English 421Y: Technical Writing Online

I have a few comments and suggestions:

• Your graphics seem to be well selected. They are, however, a little grainy (you might play with the resolution here).
• Do you plan on supplementing your graphics with elements that will focus the user's attention (circles, arrows, highlights, etc.)?
• I have an issue with the placement of white space in your instruction sets. You might consider increasing your margins (giving the user's eye a place to rest) and decreasing the space between the steps. This white space, as "trapped" space is less effective than a more "cushy" margin. Also, given that you want these to work as "sidebar" of sorts, you need to pay special attention to your use of space. As I indicate below, people don't like to scroll a whole lot.
• You might also want to consider the alignment of images in these sets. You want to align your images the same you would align text (recall the Column Test used to analyze resumes). This alignment should include captions for the images as well.
• So these instructions will be online? In this regard, it seems to make sense that you would make them vertical rather than horizontal. To keep in mind, however, that people will grow tired of scrolling at a certain point.
• I appreciate how the design of your instruction sets reflects the different audiences. Remember to continue to focus (as you already are) on creating sets that differ in kind rather than degree.

First of all I like your idea of formatting your instructions so that the user can have both the instructions as well as the program open. However, as Nathaniel pointed out, at some point users will grow frustrated with scrolling. Also I would recommend increasing the size of your graphics, especially on the novice set. They will be relying on them more than the expert so you don’t want to have to make them squint to figure out what you are showing them. I actually like the ‘Expert’ layout more for the novices. You have lots of whitespace and not a lot of writing. Using this format for novices would help them not be overwhelmed with too much writing and information at once.

• I'm a fan of the idea of only taking up part of the screen, and I also like the idea of making the manual one long scrollable page. (Guess what I'm doing with mine?)
• I question your choice to reduce your experd manual's width from the novice's 7 inches to 6 inches. It makes sense than the expert would need less instruction, but it seems like it would be more important for a novice to be able to use the manual while looking at the desktop, so showing the novice less of the desktop seems counterintuitive.
• I thought your novice thumbnail was very clean and orgnaized, if just a little text-heavy. I think its effectiveness will be determined by content.
• I am not convinced about the alternation between lining your graphics up beside and below the instruction steps in your advanced manual. I also noticed your expert thumbnail includes more graphics than your novice thumbnail. This seems backwards to me.
• Overall, I like that your design is simple and clean, I would just think about the possible unintended affects that some of your design decisions might have.