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last.updated 5.31.05
Interface
Analysis
Purpose
In the age of GUIs, WYSIWIGs, and Windows, computers users rarely know or understand get to see how a computer program functions. Instead the users interaction is mediated by the interface that the user designs. As we know from our experiences using these technologies, the design of these interfaces can either help or hinder the composing process. Some features are fairly consistent from one interface to another which helps our negotiations with new applications. Yet, at the end of the day, the interface is a text–a text that software designers have composed. You will want to know what assumptions software designers are making about their audiences. As future digital writers, and possibly writers of software documentation, you will want to understand how to read and negotiate different interfaces.
Epistemological Process
Begin this project by choosing an application that you want to work with. The interface can be for any reading(e.g., web browser) or writing application (e.g., web authoring software, courseware, PowerPoint, image editor). Only Microsoft Word is excluded. As you make your decision, consider the following...
- what applications will you be using in this class?
- what applications will you be using in your future careers?
- what applications do you have access to?
- what applications do you want to learn more about?
Once you have chosen the interface that you want to work with, spend some time examining it–playing with different functions. In short, learn what the application can do. To further understand the text.
To analyze the interface, you will want to read the various features of this text. In your document you will answer, at the very least, the following questions:
- What does the application allow you to do? What does the application not allow you to do?
- What assumptions have the interface designers made about their audience?
- What revisions would you make to this interface and why?
To answer these questions and others, use the list of heuristics that we develop as a class.
Writing Instructions
Once you have read the interface, you will write a 3-4 page (single-spaced) memo, reporting what you have learned. This document should include visuals that illustrate the point that you making.
Although you will be reporting the information that you learn about interface, in addressing the prompts above, you will be making arguments about the interface as well. As a result, make sure the memo is cohesive and that you support your claims.
Submit the memo to the instructor at the beginning of class on October 3, 2005
Criteria
In addition to the general evaluation criteria, the instructor will be looking for evidence of...
- an informative reading of the chosen interface
- coherent, well-supported arguments; an ability to discuss the rhetorical strategies that designers adopt
- a cohesive document
- an ability to use rhetorical principles to explain your findings
- a sense of audience–do you provide enough information, details, and/or visuals to assist your audience's understanding of your document? Likewise do you only highlight what is relevant?
- appropriate use of conventions, including APA citation formatting
last.updated 08.21.05