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Users Guide
Write a 5-10 page procedures guide for a software user. I supply a selection of programs for you to choose from; you will supply the user. The user's guide will contain a cover page, table of contents, procedures, and an index.
FAQ
Question "What should I turn in for this assignment?"
Answer Everything. That is, the documentation plan, print out of the persona, review report, test report, final document. You may be thinking: "slave driver!" But this is not so. You should see your work for this assignment--the user's guide--as a whole, the documentation plan leading through the other documents, to the final document. These documents should reflect the negotiation and development work that you have put into the final guide. Thus, I will consider these documents as evidence of your hard and careful work as you've progressed in your thinking about the final product. As a result, your grade will probably be enhanced by my being able to see these materials again. If you want to turn them in on a disk that's okay too--save a tree.
Question "Do I have to find someone who uses the program I select?"
Answer No. You need to find a potential user. We call this user a persona, and he or she is an imaginary person who would use the program in ways that allow you to design the document specifically for this person. Of course, you don't design just for this person, but you use him or her to guide your design, because the persona embodies characteristics that put the technology to maximum use. You can see a list of personas at the following site:
Question "How long does the documentation plan need to be?"
Answer Only a couple of pages. Memo format or a couple of pages attached to an email message will do. Make sure to include your name, the project name, and all that information as if you were writing it professionally.
Question "How extensive does the user analysis need to be?"
Answer For this assignment I'm only interested in your ability to identify workplace actions to which the program operations would apply. You should use the user analysis to gather information about two or three potential users, and then use that information, condensed and sifted, to create your user persona.
Question "Can I email you my ideas ahead of time for the documentation plan?"
Answer Yes. You can email me any materials you want ahead of time to get a preliminary review.
Question: "What does 'information needs' mean?"
Answer: It means information needs to perform a work place task, not information needs to use the program. Example: Let's say a person is using software called "Garden Planner." The person's information needs are "what seeds do I need" and "what are good light conditions" not "how do I use Garden Planner." Information needs refers to domain needs of the user. Bankers need to know about banking; astronomers need to know about stars. Usually they learn this through their education, not from reading computer manuals.
Question: What do I turn in with the draft?
Answer: You turn in your draft pages (you don't need to bind them) and a cover sheet. You can read about the cover sheet in WSD Chapter 5, and find an example of a template for one at this location: Review Cover Letter.
Question: What do I turn in with the usability test?
Answer: You turn in your test materials (forms and data collection sheets), and a brief, 1-2 page report. You can find a template for the test report at this location: Usability Test Report.
Question: Do we do usability testing in class?
Answer: No. You do your usability testing on your own and just turn in the materials and the test report to me.
Programs
You can select from the following list of programs for your users guide. All these programs are free. You download them from the homepages of the programmers.
A small utility which stores notes (pieces of text) and which features alarm, calendar, search, print and export functions.
Possible users: students who take notes on their laptops during class, office manager of a veterinary clinic who takes notes on patients, writers who have flashes of inspiration...
Office & currency calculator; calculates the Euro, tax, discount, brackets, macro recorder, multi-lingual, time calculator, etc.
Possible users: residents of countries in the European Union, sales persons for an online retailer selling world wide using the Internet; travel agents who need to field questions from clients about currency exchange; currency exchanger who buys and sells currency for a profit...
Excellent address and data book with notification of upcoming dates.
Possible users: greeting card shop owners who want to remind their employees of holidays so they can in turn remind customers; spouses who need to remember important birthdays and other events...
Create jewel case labels with contents of ZIP drives.
Handy address book program with copy to Clipboard feature.
Engineer’s calculator to properly size pneumatic valves and cylinders.
Text file reader, supports rhythmic & speed reading, etc.
Easy-to-use Information Manager.
Simple, small, fast utility that does one thing-- manage your to-do list.
Keep track of the repairs to your vehicles.
NoteKeeper is a multi-functional hierarchical information manager, allowing all your data to be grouped into flexible virtual folders enabling easy, intuitive access at all times with all the convenience of just one file to handle!
VeriTime is a task/activity time tracking application. It enables you to keep track of time spent in a task or activity and to record a description of the action performed.
Tracks how much time you spend on different projects and tasks. Thanks to precise time tracking and accounting you can quickly and precisely calculate time spent on different tasks.
150 Capital city quizzes, 120 Chemistry and Periodic Table quizzes, 20 Astronomy picture-quizzes and 10 questions about the speed of light for middle and high school students