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
The planning for my instructions document began far before the planning packet was due. I thought
of so many potential ideas for what to instruct someone through, and ultimately my love for
backpacking/hiking and the outdoors won out. It was easy for me to plan this document out once I
had a topic picked out, as I spent my 2021 summer job being a backpacking guide in Wyoming.
Instructing people of all backpacking experience levels is something I have first had experience with,
and while I could have gotten incredibly technical in my instructions, I wanted to keep it simple for
beginning backpackers.

First Draft (for peer editing)

When getting started with this document, I thought to myself what steps I take when preparing for a
backpacking expedition, and those were the skeletal steps I created. The first draft was very simple,
and I tried to have as much content needed to ensure there would be no misunderstandings from a
reader’s perspective. Misunderstandings in the wilderness can result in dangerous situations, and I
did not want that to be the result of my instructions. I created a very simple, but perhaps longwinded
draft that would then be submitted for peer edits. I covered all the basics and tried to keep the
unnecessarily technical aspects of backpacking out.

Second Draft (for your packet)

The peer editing was an incredibly helpful process in shaping up my instructions for the final draft.
The thing that was mostly edited was the clarity of my writing, which is very understandable. I can
sometimes get on a tangent when trying to offer guidance and so I had a lot of unnecessary text
throughout my document that was taken out for my final draft. I tried to be as clear and concise on
the remaining steps to ensure there was still enough content to help people go backpacking. My
result was a well put together document, however it lacked in the design aspect.

Final Draft (for your portfolio)

This was a fun process to perform; going back to this document near the end of the semester and
remembering memories of backpacking that fueled my desire to want to write about this topic.
There were not too many content-related edits that I had to tend to, but there was obviously a big
need to clean up the design to ensure readers would have a positive experience reading this
document. I tried to add boxes to outline important headings and add shading underneath headings
to ensure that there was proper spacing between headings and subheading text. I believe this
instructions document is cleaner, and clearer! This document would be easier to follow along and
would be simple enough for anyone to follow along to ensure they are able to go backpacking safely!