Alex Dierks

Project Background

Goal

The assignment goal was to create a how-to manual to teach the elderly how to use social media so they could avoid loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic. I chose to teach brand new smartphone users how to use Twitter on an iPhone.

Target Audience

The manual targeted readers with severely limited smartphone knowledge and abilities. Senior citizens were the specific target audience. Readers were only expected to know how to intect with the phone UI and send calls, texts, and emails (perhaps with help).

The Problem

Because readers would have little familiarity with smartphones and social media, they would have no familiarity with related topics such as the App Store, connecting to Wi-Fi, and basic online safety. While that obviously creates a greater need for thorough explanations, it also creates a need for robust supporting information. The main problem became how to balance providing abundant supporting information while maintaining user friendliness, conciseness, clarity, and organization.

Approach

Despite having the same target audience, my content and design choices differed drastically from my peers'.

Design Decisions

To improve readability for people with reduced visual acuity, I used large print. The landscape layout allows visuals to fit alongside the oversized text. I opted for serif fonts because seniors may find them more comfortable to read, and it was likely that a reader may want to print the guide.

Content Choices

My grandma says that seniors often avoid asking for help due feeling ashamed of their perceived lack of skill or comprehension. Furthermore, many elderly people can be uncomfortable looking things up online.

To minimize the need for outside help and internet searches, I included comprehensive explanations, suggestions, warnings, and troubleshooting steps. (Every question my grandma could possibly ask me is answered — whew!)

Skills Used

What I Did

I did everything from scratch, including original research and user testing, drafting, editing, designing, and creating graphics.

I also conducted user testing and user interviews to see how real readers would use my guide.

How I Worked

I worked solo 'cause no other mortal can match my coffee-fueled bingewriting sessions at 4am, and I know it.

What Came in Handy

My software development skills came in especially handy for this user guide. I forsaw many potential hurdles, guided my users around them, explained the issues in simple terms, and preemptively troubleshooted problems that could arise.

Hard Skills:
• Technical Writing
• User Testing
• Editing
• Page Design
• Styles

Soft Skills:
• Researching
• Interviewing
• Organization
• Attention to Detail
• Time Management

Tools:
• MS Word
• GIMP

The Challenges

What Almost Kicked My Butt

Despite over a decade of experience, using Word on a professional level for the first time was humbling. Prior to this, I didn't know how to use Styles, make a table of contents, number or caption figures, or create headers and footers that automatically displayed the chapter name. And getting all that to change based on the section of the document? Forget it. (Automatically copying an image onto every page as also lost on me.)

I also had no formal page design training by this stage.

What's Butts I Kickedeth In The End

In creating this manual, I learned how to use Word Styles for not only simple paragraph formatting, but advanced formatting such as lists and self-updating chapter and section numbers. I also learned to harness the power of special formatting codes to tightly control figure numbering, and how to break a document into sections to allow headers and footers to reflect the section of the document. This project turned me into a Microsoft Word deity (and yes, I feel powerful).