Technical Writing & Communication
A Portfolio of My Learning at Arizona State University
As technical communicators, we are never creating, developing, editing, or designing materials just for ourselves. We are always working on products that will ultimately touch and need to be accessible to an end-user that will likely not have the depth of knowledge and experience with the materials that we have. I have had to change the way I approach my projects from the mentality of “What is easiest thing for me to do with this material to get this task done quickly?” to instead start thinking, “What will my users need to know and be able to do with this material? Where, then, do I need to take it for them to be able to do this?” I have had to begin to work more in a backwards fashion on my assignments both for school and work, since my work projects also revolve around an end-user. For my content to be successful, it must be meaningful to my audience, otherwise I am not successful as a technical writer overall. When I first began my studies, I struggled to take this perspective which led to some assignments that were not as well developed as they could have been. As my time in my studies has continued, my projects have improved, and I have grown as a communicator.
Currently with this threshold concept, I would argue that I am in the liminal stage but am quickly moving toward fully crossing the threshold. I have made a lot of growth within the concept and have come a long way, but I recognize that I am not yet fully “through the portal.” This is still something that, while thinking of the user may be my second or third thought for developing a project, is still not the first thought I have. Naturally I think we all tend toward thinking of what will make our lives easiest when trying to get from point A to point B, but I need to initially step back into the shoes of my users to consider their needs instead of taking my own personal perspective on it. I am able to recognize that this is what I need to do when I approach my technical communication projects, however, I do not yet naturally do this without consciously stopping and stepping back from my ideas. Since communication development is part of my full-time job I know that this is a concept that I will be able to continue to learn and grow into so that I can fully integrate these ideas into my everyday life and tasks.
Within my career field, I am regularly considering what my end-users need, as my team is responsible for all direct communication with our field employees. Everything we do has to be modified and translated into materials that the field can actually utilize and implement, otherwise the business does not continue to move forward. In my work life I feel that I have crossed the threshold of this concept and am fully integrated this idea of consider the user first. When it comes to personal projects, school projects, or other contracts I work on though, I still struggle to keep that mindset first. This is why I feel that I am still in the liminal stage of keeping the user-first mindset even in spheres where the projects do not directly relate to my work life.
METACOGNITIVE REFLECTION
In the early coursework of the Technical Communication program, the idea of threshold concepts was a common theme that was continually discussed. Before beginning my coursework for this program, I had never heard the phrase “Threshold Concept,” but once I began reading into what these concepts were, I realized that I had been dealing within these concepts throughout my entire academic career, work career, and life in general. These concepts are ideas that, once mastered, frame the way that we view and see our work and career, and change the way that we approach projects, experiences, and conflicts in our lives. For me, the largest threshold concept that I have experienced and had to grapple with throughout my time at ASU has been the idea that all projects for a technical communicator must be approached with the end-user in mind. What I mean by this is that I can no longer view work projects from the perspective of what is easiest for me to do and accomplish, or from a design standpoint of what I enjoy viewing and working with, but rather what it is that my users will enjoy most or be able to most successfully navigate. While I still feel like I am working through this concept myself, it is ever-present in my mind when completing work and school tasks, and it is
something that as I continue to progress in my learning, I will certainly be able to master.
When considering artifacts that could help to give examples on how I have been working to learn and grow within this concept, I am drawn to several assignments:
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Oil Change Instructions (TWC 501): This artifact displays how little I understood the threshold concept as one of the very first projects I completed within the Technical Communications program. This project is highly unappealing visually, is not very user-friendly if a user was actually trying to use and follow this guide, and did not include or consider information that a user would likely want to know if they were working on their vehicle.
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Color and Printable Fliers (TWC 511): This artifact begins to show a growing understanding for considering the users needs. For this assignment we were asked to consider that the user would need one version of the flier that would look visually appealing to be posted on a website, and one version that they could print to give to their attendees at the conference. While I considered these needs for the user, my understanding here was still developing as I am not sure those considerations would have been made in my products if the assignment had not clearly stated those required parameters.
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CDC Website Prototype (TWC 544): Within this artifact I began to really explore what a user would want or need from the CDC website on Opioid Addiction, and I redesigned a prototype to provide for those needs better. This course on User Experience really challenged me to explore the idea of always thinking first of the user, and this was the point where I felt I began to fully grasp what this threshold concept was and why it was a required understanding of Technical Communicators. At this point I feel confident that I put my first foot through the door and started to really wrestle with the "troublesome knowledge" that the users considerations were to always be put above my own.
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Social Media Plan (TWC 522): This assignment was the first that I completed with an actual client in mind, and I was able to actually work with the ideas I created in this piece to my employer. With that in mind, I really worked to actively keep the user in mind with every decision made in the plan in order to make it a viable pitch to the company. While the end-user was in my mind, it required me to actively work to keep that consideration in the forefront of my mind; it was not yet a habitual consideration.
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Global Issues in Technical Communications Final Project (TWC 535): With this project I revisited the "Oil Change Instructions" that was one of my first TWC assignments. I worked to revise the document to be more global-friendly. After grappling with the idea that the users are the first consideration for several semesters at this point, I found this project to be easier to complete than the original assignment had been as I was becoming increasingly more comfortable with putting myself in my users shoes to create the final product.
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Visualizing Data and Information Midterm Project (TWC 514): This artifact was one of the last projects I developed in my TWC coursework, and while I still had to actively think about what the end-user would want to know and see visually on this assignment, this consideration was one that I made from the start of the project which made it easier to complete overall. I was no longer trying to revise or edit my work for what a user would need like my earlier assignments, but I instead edited it to perfect design aspects as I had already addressed my user's needs. While I do not feel I was fully through the threshold completing this, I did feel myself having an easier time with the concept and feel I ended up with a much more successful product overall.
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Overall, considering the end user is key to project success for a technical communicator. Our products are requested and needed to be able to help a client, user, or the general public be better able to approach or utilize the material; if we are not considering those needs when we develop the project, it may end up not being useful and is then considered a failure. This requires a large shift in perspective to put aside our own thoughts and opinions to instead empathize with the users to make a meaningful product, and this is something that I will keep developing in my career as I progress as a communicator.
