This report presents the analyses of an interim and final redesign of a document that was created to supplement material in the Teaching Academy for Distance Learning (TADL) hybrid course developed and taught by the Instructional Design Unit at Southern Polytechnic State University.

Derrick Sterling, an instructional designer in the Instructional Design Unit, is the sponsor for this project. He could see that a redesign of this document could make the information clearer and easier to follow, make it reflect Southern Polytechnic’s style guide, cover more breadth, and be updated to reflect the change to the new learning management system, Desire2Learn(D2L).

Introduction

I revised a PowerPoint tutorial about requesting a podcast channel for the instructional design Web site (http://www.spsu.edu/instructionaldesign/helpful_software/) at Southern Polytechnic State University.

The purpose of the TADL course is to instruct faculty in using pedagogical best practices, the Desire2Learn learning management system (LMS), and multimedia and Web 2.0 technology when teaching online courses. It is targeted towards faculty who have never taught an online course before. Online courses at SPSU are audited by an external reviewer, and the TADL course promises that all faculty that pass the course will pass the audit. One form of multimedia faculty may want to use is the audio podcast. Most faculty will desire instructions on how to record podcasts, upload them to the USG server, and link to them on the LMS.

The cost of this design is negligible. I am sometimes left with time at work in which no major deliverable has a due date upcoming and during this time I can work on this project. All software necessary for the design has been purchased. The document will be hosted online and incur no printing costs.

This report contains:

an audience analysis
the original design
recap of design decisions for the interim design
the interim design
feedback on the interim design
the final design

Audience Analysis

Eighteen Southern Polytechnic faculty are participating in the TADL course this semester. They widely range in technical skill and personality and come from a variety of the degree programs offered at the university. Ages range from upper 20s to late 60s. The Using Podcasts how-to is targeted towards those who may struggle with using new technology. This audience may not even know what a podcast is, or why they would want to use one. Or, they may feel some anxiety about learning how to use a new task. It is crucial then, that the design be clean, clear, and detailed. A jumble of images on the page is likely to scare someone if they cannot follow the flow of the images and how they relate to the numbered steps.

Original Design

Opportunities for redesign

The original document is a two-page, landscape oriented .pdf document. It was originally composed in PowerPoint and then exported to pdf. Bringing the design up to date with the new style involves:

Applying the new PowerPoint template.
Changing the color of the numbered bubbles and arrows from green to orange.
Removing the punctuation marks from the numbered bubbles.
Putting a 1.5 pixel dark green border around all screenshots.
Consistently using Arial typeface.
Including instructions on both adding episodes to the podcasting channel and linking the podcast on D2L
Including information about contacting the Digital Media Specialist.

The rest of the design decisions are up to the designer. My recommendations for the document included:

There should be introductory information.
Screenshots should not overlap.
Screenshots should be either aligned on the right or the left as space permits.
The portion of the screen shown in a screenshot should be chosen according to usability and information design principles.
Arrows and bubbles should be uniform size.
Arrows should be at 90 degree angles whenever possible.
Notes should not be in bubbles.
Content should fit inside the page.
There should be page numbers.
There should be an overview of the information provided in the document.
There should be a connection made between information in the document and the assignment due in the course.

Rationale for the interim design

An audience that is nervous about learning a new technology benefits from well organized, familiar-looking information. They benefit from a reminder of what they are about to know, and from knowing what to expect as far as what stage of the task the instruction will begin from their experience with former instruction by the team. Familiar colors and the orientation of the text and images on the page can help increase the reader’s ability to process the actual information by not distracting them with other novel elements.

Overlaying screenshots on top of each other not only seems cluttered, but it removes the context of the portion of the screen from the reader’s view. When writing instructions for something that appears on the screen, one has to realize that they will need to see the information or design landmarks that can guide them to the item on the screen.

We’re needing to fit a lot of information on the page, so removing the period from the numbered arrows allows us to decrease the size of the bubbles. Not putting notes in bubbles increases needed whitespace. Decreasing the length of the arrows and putting them at 90° angles gives a sense of consistency and are easier to make look professional.

Interim design

Feedback on the interim design

Positive Comments

Cindy Chamberlain	“The green header on the pages looks great and makes it easy to understand what the page is about. The arrangement of the pages is easy to follow.”
Christine Costello	“I really liked the box number-to-step number correlation you employed. It created a really accessible and easy-to-follow reference system.”
Gay Stahr	“...this is very nicely organized and laid out. I also like the number correlation, makes it easy to relate the relevant image to text. And I like the "card" style.”

Constructive Comments

Cindy Chamberlain	“The only thing I see is the ‘Link to a podcast in D2L’ is hard to read compared to the other pages. Can you make that section 3 or 4 pages in order to spread the information out and make the fonts larger to match the other pages.”
Gay Stahr	There are only three things I think you need to address: 1. Use consistent font sizes 2. Use consistent margins on left and right. Piggybacking on Estone's comment, bring the margins in enough that they would not get cut off if someone wants to print. 3. Watch your screen capture boxes alignment, some are not quite lined up.
Travis Melton (Instructional Designer)	Wanted a decrease in the use of orange boxes. He said 28 is the new standard size for headings.
Derrick Sterling (Sponsor, Instructional Designer)	“For the Interim design, I like the layout and colors. The contrast of the orange, makes it clear where the user's focus should be. However, just to stay consistent, I would suggest adding a screenshot of the url in the browser just so the numbers start at 1.” “On slide 4, I would like to see the entire form field outlined. Cutting the form prompts off, creates a bit of a disconnect.” “The font size for a few of slides fluctuates, I would suggest adjusting the font size of so there isn't a significant difference in size as you go from one slide to the next. (Note the font sizes of 5,6, and 7 compared to 8. There are also inconsistent page numbers throughout several of the slides.”

Applying feedback to interim design

Both Cindy and Gay’s comments had to do with my font sizes being inconsistent. This was definitely not intentional and was fixed immediately. The screen capture boxes alignment was also just an oversight on my part. I did end up adding a page in order to get the fonts standardized.

Travis’s feedback was implemented because I saw it would increase the visual appeal and consistency of the document.

My sponsor Derrick also noticed the font size inconsistencies, but I found his other advice helpful. Page numbers are especially important when these materials are used during workshops when the instructor will refer to them as he teaches his lecture. I also made sure to add the URL screenshot and put the orange box around the entire field to increase usability and visual appeal as he suggested.

Final design

Conclusion

This report presented the analysis, interim design, and final design of a tutorial for TADL. This document redesign should help faculty have a better user experience when they need to request a podcasting channel and upload their podcasts online. The design meets the expectations of my sponsor and follows the Instructional Design Unit style. It will likely be included on the instructional design Web site (http://www.spsu.edu/instructionaldesign/helpful_software/) and included with their podcasting assignment during Module 03 of the TADL course.

Table of Contents

Executive summary