TC 310 The Computer in Technical Communication

1
TC 310 The Computer in Technical Communication

• Dr. Jennifer Turns
• Week 10, Day 1 (12/2)

2
The Final Stretch
3
Homework Tuesday, 12/2

• Read assignment 9 and 10
• Bring the following items to class on Tuesday
• Questions about assignments 9 and 10
• The list of the six artifacts you plan to include
  in your professional portfolio.
• The text that will annotate one of the artifacts.
  
• A storyboard representing your ideas for your
  professional portfolio (sketches are fine).

4
Week 10, Day 1

• By the end of class, students should be able to
• Explain their choice of artifacts for the
  professional portfolio
• Use sample annotations to create remaining
  annotations
• Begin implementation of the professional portfolio

• What well do
• Discuss general questions about assignment
• Revisit audience analysis
• Explore artifact selection
• Explore annotation examples
• Explore storyboards

5
1. Audience Analysis

• What A persona is a profile of an archetypal
  user synthesized from a series of interviews with
  real people. It includes a name, a social
  history, and a set of goals that drive the
  developers design of the product or website.
  (Perfetti, in Intercom, Nov 2002, p. 35)
• Why The concreteness of personas makes it
  easier to think about design implications.

6
Audience Analysis / Personas

• Persona 1 Archibald has been working for XYZ Co.
  for 8 years. He graduated from the UWTC
  department 10 years ago. His specialty is web
  design. He is in charge of hiring new employees
  and is currnetly looking to fill a position in
  the TC department of XYZ Co. Some things that he
  looks for when hiring are absolute loyalty,
  experience in several software applications
  including InDesign, Photoshop, and Dreamweaver.
  In his spare time he likes to go skinny dipping
  with his pet iguana named fluffy. He is also
  studying to be a french chef.
• Persona 2 Janet De Cosmo is a technical
  recruiter for Microsoft, and she's interested in
  finding potential candidates for full time
  employment. She travels frequently and visits
  different colleges across the country. This year,
  she's looking for candidates who have both
  ability to write (or edit) and design documents,
  web pages, and graphics. The company has three
  job openings, and they require a creative person
  who has skills in Visio, PowerPoint, or any
  Desktop or Web Publishing tools. Janet is also
  searching for candidates who have the ability to
  work independently as well as in groups.

7
Audience Analysis / Personas

• Persona 3 Joe is 42 years old and has worked
  with his current company, Sea Monkey's Inc., for
  the past 10 years. He earned his degree in
  business and is interested in further developing
  the product while reducing overhead costs.
  Realizing that outsourcing requires a deep
  knowledge of technical communication, Joe is in
  search for someone who can provide that
  expertise.
• Persona 4 Robert Calvin is an investor. He is
  interested in funding projects that will make him
  money. He's interested in startup companies in
  technical communication and engineering fields.
  He's devoted to his career. Consequently, he's
  been divorced four times. His dog left with his
  last wife. So he has no private life and devotes
  all his time to his business ventures. He has a
  lot on his mind.

8
Audience Analysis

• Please use the following questions to guide your
  extended analysis of one of the personas below.
  Please post the result of your analysis (along
  with the original personal information) in this
  thread of the discussion (i.e., as a reply to
  this message.)
• Goals What would be his/her goal in interacting
  with the professional portfolio? Implications?
• Knowledge What types of knowledge does he/she
  bring (and not bring)? Implications?
• Circumstances of Use Under what circumstance
  might he/she explore the professional portfolio?
  Implications?

9
2. Artifact Selection

• Working in a group of 4 students
• Each student explains what choices he/she made
  and why.
• Group discusses
• How the choices differ
• Why the choices differ
• Class discusses
• Criteria for selecting artifacts for a portfolio
  

10
3. Annotations

• Working in a group of four students,
• Each student describes their annotation
• What decisions are you making in order to achieve
  what goal and taking into account what
  assumptions about the audience? Compare your
  annotations
• Identify ways in which the annotations differ
• .
• .
• .
• .
• Discuss which annotations are best for which
  audience?

11
4. Portfolio Design

• Working in group of four students
• Each student shares their proposed design
• What decisions are you making in order to achieve
  what goal and taking into account what
  assumptions about the audience?
• Other students comment on
• Grading criteria Visual design, navigation
  design
• Envisioned difficulties
• General suggestions

12
Looking Ahead