Purpose: By writing these instructions for children, I hope to let them have fun. I want to make these instructions as stress free as possible because, the parents or supervisors of the children are already going to be stressed out about the mess tie-dying makes. I also want to make these instructions creative and fun so the kids can follow along and know what to do. The best possible outcome of these instructions is for everyone to get to the end of the project and have had fun and be relatively clean. The worst possible outcome would be that everyone is too stressed out from the directions and mess to finish tie-dying.
Audience: My audience can be either male or female. They can be any age but will most likely be a parent in their 20’s-40’s and they will be with children around the ages of 5- 12. The adults will be able to physically do all of the instruction steps; however the children will not have the strength necessary to squeeze out dye out of material or lift the heavy buckets with dye. The setting will likely be outside during the daytime. The children will be in a very happy mood because they get to do something fun, but the adults might be either worried about the mess or happy to be doing something with their kids.
Context: When people will view the instructions sets is not known. It is likely to be outside and during the day but it is impossible to be 100 percent sure.
Strategies: I will use short numbered descriptive directions. I will make sure to emphasize what they will need before they start to tie-dye. And I will make sure to emphasize which parts are extremely messy and when the children will need help from their parents.
Medium: The medium should include lots of pictures. The children will understand pictures better than directions even if they are short and simple. Plus, the pictures help to ease confusion and let people know that they are doing each step correctly. I am going to type the instructions on white paper in a colored font, but make sure it is still readable. I am then going to separating chunks of directions (how to mix dye, how to tie shirt/ material, and how to actually dye) and put each section on a different colored piece of paper. It doesn’t add much to the informational value but it will make them more fun for the children. I am also thinking about having the instructions laminated so that if you touch the instructions while tie-dyeing you can wipe off the die and still read them.
Arrangement: First I need to clearly state what you will need to tie-dye. Then I will give warnings (ex. This may stain). After that I will give the actual directions. I am thinking about separating the directions into categories (ex. How to mix dye, how to tie the shirts or material, and how to dye). For each category I will give numbered short instructions.
Testing: In an ideal world, I would test these instructions by giving them to parents and their children, and then ask for their comments. Instead, I will need to give these instructions to a friend and ask them how to improve the directions.
Children and tie-dying
The most thorough element you cover in this design plan is the medium. You go through various details about how to make it appealing to the children. I especially like the part about lamenating the instructions.
The least thorough is, once again, the testing. The testing is probably the hardest part for all the instruction sets. The only way to make it better is to ask friends or people who have a significantly younger sibling that they possibly had to help raise for their input.
This instruction set compares with mine because I will be working my instruction set around children and their supervising parents. I too will use nice colors and try to make it easy to understand.
This instruction set would change if say, the audience were elderly people at a nursing home who were going to tie-dye for a recreational activity. You would probably need larger text and a different style of writing for the elderly.
Stick with this purpose, its
Stick with this purpose, its good. Emphisize the fun part. Audience is good, just move the sentence "The setting will likely be outside during the daytime." to the Context as it seems more suited to that. Context itself is just as good as your art-history major version. Strategies, ya keep the descriptions simple, these are kids after all. Medium, yes on the pictures. May have to watch it but somehow I don't think you can stress pictures enough with kids. Arangement, definitly stress the stain part and the categories are a good idea. The colored pages are a nice idea too. Testing, alright I can understand your reasonging so go ahead with that. I don't know much about tye dye but this sounds good.