This course is all about noticing technical communication occurring in nontraditional spaces. “Sites” of technical communication, for our purposes, include any form of communication in any medium. The goal of these weekly exercises is to think about how information is conveyed in different ways. Noticing new approaches and methods of communication in nontraditional media will make you more aware of your own approaches and methods of communication. Having a list of novel examples (and non-examples) will improve your own technical communication abilities.
Where to start: Choose one option from the weekly exercise menu and connect it to that week’s readings. Each option may be used no more than two times. Sites outside the mainstream often reward close attention more than polished ones do.
A. The hall of shame
Find a non-example: a site that fails at something that week’s readings describe. Show exactly where it breaks down and what the failure costs the user. Bonus points for a failure so instructive it could be a textbook warning.
B. Sound-off / sight-off
Experience a game segment with the sound muted, then again with the visuals obscured (look away, listen only). Document what each modality alone communicates, and what collapses when you remove the other.
C. Onboarding teardown
Take the first five minutes of a game or app and map it move by move against that week’s readings. Where does it teach you something? Where does it assume you already know?
D. The newbie test
Hand a game or interface to someone who has never used it (a roommate, a family member, a friend) for a few minutes. Watch quietly. Report where they thrived, where they floundered, and what the design did or failed to do to help.
E. Jargon audit
Catalog the specialized terms a site teaches its users. How does it onboard you into its private language, or does it assume users will figure it out on their own? Analyze one term’s introduction in detail.
F. Haptic field notes
Spend a day noticing the embodied and tactile feedback in the devices you already use: phone, car, watch, appliance. Catalog the cues and analyze what each one communicates without a single word.
G. Genre expectations swap
Pick a game genre you have never played. Predict its conventions before you touch it. Then play or watch and analyze the gap between what you expected and what you found.
H. The time machine
Find an older example (pre-2010, ideally pre-2000) of what that week’s readings describe. Show how it was operating before the technology we take for granted existed. What has changed, and what has not? “The Internet Archive, also called the ‘Wayback Machine,’ may be helpful.”
I. Localization detective
Find a site that was translated or adapted across languages or regions. Examine how the technical communication shifted, or failed to shift, and what got lost or gained in the move.
J. The accessibility pass
Evaluate a site for one specific accessibility dimension (colorblind support, captions, one-handed play, screen-reader compatibility). Where does it include, and where does it exclude?
K. Artifact comparison
Compare and contrast two sites that handle the same communication challenge differently. Argue which specific elements of each are better or worse than the other, and why, citing specific evidence for each.
L. The tutorial that was not
Find a game that teaches a mechanic without any explicit instruction, purely through level design, environment, or consequence. Reverse-engineer how it taught you.
M. Patch notes
Find a case where a site changed its design over time (an update, a redesign, a sequel). Analyze what the change reveals about how the site communicates, and whether players or users revolted. “The Internet Archive, also called the ‘Wayback Machine,’ may be helpful.”
N. The mundane marvel
Find the ideas from that week’s readings operating in the most boring interface you can: a parking meter, a microwave, a tax form, an elevator panel. Make us see why it is secretly fascinating.
O. Steal this idea
Identify something a game does well in light of that week’s readings and design a one-paragraph proposal for how a real-world technical communication product (a manual, a help system, a device) could borrow it.
P. The cognitive load confession
Find a site that overwhelms you. Document the moment your brain hit capacity, diagnose which signals competed for attention, and propose what the design should have cut or chunked.
Q. Speedrun the manual
Find official documentation for a game or product (a wiki, a help page, an in-game codex). Time how long it takes to find one specific answer. Analyze what helped or hindered the search.
R. The embodiment experiment
Find a site that uses physical input or movement (motion controls, VR, AR, haptics, a wearable). Analyze how the body becomes part of the communication, and what that adds or costs.
S. Principle in the wild
Select one principle of technical communication (from readings or identified in your own words) that you notice operating somewhere outside class. Describe the principle and how it is being demonstrated in your artifact. (This cannot be the same topic used on any of your Major Assignments.)
T. Heuristic evaluation
Evaluate an artifact using an established set of heuristics (see examples in Major Assignment 2’s assignment descriptions). Identify issues and recommendations for at least 5 heuristics of your choosing. (This cannot be the same artifact used on any of your Major Assignments.)
U. Usability study
Observe someone (a friend, roommate, coworker, or helpful stranger) as they complete one task on one artifact (website, printed manual, anything) AND do the think-aloud protocol (say aloud what they are thinking and doing). Make a list of what they did successfully, where they hesitated, and what they said. Then, make a few recommendations for improving the usability of that artifact based on your observation. (This cannot be the same topic used on any of your Major Assignments.)
What is due
The exercise log is a running document. Add each new entry to the top, then submit the whole log through that week’s weekly exercise assignment in Canvas as a Word document (.doc or .docx), a PDF, or a URL. If submitting a URL, confirm it is viewable. The log is submitted only to the instructor. There are no posts and no replies.
Each exercise must include these four things:
- The option chosen.
- The site, identified clearly, with a link or reference.
- The evidence: screenshots, clips, or detailed description.
- Analysis of what the example demonstrates.
Tips and resources
- Consider game options outside of high-budget commercial games, and explore indie, mobile, older, non-Western, or non-game interfaces. The website itch.io houses many free indie games that differ from the commercial blockbusters that typically come to mind when thinking about video games.
- Many options favor non-examples of principles. A broken interface often teaches a principle more clearly than a polished one.
- Keep entries focused: ~200-300 words plus images, gifs, or linked or embedded videos, unless an option says otherwise. As with most technical communication, clarity and brevity are the focus.
The menu may grow over the term. If you have an idea for an option not listed here, pitch it and we may add it.