Você está na página 1de 2

Assignment 4: Instructions

March 28/April 2nd: Usability Day(s) April 4th: Due Assignment Overview For this assignment, your editing group will collaborate to complete three tasks: first, you will create a set of instructions; once you have a draft of those instructions, you'll design and perform a usability test; finally, once you've revised your instructions based on feedback from the usability test, you'll revise the instructions and turn in the final set to me. Because you're working in a group for this project, you should begin by developing member roles, a work plan, and a timetable with firm deadlines. Pages 8186 in our textbook address working in virtual teams. Your group can draft your instructions using Google Docs (see pp. 690-91 for more information on using Google Docs as a collaborative tool). Timely, effective communication will be essential to your group's success. Task 1: Instructions The primary task for this unit is creating the set of instructions, which will guide a user in carrying out some process (building something, for example) pending my approval. Whatever instruction model your group chooses, it must be an original creation. That is, you cannot use a store-bought kit. To create your model, you'll simply need to experiment, complete a functional product, then deconstruct it to analyze the steps of assembly. Your group is responsible for providing its own materials. Consider you are writing your instructions for an audience of 18 years and older. This consideration should determine the complexity of your language, the design of your pages, and the document genre of your final instructional document. Also, please incorporate at least three illustrations into your instructions. You can draw, photograph, or digitally create your illustrations. All images must be your own. You may do a video as well, but keep in mind the audience if you choose to do so. Your goal is to make your illustrations functional; they should work with the instructional text to benefit your user. (Chapter 11 also has valuable information about creating userfriendly graphics.)

Task 2: Usability Test Your group will test your instructions on at least two users. Pages 322-25 address the process for usability testing. Also, you can view this usability-test planning guide. Here are some key considerations for usability testing: Ask your users to think out loud as they conduct the task, reporting their mental processes. As you observe your users performing the task, resist the urge to prompt them or intervene. Any difficulty they encounter will signal an element you should clarify in revision. Once your users are finished, conduct a brief interview, asking general, open-ended questions to identify areas at which your instructions can be improved. See the example usability plan for measuring completion, speed, and accuracy

Groups will need to hand in two sets of instructions: the original pre-usability testing instructions with annotations regarding usability results, and a final instruction set. Grading: Chapter 20 in our textbook addresses how to construct task-based instructions. Here are some of the main pints I will consider while grading: Pages 552-53 list the basic features, or the general patterns, of instructions. You should include an introduction, a description of the product, the required materials, the procedural steps, and the *Pages 56874 note strategies for writing effective procedural steps. Most notably, you should use the imperative

(command ) voice; for example, say, "Attach the two small red pieces. . ." instead of "The two small red pieces should be attached." Pages 581-84 provide examples of how graphic design and visual layout can aid in usability. We might think of layout in terms of chunking, or using subheadings to allow your users to obtain a quick overview of the process. For example, rather than listing 12 consecutive steps, you might break it into four sets of three steps, such as Building the Base, Attaching the Sides, and so on. Our Editing topic for this unit is Parallel Structure. Similar elements of your instructional document should be formatted in parallel structure, like in the above example (with continuous verb phrases: Building. . . Attaching. . .)

Você também pode gostar