your planning documents for each User Doc.
• Audience: know to whom you'll communicate.
  • education level
  • demographic information
  • technological literacy level
  • What about goals?
• Style: What's a style guide?
  • Purdue University's OWL
    
• Correctness and Choice
  • Everyone has a theory about language.
    • When do you use a comma?
    • What's with the commas in the following series "eggs, milk, and cheese?"
  • Higher Order Concerns (HOCs): Organizaton, structure, content, etc.
  • Lower Order Concerns (LOCs): Spelling, grammar, punctuation, consistency, etc.
  • Grammar: a hygenic factor, but a crucial one. See Sancho's discussion (previous semester)
• Outlines: When do you use them?
  • Who are my outliners?
• Tab-delimited files

Chapter 4 Highlights:

• What software is the best to know?
  • FrameMaker and Adobe's Technical Communication Suite
  • Adobe's Creative Suite
  • How to best learn the above software...
• Screen Captures...again
  • Photoshop Practice
• Software Training at Community Colleges
• Ergonomics
  • Where do you work best?
  • What is your ideal work environment: telecommuting, office, field, etc.?
  • Those sound like good discussion points. Hop on over to Moodle and do your magic. The discussion is under My Ideal Work Situation.

Chapter 5 Highlights:

• Specs, Mock ups, and SMEs
• Prototypes
• Paper Prototype Activity
• Alpha and Beta testing
  • Who are these testers?
  • Perpetual automatic updates
• (Almost) 30 Ways to get information
  • Be critical and/or critically aware of feedback
  • Pet peeves and Grammatical Hang ups
  • Cooper's Car p. 125 and Homer's Design

Interactive Design vs. Usability Testing

There's an interesting assignment that comes from a previous textbook I used for this class on paper prototyping:

Exercise: Working in groups, create a "paper" prototype for an information kiosk to assist visitors to your campus or office building or to a shopping mall or museum. The kiosk will be located in the lobby or central location (you define where). Visitors unfamiliar with the services or locations of departments would consult this kiosk to get a sense of where to go and how to get there. Consider the types of visitors you need to help and the types of information they will want. Create a profile of your primary visitors and tasks. Then, create the "interface," beginning with the main screen, from which the user can select other screens for information. When the task is complete, a representative from another group will become the target user for you kiosk to test the usability of your prototype. (Exercise comes from Barnum, 2002, p. 137)**

Instead of using index cards or paper, use the Notepad and have separate text files (.txt) represent different cards. This ought to have a rather interesting effect on the user. When you come to the part where you bring in another user, describe (meaning write this down on something) how the user adjusts the prototype (the "cards") you created. Make sure you ask the user to arrange the cards on the desktop as they would want them to appear on a kiosk interface. One of you should host the final prototype on his/her webpage, but each member should have a link to the prototype. Make screen captures or an entire screen capture of the layout the group decides.

Those of you who are testing these designs, I want you to report back to class why you arranged the cards or adjusted the contents of the cards (adding or deleting) the way you did. In other words, what is your mental model of how that particular kiosk should be set up?

VA Tech Kiosk

Time permitting, I want to play a little memory game based on the short- and long-term memory but, if we're short on time tonight, we'll skip it.

USER TEST #1

Today you'll have a chance to do some usability testing on your wonderful classmates. I want half of you to be the users for the other half of class, and then we'll switch sides. However, I want to avoid having users and testers be the testers and users for each other; therefore, test/be the user for another person. Then you may get a new person to test your user doc.

Think of this as a practice user test. Pull out a sheet of paper, or type this up. I want you to do a pre-test interview that asks the following of your user. You aren't turning this in, but I expect it to possibly be a discussion point:

• On a scale of 1-5 (1 being least, 5 being greatest), rate your computer literacy.
• Why do you believe you are or are not "computer literate"? In other words, what skills or knowledge do you have or don't have that makes you claim you're computer literate or not.
• What is the user's major/background?

After the pre-test interview, let the user get to it and note how the users interact with your document. TRY YOUR BEST NOT TO INFLUENCE him or her. Don't lead them to a specific task or component; observe what happens. Observe what the user does and whether or not they use your document.

After the user does his or her thing, then interview and ask what you can do to improve the instructions. Record this somewhere.

Your User Doc should include the following when you turn it in next week:

• A brief description of the instrument

• Explanation of how the user will approach the set of instructions

• Information on two personas

• The actual document--the steps on how to use the search engine

The first three items can be seen as one document, a preliminary work. The fourth item is your actual steps or procedures for getting a user through the search engine query you're using.

Future Testing

Later on in the semester , I'll ask for more detailed descriptions and usability testing procedures (i.e., questions, settings, specific goals). Consider the test you did today a starting point from where we'll build toward a larger planning stage.

IRA-Career Essays

I'll pass back your IRA essays. Most of these showed an impressive amount of reflection and detail. Unfortunately, some of these were summaries or had many un-supported claims. This isn't a process essay, but those of you who got less than an 85 may revise for credit up to 85 points. Please have all revisions to me by March 30th. I am willing to discuss your papers with you during office hours or at another mutually agreed-upon time. Don't e-mail me an attachment and ask me to "look at this." It's more efficient and more informative to talk about your writing goals and ideas, so please see me if you'd like. I won't answer any questions immediately after this class about these essays, so hold off and come in to see me instead.

I expect 4000/5000-level writing in this class. Some guidelines for revision:

• Cite what you didn't come up with.
• Rethink your arguments in relation to Cooper's ideas--you can't just paraphrase Cooper without pointing to his ideas.
• Use personal experience as EVIDENCE.
• Know the meanings of the following terms:
  • Tastes and convictions
  • opinions
  • Theories/Laws
  • Facts
• Make sure you accurately represent Cooper's ideas.
• Don't bite off more than you can chew.
  • You cannot possibly refute all of Cooper's ideas in a 5-page paper--be selective.
  • Additionally, you can't just say "he's wrong" without explaining why you think that, but you have to have reasons, not assertions.
• Thesis...what are you trying to communicate.
  • Your central focus.
  • Someone can say 'no' to that thesis, so you set out to prove it.
• Reader-based vs writer-based prose.
  • Don't make the reader guess--be accurate and concise.
  • Reader-based prose is like user-centered design.
• In-text citations...check out Purdue University's OWL for more details.

The above list isn't meant to address all concerns, and you shouldn't think that your paper has all the above concerns. The list is just a representative one of main issues that came up. Don't forget, if you didn't sign an informed consent form and want to, I have copies over in my office.

Before We Go...

Make sure you have a printed-out copy of your User Doc #1 next class. Keep up with the reading--Ch. 6, 7, & 8. We'll plan for User Doc #2 next week and have a Midterm preview.

**Barnum, Carol M. (2002). Usability Testing and Research. New York: Longman.

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