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4181/5181-090February 21st |
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February 21st: What Webpages Tell Us about User DocumentsAnnouncements
Plan of Attack Tonight we're going to attempt the following, but we'll probably have to carry a few things over to another class:
Technical Writing 101: Chapters 6, 7, & 8 Although the book is still focusing on quite a bit of introductory information, it highlights several ideas that we should discuss further. Chapter 6 will bolster our persona research topics, Chapter 7 makes us think about ordering information, and Chapter 8 offers some nuts-and-bolts information for visuals. Chapter 6 Highlights: Chapter 6 provides us with ways to think about audience, which we'll expand upon tonight. Also, this chapter repeats some ideas from previous chapters, so we'll try to focus on the new material.
Chapter 7 Highlights: Much of this is similar to "best practices" advice given by typical technical writing textbooks. Please ask specific questions when they come up.
Chapter 8 Highlights: English 4182/5182 (taught in the Fall) goes into much more detail on the perceptual, cultural, and rhetorical elements of visual communication. We will focus on visuals as procedural elements this semester. And, yes, I recognize the seemingly arbitrary boundary. As Biggie says "Mo' theories, mo' problems."
I would like you to pick a webpage and analyze its features. If we assume that webpages are supposed to be for the user, then we can assume that a user-centered design would be best (we can critique that assumption, too). Let's consider ease of navigation to be a top priority for an effective webpage. Some questions to ask about "good" webpages:
I realize that much of your analysis will be based on your own subjective tastes. I hope we can explore that further in a larger class discussion. Choose any website you'd like, but be aware of your own expertise and familiarity if it's a site you go to frequently. Add a page to your own website to record this information. You should have a link to this page from your homepage. Do your best to get this up before the break (7:45-8:00). I should have all your webpages linked to the Classmates Webpages page. This will help us easily locate the pages during our discussion. Sample User Docs I didn't do the best job scanning these images, so bear with me. You'll have to scroll horizontally and vertically to read everything. What instruments would work well for our next assignment? Hmm...search engines were good for the first User Doc, but we need to move beyond obvious Internet-based functions. One thing's for sure, though, we're going to have a much larger planning memo/document and more analysis on user testing. Also, we're going to try and see my goal of "inspiring" the user through to fruition. Does anyone have any documents that advocate or encourage users to explore the functions/functionality of instruments? Although I've stressed and used computer-based examples overwhelmingly in our discussions, you are more than welcome to document other kinds of technology. Of course, we're going to do the usability testing in class, so your instrument would have to fit that constraint. However, I would consider out-of-class user testing if you documented it well. Planning for User Doc #2 User Testing We'll have more in-depth planning documents this time around. Unfortunately, we aren't getting live subjects...er...participants from outside class, but 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. I also want you to include the following:
Remember, you need to build on your skills throughout the semester (and from the previous semester, year, or what have you), so I want to see some sophistication. Let me show you what a student did a couple years ago... Have a rough draft of the above planning document (think of it as a memo if you'd like) to accompany your actual user document next week, which will be the steps the user will carry out to do something. Who has an idea of what they'd like to do? Your midterm will be based on the reading assigned and activities/discussions we've had up to this point. The exam will be on Moodle (unless something peculiar happens) and will consist of multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, short-answer, and True/False questions. Topics to pay attention to for the midterm: Cooper, Cooper, Cooper. While the whole book is fair game, there are places you ought to pay particularly close attention to.
101 Chapters 1-8
Class Material/Discussion
Of course, the above is not exhaustive. If you've read carefully (don't skip over the word "carefully"), this should be a breeze. IRA-Career Essays I passed back your IRA essays last week. I have some general comments on last week's webpage. Before We Go... The midterm should take 30-45 mins. This is the text from Article 14 of Chapter 116-143.7. Tuition surcharge: The Board of Governors of The University of North Carolina shall ensure that procedures are established that are necessary to impose a one hundred percent (100%) tuition surcharge on students who take more than 140 degree credit hours to complete a baccalaureate degree in a four-year program or more than one hundred ten percent (110%) of the credit hours necessary to complete a baccalaureate degree in any program officially designated by the Board of Governors as a five-year program. The calculation of these credit hours taken at a constituent institution or accepted for transfer shall exclude hours earned through the College Board's Advanced Placement or CLEP examinations, through institutional advanced placement or course validation, or through summer term or extension programs. No surcharge shall be imposed on any student who exceeds the degree credit hour limits within the equivalent of four academic years of regular term enrollment, or within five academic years of regular term enrollment in a degree program officially designated by the Board of Governors as a five-year program.
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