Instructions Analysis
The Instructions Analysis Memo proved to be the most difficult for me to finish. After you have selected your set of instructions and analyzed your audience and goals, you are ready to begin this assignment. Feed back from Dr. Art is useful to see if you were on the right track with your audience analysis. Either wait until you receive your selection memo back, which is not the best idea, or you should start as soon as possible. Your best solution is to go to Dr. Art’s office and speak to him about your analysis during office hours.
With your audience in mind, find at least two individuals from the audience willing to test your instructions for you. You should have all necessary supplies for them. If you can not find anyone from your audience, find someone close to your audience. A person not in your audience will make analyzing the usability of the instructions harder. Remember to write about it though. If the user was not in the audience write it down and how it affected your results. The more individuals you test your instructions on, the better your results will be.
The memo to accompany your testing results will again need to be 1000 to 1500 words. Do not wait until the last minute. The easiest way accomplish this assignment quickly is to start with your instructions selection memo. This can be used as a rough draft. It contains most of the items you will need in this memo. The only thing you will need to add is your usability testing results summary.
The testing summary should be a majority of your paper. It is the most important piece. It explains to the reader what makes your instructions good or bad. Think about what would make the instructions better. Making a questionnaire for your usability testers can help you find more things to fix. Do not say there is nothing to fix and that the instructions are perfect. There is and always will be something to fix or improve.
Remember to get your paper edited before you turn in it. Editing was my major weakness over the semester.
Below is the link to my Memo. I am not attaching my usability results because they were handwritten by the users that tested my instructions. It would have been difficult to make it an electronic copy.
