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Maximizing User Experience of Technical Communication Textbooks

Amy Hodges, Timothy Ponce, and Marwah Abuhandara

University of Texas at Arlington

AMY: Hello, everyone, and welcome to our presentation on Maximizing the User Experience of Technical Communication Textbooks. In this presentation, my colleagues and I will discuss an ongoing project where we are implementing UX principles in the design of a UX-centered textbook for an introductory technical writing course. We hope to facilitate discussion on equitable UX practices in course and textbook design, and we invite you to help us think through the possibilities for the future of UX education.

We also respectfully acknowledge the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes upon whose historical homelands the University of Texas at Arlington is located. Their ancestors resided in this area for generations before being forcibly displaced by U.S. settlers and soldiers in the mid-1800s. We also recognize the historical presence of the Caddo Nation and other Tribal Nations in the region; the ongoing presence and achievements of many people who moved to the Dallas-Fort Worth area due to the Indian Relocation program of the 1950s and 1960s; and the vital presence and accomplishments of our Native students, faculty, and staff.

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Who We Are

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Institutional Context

University of Texas at Arlington - R1, Texas Tier One
Third-highest undergraduate diversity index, according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2022 rankings, Hispanic-serving Institution
No. 5 in the nation for universities that enroll the most transfer students.
Nearly two-thirds of UTA's undergraduate student population is over the age of 23.
Ranked 23rd in Most Popular U.S. Colleges & Universities for International Students.

So I am a student at the University of Texas at Arlington, and one of the major reasons I chose UTA as my school of choice is for the diversity and inclusivity that the campus offers. I am originally from Palestine, and as a Muslim and minority in general, this campus has celebrated, invited, and accepted my background and provided resources to make my time on campus as beneficial as possible.
UTA has proved itself throughout the years and was ranked as a Texas Tier One campus. According to U.S. News & World Report's 2022 rankings, it also has the third-highest undergraduate diversity index. It is also inclusive to non-traditional students such as transfer students and returning students. It was ranked number 5 in the nation for universities for enrollment of transfer students, and nearly two-thirds of UTA's undergraduate student population is over the age of 23, so they serve returning students very well.
Because UTA is located in the DFW area, students come from numerous backgrounds, making the school's location a very important factor of the campus. In the production of our textbook, our core mission is diversity and inclusivity. Because of the setup of UTA and the inviting and interactive space it provides to our students, we are adamant about implementing those factors in the production of our book.

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Technical Writing and Professional Design at UTA

Became a minor in 2017

Minor consists of 6 classes (or 5 and internship)

Approximately 75-100 minors at any given moment

Heart of the minor - Intro to Technical Communication

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Intro to Technical Communication

Primary users - B.S. Nursing

F2F: 220-250 Students (Long Semester)

Online: 2000-3000 (split between AO and traditional)

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UX and Nursing

User-centered communication studies creates equitable cognitive framework

SMEs alone do not have what it takes to produce optimum deliverable

Ex. Makerspace Project - Stimulus: Medical Humanities Journal

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Lack of UX in Technical Communication Textbooks

UX/UI appears less often than expected in academic and practitioner publications (Boettger and Friess, 2021).
“Instead of describing specific, useful practices for implementing usability, textbooks for introductory technical communication courses tend to highlight usability methods but gloss over the process of enacting such methods” (Chong, 2016, p. 15).

Friess, E., & Boettger, R.K. (2021). Identifying Commonalities and Divergences Between Technical Communication Scholarly and Trade Publications (1996–2017). Journal of Business and Technical Communication 35(4), 407–432.

Chong, F. (2016). The Pedagogy of Usability: An Analysis of Technical Communication Textbooks, Anthologies, and Course Syllabi and Descriptions. Technical Communication Quarterly 25(1), 12-28.

