• Time Required
• 10–12 hours, including reading time

Welcome to Week Six of the course. This week, we finish up work on the User Documentation Revision & Memo Assignment. To ensure that you earn a Complete on your work, pay attention to the Criteria, which tell you exactly what I will look for in your submissions.

Next week we will begin work on the Group Recommendation Report by sharing the topics from your User Documentation Revisions and starting the process of writing a proposal. Next week also marks the middle of the semester, so it’s a good opportunity for you to aim to finish any outstanding work from the first half of the term.

Holidays & Events This Week

• Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is the holiest day of the year for the Jewish faith. It begins at sunset on Sunday, September 24, and ends at sunset on Monday, September 25.
• Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated from through October 15.
• Michaelmas, a Christian holiday (also known as the Feast of the Archangels, or the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels), is celebrated on Friday, September 29.
• The Mooncake Festival, or Mid-Autumn Festival, celebrated in many East Asian countries and a significant holiday in China, is September 29. The name of the festival varies by country.
• Sukkot, a week-long Jewish holiday, begins at sunset on Friday, September 29, and lasts through sunset on October 6.

If you observe these holidays and need me to adjust your due dates, send me a message in Canvas.

Objectives for this Module

After completing this week’s activities, you address the following course objectives:

• Analyze the context; determine appropriate audiences for or users of planned communications; assess needs of global audiences and people with disabilities. [CLO 2]
• Practice workplace genres related to specific fields (e.g., proposals, instructions, correspondence, reports, technical specifications and slide decks); illustrate how genre conventions can serve as heuristics and as principles of arrangement [CLO 3]
• Design and evaluate strategies for testing the usability and overall effectiveness of documents [CLO 5]
• Illustrate the ethical and human implications of research findings and workplace products on diverse audiences [CLO 6]

Activities to Complete

📚 To Read This Week

• Modify Your Design for Global Audiences: Cross-Cultural UX Design
• Why Cross Cultural Design Really Matters
• 3 Real-Life Examples of Cultural Misunderstandings in Business
• Review readings from previous weeks as needed.

📝 To Do This Week

• Continue work on the second Major Project, User Documentation Revision & Reflection Memo, which has a Target Due Date of Friday, September 29. Use these resources:
  • User Documentation Revision & Memo Criteria
  • User Documentation Revision & Memo Assignment
  • User Documentation Revision & Reflection Memo Self-Check
  • Scheduling note: September 29 is the first night of Sukkot. It is also The Mooncake Festival. If you observe either holiday, please shift your Target Due Date to a better day. I want you to be able to celebrate the holiday.
• Complete the UX Project Submission Wrapper, to record details on your work on the project.
• Try out strategies from the course by submitting these activities:
  • Try-It #11: Testing the Usability of a Webpage (Tuesday)
  • Try-It #12: Improving the Usability of an Email Message (Thursday)

💬 To Ask Questions (Optional)

• Optional ways to discuss class issues:
  • Post public questions in the General Q&A Discussion in Canvas if it can be shared with the class.
    
  • If you have a private question, send me a message with the Canvas Inbox.
  • Ask a question or make a suggestion anonymously with the Anonymous Questions & Suggestions form.

 

📓 To Check-In This Week

• Fill out the Week 6 Check-In Survey to let me know how you are doing in the course.

 

 

Photo credit: Research process by Raul Pacheco-Vega on Flickr, used under a CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.