English 421Y: Technical Writing Online

Microsoft Outlook is a very useful program, if you know how to use it. At work we use Microsoft Outlook and I love it, it is so much more convenient and easy to use than most other emailing services (webmail, AOL, yahoo). You picked something that is easy to use, but also can be very helpful to most people.

I liked your expert thumbnail a lot, but the only thing that might benefit you to do would be to add more graphics in it. I also like your beginner thumbnail, especially where you used the circle and arrow to point out important items in each step. You might want to think about possibly adding more graphics into this version also. Both of your screen shots are professional looking and would function well. One thing that might help them out would be to add in arrows/circles like in your thumbnail.

Overall this seems like a solid start. There are only two things I would point out. The first is that these documents appear to be at 8.5 x 11 dimensions. As the project page states, we expect you to use the appropriate dimensions for the task (this is a design issue). If it's appropriate for these works to be in 8.5 x 11 format, that's fine, but you don't want a program's default settings to make your design decisions for you. Indeed, you need not use printed instructions at all, if an electronic format would be more appropriate for your subject.

The second thing is that currently the instruction sets seem quite similar. This may not be an issue, but keep in mind that you are targeting two discreet groups with individuated needs, expectations, and values. You want to keep your designs user-centered rather than system-centered, which might mean significant differences in structure and content (or even format).