Watershed: Developing an Online Journal Emily Arcuri, Nino Cosoleto-Miller, Hannah Jones, Alyssa Wernham

Overview  An interdisciplinary, literary journal  Comprised of local author submissions  Characterized by the Susquehanna River region  Professor Jerry Wemple- Editor  A supplemental online version for preview purposes  Raise awareness and increase readership and submission  Promote a new medium, called “techno-rhetoric”techno-rhetoric

Project Manager (Hannah)  The first step: Gantt Chart  Provided a time line that I had to keep one step ahead of  Contacted all outside sources  Maintained an eye on the relationship between tasks and deadlines  Progress Report  Usability Report

User Experience (Emily)  Performed audience analysis  Student from Harrisburg Area Community College (HACC)  Student from Bloomsburg University  Member of Friends of Shikellamy State Park  Created persona documents  Shared user suggestions with group  Easy navigation  Aesthetics  Satisfying content

Content Writer (Nino)

Production Leader (Alyssa)  Created website with Dreamweaver  Learned some coding with help from outside the group  Outcome: Better understanding about the inner workings of websites

Editing  Editing was a collaborative effort  Design editing  Links and navigation  Textual editing  Syntax, spelling, typos  Formatting (poetry)

Group Communication  Used a class wiki  Uploaded files, posted updates  A streamlined, organized manner of patchworking our group roles together functionally  Required frequent usage outside of classroom

Usability Testing  Our group learning moment  Offered revisions, spotted problems we were oblivious to  Provided various, external perspectives  A potential reader  A potential contributor and consumer  Without usability testing, the quality of the final product would have been negatively impacted

Usability Recommendations  Poetry needs to be left justified, but centered in the page.  Prose needs to be resized to create larger margins and to avoid the need to scroll from left to right.  Somehow, we need to make the links on the homepage more legible for those with poorer eyesight  Similarly, the textual links in the “Cousin, Will You Take My Hand?” poem need to become more readable.  The photograph on the About page needs to be resized to eliminate the need to scroll left to right.  The Jason Godeke author biography blurb needs to be added.

Dreamweaver (Hannah)  Dreamweaver isn’t as terrifying (or impossible) as I originally thought!

Collaboration (Emily)  Performing individual roles are important to creating a finished product  Helping other group mates can be equally as important  Branch out from individual roles  Teamwork and collaboration  Collaborating helps solve time-management issues

Nino’s Learning Moment

Future Aspirations (Alyssa)  With encouragement from the professor, looking for a Master’s Degree in Professional and Technical Communications at NJIT  Enforced my desire to get into web development and technical writing

Professional Writing  Software skills  Practical skills  Experience with group work  More marketable for a wider range of career possibilities

Final Product  Online Watershed Journal