Activity / Site Collaboration

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Assignment

Instructions tell how to perform an activity. Instructions are common in multimedia, and not only in describing activities related to the web or computers. Instructions are important documents in the real world. They are the way companies connect to their customers. They structure the way individuals do their jobs. They make sure everyone does the same thing for the same task. They can make sure people performing tasks do so safely and effectively. Unfortunately, instructions are often the worst-written documents we encounter: they miss steps, fail to orient the reader to important tools or concepts, assume too much or explain too much, and generally confuse the reader who is already unfamiliar with the task. Writing instructions is harder than it seems, but more important than we assume.

For this assignment, you will create a website documenting an activity - you will write instructions for that activity - for users who have not necessarily worked through the process that you are describing. Your instructions will include text, visuals, and navigation, and should allow even novice users to move successfully through your selected step-by-step process. Your instructions will be on a website created collaboratively in groups of 4-5. The completed website will be copied in full onto the Arts and Sciences account of every member into a folder called project2 and then linked off the individual member's home page.

Some example activities include:

• cropping and resizing images in Photoshop.
• signing up for courses.
• designing a webpage.
• writing a poem.
• testing soil.
• scanning with an HP scanner.
• making beeswax candles.
• building a campfire.
• how to get from the Mountainlair to the football stadium.
• getting past a particular level in Halo.

Some tips on choosing an activity:

• DO choose something you are reasonably familiar with. If you are yourself a novice, you might miss steps and mislead the reader unknowingly.
• DO choose an activity with specific steps that aren't based on technique. "How to sink a free-throw" or "how to ballroom dance" are interesting topics, but a reader's success will depend on form, not function.
• DO choose something appropriately complex. "How to fix a blister" involves too few steps for an effective paper.
• ANY ACTIVITY INVOLVING COOKING OR MIXING DRINKS IS OFF-LIMITS FOR THIS ASSIGNMENT.

Your instructions should include:

• A splash/title page with at least the following: a clear and limiting title, an introduction to the instructions, and a list of all groups member and their emails.
• Appropriate level of technicality for the audience.
• Logically ordered steps.
• Appropriate use of warnings, cautions, and notes, including setting them off visually on the page.
• Active voice and imperative mood.
• Positive phrasing (RIGHT: "Examine your disk for dust contamination" vs. WRONG: "Verify that your disk is not contaminated with dust").
• Transitions that mark time and sequence. (Make use of the time sequences described in the McCloud article.)
• Accessible multimedia writing format, e.g. short text, scannability, hypertext structure.
• Illustrative images that you create (i.e. not from clip art or from the web). At least seven images in the overall project.
• Clear use of at least one design pattern from each of the first six chapters of the Tidwell book, i.e. at least six total patterns (from What Users Do, Organizing the Content, Getting Around, Organizing the Page, Doing Things, and Showing Complex Data).
• At least seven total web pages, including splash/title page.

As example your might look at the following site, which contains instructions for many activities: http://www.about.com/

Key Dates / Deadlines

Feb 1 Introduction to Project 3.

Feb 6 Put into groups. Brainstorm.

Feb 8 Begin creating instructions.

Feb 13

Feb 15 Bring project images (as many as you have so far) and work on them in class.

Feb 20 Design document due in class, uploaded to your A&S webpages. The document must be a webpage with at least 500 words describing the project, including: draft instructions, list and explanation of design patterns used, list and explanation of illustrations used, explanation of site architecture and navigation (site map to be handed in during class).

Feb 22

Feb 27 User Research Sessions in class.

Mar 1

Mar 6 Activity / Site Collaboration Project due by class time. Email due to Sandy describing your experience in the project. The email should include general reflection on the final project (e.g. what patterns did you end up using, what did you like best about the project, what did you wish you had done, etc.), reflection on the group dynamic and distribution of work, and any other response you feel necessary.

Groups

Sara Bailey
Andrea Dispenza
James McCeney
Erica Reib

Jeffrey Bowers
Jennifer Gavette
Kimberly Miller
Alison Sanfacon

Patrick Brooks
Jennifer Habina
Angela Moscaritolo
Brittany Swisher

Kristen Crestfield
Christina Malcomb
Erica O'Briant
Meghann Wilson

Alison Daly
April Marrara
Emily Prompovitch
Michael Withrow