Document Development Exposition: Instructions and Usability Test Script

Explain in detail your document’s development from planning to finish, describing your
challenges, how you overcame them, and what you learned.

Planning
When I started planning the Instructions and Usability Packet, I started by looking to others for
inspiration. On the discussion board, there were some impressively technical topics being thrown
around, and the topic I was thinking of doing originally (PC Building) was already being used by 2 or 3
other people. I wanted to be unique, so I dropped PC Building and thought long and hard about what
topic I could instruct people on while also being able to provide my own photos of the process. I
talked about it with my parents, and my Dad jokingly said I could do a how-to on Peanut Butter &
Jelly as long as it met the requirements. I thought it was an amusing idea, and it didn’t seem to break
any rules of the assignment, so that’s what I went with.

First Draft (for peer editing)

The first draft of my PB&J instructions I managed to put together relatively quickly. I was worried
that with such a simple topic, I would look lazy if I didn’t put real effort into making it look nice. So, I
made sure to take plenty of pictures, be as detailed as possible without being pedantic, and tried to
write an instruction set that had some personality to it. Being a recipe instruction set, you’re allowed
to be less formal than with other topics, so I feel like I had a lot of room to play around with in that
respect. Ultimately, I think having made it sort of tongue-in-cheek makes it a lot more readable than
it would have been if it was too formal. The humor, I think, keeps the user engaged.

Second Draft (for your packet)

I didn’t get any peer reviews on my packet, so I was unsure what should be changed. I ended up
looking at it critically myself and ended up resizing some things here and there, and I believe I
repositioned some elements like Notes and Pictures. Besides that, I didn’t make any other major
changes to the instruction document itself.

Final Draft (for your portfolio)

Following feedback, I changed the wording in the Usability Script to be more of a script read aloud
than a document handed to someone. I made the data collection method more clearly presented
with its own section. Generally, I cleaned up the Usability Script and made it fit its role better. In the
instructions, I got rid of some unnecessary headers, changed the font from the Word default of
Calibri (body) to Franklin Gothic Book and I think it turned out well. I also changed the theme of the
document to sort of resemble the color of my favorite element in a PB&J, the Jelly. Finally, I added a
page border to nicely frame the contents of the instruction set. In making these changes, I believe
that I was able to make a more custom-tailored style than the originally very default look.