TC 310 The Computer in Technical Communication Dr. Jennifer Turns Week 3, Day 2 (4/16)

Day 6 What we’ll do… By the end of class, students should be able to: Use the editing functionality available in Microsoft Word Describe some characteristics of students in the class Discuss how knowing about design and their own design process is valuable to them as TC professionals Conduct website analysis leading toward development of a site map What we’ll do… Discuss grading of assignment 2 Debrief from assignment 3 Discuss assignment 4 Introduce/explore Visio

Editing Tools - Word Locating the functionality Menu Toolbar Context sensitive options Phase 1: Making Changes Turn on track changes Exploring what changes are showing Make changes to the text Insert comments Phase 2: Accepting/Rejecting Changes How could I have the students actually do a simulated exercise.. What to have them edit Maybe the cover letter – 2 grammar edits, suggest some sentence rewordings, and provide the letter writer with some specific feedback. Design rationale Learning reflection Instructions to the students about something Some text providing instructions… maybe a tutorial? Maybe an email of some sort. How to get the files transferred between the students – they could email the files to each other. Maybe have them work in pairs, and do the exercise twice One edits, the other processes, then the other edits and the first processes Process Editing - have them edit something Have them accept/reject edits

Editing Tools - Exercise Step 1 – Create editing opportunity Identify a design rationale for feedback Create a word document with the rationale Step 2 – Offer editing services to a peer Switch computers with someone, and edit their document (some tracked changes, some comments) Step 3 – Address editing comments you received Return to your own document Review changes – decide to accept or reject.

Survey Results – Meet your Peers Why did you choose TC as your major? Opportunity to integrate technology and writing (4) Opportunity to integrate writing & prof envts (2) Computers without programming (3) Help people use technology (1) .. Other themes in choosing TC as the major.. “I sort of fell into the TC program… but a great fit thus far” “TC allows me to use my practical and my creative side.” “When I found out about the major…” “For some bizarre reason, the idea of combining my interest in books and computers never occurred to me…”

Survey Results – Meet your Peers Tell me about your professional interests… User interface design Online help / product manuals / documentation Usability testing PR work for technology company

Survey Results – Meet your Peers I love progressive and neo-classical metal, which continues the tradition of virtuosity that Niccolo Paganini established I am confident that just when you think you’ve mastered something, it opens a new door for you… I am from California where it is warm and sunny right now I am interested in Japanese language, culture, and martial arts. I like snowboarding and reading fiction.

Survey Results – Meet your Peers I was supposed to be at UW last year, but I Ws called to active duty in the Naval Reserve for a year, following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. I have a dirtbike that I enjoy riding. I work 40 hours a week for a health care company. I’m a big fan of anime and am studying Japanese so I can enjoy it without subtitles. My sense of humor – I have noticed that even in the greyest hours, it tends to bubble up. In life, sometimes, one either laughs or cries, I have chosen the former.

Learning Software Tools Strategies mentioned Using it / Experiment hands on / Playing around Trial and error Online help function People to consult Drawing on explicit knowledge (e.g., knowledge about graphics) Needing a project to motivate learning Explore software Interactive tutorials

Learning Software Tools Themes mentioned Success and limits to success Playing around vs. having a full problem Playing around vs. getting the big picture Role of manuals/other people / help system Role of a task and level of task complexity

Your last design experience What was designed Document (6) Website (2) Flowerbed (1) Generic (1) Elements of process Audience (3) Alternatives/ brainstorming (3) Criteria/rqmts (2) Iterations and drafts (3) Experimenting with available tools (2)

Thinking about Design In technical fields, designers achieve goals by making decisions among alternatives using the best available knowledge.

Design in TC, Engineering, Arts How are they different? TC is between engineering and art The three are not that different Additional themes mentioned Major consideration for TC is audience Necessity of goal/purpose (no for arts) Other Points Need to be careful about assumptions made about other disciplines.

Design (continued) In technical fields, designers achieve goals by making decisions among alternatives using the best available knowledge. Field Goals Alternatives Knowledge Civil Engineering Stability Reliability Structures Materials Physics Best Practice Experience Industrial Engineering Efficiency Safety Different plant layouts Number of operators Which machines Operations Research Human Factors Engineering Psychology Technical Communication ..

Design in TC What types of goals do technical communicators typically strive toward? Where do technical communicators go for the type of knowledge that can inform their decisions among alternatives? What are alternatives/choices in TC? What are alternatives/choices in PowerPoint? Alternatives (specific to Presentations and PowerPoint) Colors Slide layouts Themes Language Goals Persuasiveness – comprehensiveness, completeness Usability – visibility, simplicity Audience appropriateness – tone Professional – language is correct, consistency Knowledge Theory – reader response theory, communication theory Research - Best practice – defacto standards Experience – experts intuition

Describing Designed Artifacts Dimensions of descriptions Overall appearance Graphic design – colors, use of images Navigation – inverted L, hierarchical structure, spotlights Content – headlines, tone … Challenge of separating description from evaluation Has eight primary nodes Fairly easy to navigate A streamlined intuitive interface

Site Analysis - Sitemap Draft 1 Terminology Site architecture, information architecture, navigation, nav bar, nav column, information design Your task Select three pages of the website as your focus (the main page and 2 second level pages) Analyze these pages in order to understand the options available to the user on each page, and how the user can move between the pages. Develop a diagram to show these options (i.e., pages and connections among pages). Discussion Is everything included? Correct? How to take next step if diagrams are for users? There is a lot of stuff going on on web pages. As we have already seen from the survey results, websites can be described from a content perspective, a graphical design perspective, and a navigation perspective. For example, Nielsen focuses on the issue of screen real estate and how effectively it is used. Working on a sitemap is about ignoring much of these website aspects (I.e., the quality of the content, the graphic design, etc.) and focusing specifically on how users move among pages. Webpage navigation provide a window into the connections among pages that are available to the user (also known as the information structure). A sitemap aims to make those connections visual for the user. Process: Have you work on the sitemap Discuss the drafts, use the discussion and drafts as an opportunity to Introduce some vocabulary – specific structures Identify themes, ways to improve the sitemaps Your task – 25 minutes Focus on three pages – the home page and 2 pages that can be reached from the home page Analyze these pages in order to understand the options available to the user on each page, and how the user can move between the pages. Develop a diagram to show these options (i.e., pages and connections among pages). Discussion (20 minutes, 5 minutes per team, part of the time could be us as a group looking at the site) I can make copies for everyone.. We can have them go over them map and then we can discuss Information from Farkas book p. 129: Major information structures p. 134-135: website/website hierarchy pair p. 150-151: two kinds of hierarchies p. 158: Special purpose links p. 160-161: Shortcut spotlight, duplicate spotlight p. 162: Designer classification of links,