March 20th: Visuals and
Machine or Device Abstractions

Plan of Attack

• Reading Quiz on Moodle--Opens at 6:35 pm
• Intercultural Communication
• HAL Ch. 1 and 2
• User Doc #2 User Test

Midterm Participation

I have been pleased (quite pleased) overall with your participation this semester. Some of you could be doing more, however. I've updated your midterm participation grade, so you should be able to see it on Moodle. Don't forget to post to the Moodle supplement section to boost your participation grade.

While we're on grades, my view of moodle shows that your midterm grades are displayed to you (the midterm exam questions, though, are hidden). The midterm is closed , but I have a copy up on the big screen. Let's go over the questions.

Intercultural Communication

HAL gets me thinking about Intercultural Communication--communicating to audiences outside of one's culture, including subcultures. Most technical communication classes go over this to some extent, so, if you've done this before, you'll have a thing or two to say; if you haven't gone over intercultural communication, you'll have good questions to ask.

One issue I have with how we (the field of technical communication as well as "us") often discuss different cultures is that we start from the position of other: "We do things this way...they do things that way..." Unfortunately, I don't know if we can break ourselves of that thinking completely. I try to get students to discuss culture by asking them to consider their ideas related to social situations and then think about times when things got messy or confusing in intercultural (or just unfamiliar) 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.

Document Specific Issues

Below are some points to consider regarding document-level concerns for intercultural communication:

• Translation is never word-for-word
  • Text expands 20%-30% when translated from English
• Localization: designing for a particular culture
• Globalization: designing to be as culturally neutral as possible
  • Language
  • Design conventions
• Technological (tool) limitations
• Content can be inappropriate across cultures
  • Mailboxes for e-mails
  • Internet
  • Gender roles/relationships
  • Humor...any takers?
• Geographic issues we sometimes gloss over
  • Middle East
  • Persia
  • Arabian World
    How about the Arab League?
  • Islamic World
• Idioms, proverbs, aphorisms
• Mores
  • Level of formality
  • Chain of command
  • Browsing vs. asking for help
  • Privilege...who wants to tackle this one?
• Keep it simple
  • Diction is appropriate and consistent
  • Sentences aren't complex (like a philosopher using colons, semicolons, m-dashes, etc.)
  • Limit metaphors (see "idioms" above)
  • Culturally specific references: politics, celebrities, rites of passage, etc.
• Images and taboos
• Restroom/toilet signs
  • Check Out Home Slice Pizza--#37 on the list
• Anything else?

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).

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:

• 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
  • Why so many American flags in advertisements?
  • Why abused animals in charity drives?
  • Weight loss "visuals"
• Ikea

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 their 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)?

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."

Next, jump on over to our Taming HAL page, which I'll add to weekly. I find it easier to keep book material together when it's on one page and not spread over several days' pages.

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 next week (3/27):

• 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 Doc #2 Work

I'll be coming around to note who has their drafts. Use this time wisely. Make sure you have post-test questions. Don't have those...get moving on that!

Before We Go...

User Doc #2 is due next class (3/27).

Keep reading Degani's Taming Hal: Designing Interfaces beyond 2001 for next week. We'll discuss chapters 3 and 4 next week.

Also, have an idea, at least, or, even better, a rough draft of your User Document #3. This may be a group (as in two people) or individual assignment. Your user test will be April 3rd, so it's a quicker turnaround. I'm asking you to do a document for a significantly larger project than User Docs #1 and #2. Also, don't forget to bring your books with you next week.

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