- Time Required
- 10–12 hours, including reading time
Welcome to Week Five of the course. This week we will focus on usability and document design. The arrangement of text, images, charts, and other elements in your documents is just as important as the actual content of those elements.
Holidays & Events This Week
Here are the events coming up this week:
- Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated from through October 15.
- Pitru Paksha, a Hindu celebration of ancestors, lasts 16 days, ending on Wednesday, October 2.
- Mabon, also known as Alban Elfed, is celebrated by Pagans, Wiccans, and Druids. It is a harvest festival that marks the Autumnal Equinox. It usually lasts from September 21–24.
- Michaelmas, a Christian holiday celebrating the Feast of St. Michael, is observed on Sunday, September 29.
If any of these events interferes with your work in the class, send me a message with Canvas Inbox and let me know how you need me to adjust your due dates.
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
Due Dates
- Due by 11:59 PM on Friday, September 27: Try-Its and the Check-in Survey.
- Due by 11:59 PM on Friday, October 4: User Documentation Revision and Reflection Memo Assignment, the related Self-Checks, and the Submission Wrapper
- Grace Period:
- Ends at 11:59 PM on Wednesday, October 2 for your Try-Its and the Check-in Survey.
- Ends at 11:59 PM on Friday, December 6 for the User Documentation Revision and Reflection Memo Assignment, the related Self-Checks, and the Submission Wrapper.
📚 To Read This Week
- Ch 9: Usability, from An Introduction to Technical Communication
- How to Test the Usability of Documents
- Comments on Usability Testing See notes or watch the video.
- Accessibility in Canvas Sites (PDF)
- Resource Module: Plain Language (review as needed)
- Resource Module: Document Design
- Managing Paragraph Lengths video (3m 20s), from LinkedIn Learning
📝 To Do This Week
- Continue work on the second Major Project, User Documentation Revision & Reflection Memo, which has a Target Due Date of Friday, October 4. Use these resources:
- User Documentation Revision & Reflection Memo Criteria
- User Documentation Revision & Memo Assignment
- UX Project Submission Wrapper
- Choose one of the following:
- User Documentation Revision & Reflection Memo Self-Check (if you want to check your project yourself)
- User Documentation Revision & Reflection Memo Self-Check with AI (if you want AI to help you confirm that you have met the criteria)
- Try out strategies from the course by submitting these activities:
💬 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.
- Post public questions in the General Q&A Discussion in Canvas if it can be shared with the class.
📓 To Check-In This Week
- Fill out the Week 5 Check-In Survey to let me know how you are doing in the course.