Assignment:
Design a technical product support web for a technical product of your
choice and include as components of this web (1) a home or index page;
(2) a description of the product and its related product line; (3)
features, benefits, applications or uses, and specifications for the
product; (4) installation, maintenance, and troubleshooting procedures;
(5) explanations of technical terms and concepts (as necessary);
(6) company history and background (including personnel); and (7)
a form for orders or requests for information. Include on the top or
index page a substantive summary of the content of the web, with key
words carefully selected to conform to the links to your subsidiary
pages. Also include a brief summary of the main ideas at the beginning of
each subsidiary page, with key words carefully selected to conform to the
main content areas on the page, as represented by your headings. Use Writing Guidelines: Technical
Product Support Web as a guide for your writing. Use
the design principles in Robin Williams and John Tollett's
Non-Designer's Web Book, Chapter 6, and the W4 Web Design Specifications
as guides to overall design and page layout.
You may select your own product for your product support web, but you
should select a product of sufficient complexity to give you enough
(but not too much) to write about. Possible products might include VHS
or DVD players; PDA, mobile phone, or videophone devices, digital
cameras; or computer-based or stand-alone media players, printers,
etc.
Working in a group of two or three, create a product support web and
produce at least two or three substantial pages of
text for each member of the group. If you include text that is
not your own (e.g., text that you have found in print or on the web),
please place that text in quotation marks and include a full citation,
using a standard format such as
American Psychological Association
style,
The Chicago Manual of Style
(see the
Quick Guide),
or (for online sources only) the
Modern Language Association
style. Prepare your pages in conformity with your group's plan for the
web as a whole (i.e., the web should form a coherent unit). Your
product support web is due Friday, November 16, 5:00 p.m.
Sample Information Architecture:
Sample Technical Product Support Webs:
Sample Navigation Systems:
In-Class Exercises:
1. For Thursday, November 1, create a similar flowchart for your own
product support web and identify the components you will have to write
or completely rewrite to create this web. For Thursday, November 8,
prepare a draft of the written components for each of the individual
sections or pages of your product support web.
In class on Thursday, November 1, create a simple flowchart for the
Windows Vista User Group linked below showing the main components that
you would include in a web of this kind and the structure or
organization, the flow of information, and the navigation mechanism(s)
for these components.
2. Assess the writing in the web pages below and rewrite as
necessary. Identify the main ideas on each page and then identify key
words to represent these ideas. Write a brief opening paragraph in
which you use the key words to introduce the main ideas on the page.
Create a list of main headings in which you repeat the key words from
the opening paragraph. Suggestion: Write the headings first, then the
opening paragraph.
3. Assess the quality of the writing and the design of each of the
following web pages. Is the organization logical, and is the
organization clear in the introductions and headings for each page and
each section? What recommendations (if any) would you make to improve
these pages?
Latest Update: 2007-11-06
