ASU

TWC452/552
Information in the Digital Age
Multimedia Writing and Technical Communication
Spring 2008
Assignments

Confirmation email (5 pts, due January 20)

Send to me an email with the following information:

The confirmation email is your contract for the course indicating that you have read and understand course information and policies. Please be sure that you have read all course documents and ask questions if you have them.

Discussion board posts

Outcomes measured: R1, CRW1, CRW3, CRW4, CRW5, P4

Weeks 1-3 discussion board posts will be based on questions related to the readings and responses.Starting with week 4, for each discussion board post you will analyze an assigned artifact using concepts learned in the readings. DB posts will be due on Thursdays the weeks they are assigned. The intent of analyzing an artifact is to help you understand how concepts are applied (or not applied) so that you can analyze and redesign your own artifact.You will be responsible for your own post and should give your analysis considerable thought. You should consider your DB post to be the equivalent of a short essay. That means you should be clear, focused, use proper tone and mechanics, and cite readings or other material where appropriate. Posts which are submitted on time, demonstrate independent analysis in well-written and clear essay-style will receive full-credit. All other posts will receive 0 pts.

Information Product Redesign

This semester you will redesign an information product of your choice to apply what you learn in this course. I have used the term "information product" deliberately so that you can choose a genre that is most relevant to you. You might choose to redesign a manual, a tutorial, a user guide, a procedure, a website, a database, etc. Your one limitation is that it must be electronic (either on the web or as a scanned copy) so that I and the rest of the class must be able to access it. Some guidelines for choosing your product:

Part 1: Artifact selection (5 pts, due February 10th)

Outcomes measured: CRW2

Submit to me in memo format your artifact selection. Since you will be working with this artifact all semester--first to analyze it and then to redesign it--you should be in touch with me prior to the due date of this assignment to run your ideas by me. Don't risk a rejection of your artifact and having to redo the assignment.

For both privacy and intellectual property reasons, we will be using a password-protected website for this assignment so that you will have a secure location for you to share your redesigns without placing them on a public website. I will assign you a directory within the website and an ftp account so that you can upload your files to the server as you work on them. That does not mean you are required to redesign a website--any type of file can be stored and accessed through a web server.

Your memo should include the following:

Grading will be based on:

Part 2: Artifact Analysis 1 (10 pts, due February 17th)

Outcomes measured: R1, CRW1, CRW3, CRW4, CRW5

For this assignment, you will analyze your artifact using the framework by Saul Carliner presented in chapter 2 of the textbook. Be sure you address all three categories: physical, cognitive, and affective in your analysis. Your analysis should cover how well your artifact meets Carliner's guidelines for effective information design within the context of how well the artifact helps the user learn and obtain the information or knowledge needed. Submit your analysis to me as an informal report in memo format. Grading of your artifact analysis will be based on:

Part 3: Artifact Analysis 2 (10 pts, due February 24th)

Outcomes measured: R1, CRW1, CRW2, CRW3, CRW4, CRW5, KC3

For this assignment, you will analyze the audience for your artifact. In chapter 3, Sless tells us that information products must be socially and politically appropriate. To create an information design that is socially appropriate you must have a solid undertanding of your stakeholders: your audience and the client or organization that owns the product. This type of understanding goes deeper than knowing what it is the audience will use the product to accomplish or why the client is making the product available. It must incorporate an understanding of their goals, values, perceptions, and attitudes; all of which may conflict. In addition, be sure to incorporate issues related to privacy, access, intellectual property in your analysis of stakeholders.For this analysis:

Submit your analysis to me as an informal report in memo format. Grading of your artifact analysis will be based on:

Part 4: Redesign Proposal (15 pts, due March 2nd)

Outcomes measured: R2, CRW2, CRW5, P3, KC3

For this assignment, you will submit to me a proposal to redesign your information product. Use your two analyses to help you present an argument about the artifact and your planned redesign from the perspective of information design. In your proposal:

Submit your proposal to me as an informal report in memo format.

Grading of your proposal will be based on:

Part 5: Usability Test

Outcomes measured: R1, R2, CRW1, CRW2, CRW4, CRW5, P1, P3, KC2, KC3

For this assignment, you will conduct a usability test. Each of you will develop a heuristic for your artifact which 2 other members of the course will complete as the "audience."

Heuristic (10 pts, due March 9th)

Use the model from either chapter 4 (five dimensions of usability) or chapter 9 (complex problem solving) to develop a heuristic to test the usability of your information product. The purpose of conducting the usability test is to help you gather information you'll need to help you redesign the artifact. Be sure that your heuristic focuses on testing the aspects and characteristics that you wish to target and that you articulated as goals and objectives in your proposal. In addition, develop a consent form that you will use when conducting the usability test after spring break.

Grading will be based on:

Completed Heuristics (5 pts, due March 23rd)

Complete and submit to BB the heuristics for the products you have been assigned to evaluate.

Results (15 pts, due March 30th)

Submit a report to me of the results of your usability test. Your report should follow traditional research report structure: introduction, methods, results, analysis, discussion, and conclusion. Be sure that you address in your analysis how the results from your usability test will help you with the redesign. Any external or secondary sources that you have used to either create your heuristic or analyze your results should be cited using APA style.

Grading will be based on:

Draft Redesign (10 pts, due April 13th)

Outcomes measured: R1, R2, P2, P4, KC1, KC3

Submit to BB a draft of your redesign.

Keep in mind, this is a draft. The purpose of a draft is to receive feedback so that you can revise and improve the final version. Therefore, grading will be based on:

Peer Review (10 pts, due April 20th)

Outcomes measured: CRW2, P2, P3, P4

Complete a peer review of two other students draft redesigns. I will post a guide in BB for you to guide your reviews.

Final Redesign (25 pts, due April 29th)

Outcomes measured: R1, R2, CRW1, CRW2, CRW3, CRW4, CRW5, P1, P3, KC1, KC2, KC3

Submit to BB your completed redesign of your information product. In addition, submit to me a 1-2 page memo describing and analyzing your final design within the context of what you have learned about information design.

Grading criteria will be posted prior to the due date.

Last modified: 15 January 2008