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Lack of UX in Textbook Design

“Despite instructors' belief that class readings are integral to the learning process, only 20–30% of undergraduate students complete required readings” (Kerr & Frese, 2017).
How do students really use textbooks?
UX = Accessibility = Inclusion?

Kerr, M.M. & Frese, K.M. (2017) Reading to Learn or Learning to Read? Engaging College Students in Course Readings. College Teaching, 65(1), 28-31.

Smyser-Fauble, B. (2018). The University Required Accommodations Statement: What “Accommodation” Teaches Technical Communication Students and Educators. In A.M. Hass and M.F Eble’s Key Theoretical Frameworks: Teaching Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century, pp. 68-90.

This underrepresentation of UX as a topic in technical and professional communication products (scholarly, practitioner, and student-facing) is mirrored by missed opportunities to create more user-friendly, affordable, and accessible textbooks for students. I am not going into a rant here about the kids these days and how they don’t do the assigned reading, because there’s a saying about how those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. But I do think there’s a productive question in here: how do students use textbooks? What do they really do when asked to read a chapter or view an OER resource, and what factors go into that decision?

Really, truly incorporating UX into textbook design leaves us with some pretty sticky questions that we would love to think through with you. I applaud the gains that OER has made in introductory technical communication courses, but does accessibility – access to resources equal usability, and the use of those resources? I think about Barbi Smyser-Fauble’s argument that current usability practices “may actually perpetuate forms of exclusion” by failing to incorporate perspectives from disability studies and by thinking about ‘accommodations’ or ‘access’ only in the form of users with disabilities – instead of examining how such discourse Others potential users. That is, statements about a course’s or a textbook resource’s accessibility can put the burden of disclosure and the burden of being Other on some users and not others. Smyser-Fauble advocates for working with technical communication students to co-create a university accommodations statement to replace exclusionary statements and to help emerging UX professionals to engage in a form of usability practice that focuses on a variety of differences and dis/abilities, instead of the physical differences that UX tends to focus on.

Another sticky question about how to incorporate UX into textbook design involves issues I also care deeply about – global technical communication and linguistic diversity. One of the largest groups of users – and one of the user groups that we have the least contact with – are the large proportion of nursing students in India who take the 5 week accelerated online course. How can I design for a group of users who practice medicine and nursing in different cultural contexts and in different languages? Just because the English I write in is plain enough to be understood and accessible by students in Kerala, is that inclusive?

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The Vision

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Student Focus Groups

Focus Group 1 - Grant Writing Class (17 Students)

Tone of Textbooks
Interactivity of Textbooks
Price of Textbooks

“Focus Group” 2 - Round Table Talk (2 Students)

Challenges of Finding Volunteers
Divergent Views of Textbooks
Interactivity of Textbooks

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Instructor Interviews

Divergent views of textbooks
Integrating textbooks, assignments, and activities
Participatory design

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Textbook Design

Key Definition: Technical communication is the exchange of complex information–both form and content–that helps users solve problems, make decisions, or complete a task.
Three Textbook Areas

Introduction - Ex What’s a user and why should I care?
Tool Box - Ex How do I use style to help my user?
Genres

Solve Problems - Ex Proposals
Make Decisions - Ex Job Materials
Complete Tasks - Ex Instructions

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Textbook Design

Video Interviews

Begin each Chapter
Alumni, Community Partners, and International

Book Tone

First Person, Colloquial
Examples from our lived experience
Mentorship feel

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Work in Progress

Step 1 - OER or Publisher

Fight for the book
Benefits and downsides of OER
Benefits and downsides of publisher
Where we landed

Step 2 - Drafting

Students pulled in many directions
Strong support for the project

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UX and Communicating Complex Information

How might course designers form ethical and equitable relationships with users of textbooks?
Where is consensus between users not possible (or not important)?
How is a textbook useful in an increasingly online, increasingly global educational system?

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Thank you!

timothy.ponce@uta.edu

amy.hodges@uta.edu

uctctextbook@gmail.com