User Documentation Project Evaluation

I will ask myself the following questions as I evaluate the rhetorical appropriateness of your final deliverables (the instruction booklet, the internal report, and the cover document to the client).

The Booklet for International Students

Audience

• Are your instructions suited to the audience they are addressing, in terms of their vocabulary, content, and means of address?
• Do your instructions address all the clients' basic requirements?
• Are your instructions making assumptions about the audience's needs that are realistic and supportable?
• Do your instructions make appropriate assumptions about what the user already knows or not?
• Do your instructions develop and present a compelling ethos to their audience? Do they reflect well on the university?
• Do your instructions make a personal connection with the audience?
• Are the instructions appropriate in completeness, accuracy, and scope, as determined by your audience's needs? Is your use of language and terminology appropriate for an international audience?

Usability

• Do your instructions:
  • Include pictures that are appropriate to the context and user? (If using pictures, always ask yourself: what does the picture do? What is its rhetorical function?)
  • Communicate directly with the audience as a person?
  • Offer the audience readable text (text that is easily decipherable; text that is user-friendly)?
  • Maintain parity between the organization of the task/information and the visual organization of the document (logos)?
  • Include signposts (things like icons that tell the user what to expect from a certain piece of text)?
  • Use a tone of voice that is appropriate to the user’s context and needs?
• Do your instructions avoid:
  • Presenting too much information?
  • Using pictures and diagrams that are too detailed or cluttered?
  • Using layout elements or fonts without contrasting styles?
  • ssues concerning international/language barriers?
• Drawing from your task analysis, have you broken the task into meaningful parts? Is the information you present manageable?

Layout and Design

• Are your texts and images readable, particularly in black and white?
• Do your instructions respect the format expected by the client?
• Is the organizational scheme of your document immediately visible in your overall layout and design?
• Can your document be easily and intuitively navigated?
• Is there a good proximity between related images and text in your document?

The Internal Report and the Client Document

• Do you come across sounding like the smart, capable people that you are?
• Do you sound professional? Do you use a format and style that is appropriately professional?
• Do your documents contain the expected information?
• Are your documents tailored to the rhetorical situation? Consider carefully the rhetorical function of your report to me (that is, your supervisor) and the function of your document to the client.

Approximate Grade Breakdown

• Booklet (40%)
• Internal report, addressed to me (30%)
• Persuasive c over document, addressed to the client (30%)