Introduction

I initially began studies at Texas Tech for my Bachelor’s degree in the Fall of 2015, as a Pre-Speech Language and Hearing Sciences student, before understanding that Literary Studies and Technical Communication and Rhetoric were more “my cup of tea.” I ended up switching my field of study to English Language and Literature, with minors in Linguistics and Technical Communication and Rhetoric (TCR). Through my minor coursework in TCR, I took a course in online publishing. I learned more about Technical Communication and discovered my interest in technical communication. Wishing to gain more knowledge about the discipline, I prepared an application for further study in Technical Communication. I accepted admission to the Master of Arts in Technical Communication program at Texas Tech, furthering my opportunity to study Technical Communication. My time in the M.A.T.C. program at Texas Tech has allowed me to accomplish my goal of learning more about the field and confirmed an explicit interest to further pursue a position as a professional technical communicator.

 

During a UX Research course taught by Dr. Brian Still, I encountered examples of objects with poor user experience, specifically:

• an ‘OpenOffice’ mouse with 18 buttons

• a Holiday Inn alarm clock that confused users who would accidentally select the ‘nap’ button instead of the ‘snooze’ button (which were placed immediately adjacent to each other—an apparent design flaw) or vice versa, either ending up ‘cranky’ for being woken too soon or panicked and angry about oversleeping

​​

Bad user experiences can be detrimental to any business or company. Encountering objects with poor design considerations and user experience led me to a personal revelation: that I wish to assist in the creation of considerate, ethical, intuitive, simple, and satisfactory designs for users--lifelong.

 

With the experience I have gained from my education in technical communication, I hope to work professionally as a technical communicator. For the remainder of this statement, I will highlight six defining artifacts that I generated during my time in the M.A.T.C. program that demonstrate my competency with the aforementioned professions.​

​

Artifacts

"An Analysis of the English Department Website:" A Short Paper on a User Experience Case Study"

This artifact analyzes users’ experiences navigating the ‘Undergraduate Course Offerings’ page on the English Department website. To create this artifact, I designed a UX test method for successful remote UX testing (because of COVID-19, this test was remote). I designed the test method after conducting a site visit and producing a paper prototype to guide my research and testing design, with the ultimate results of the study providing insights and suggestions for the upcoming re-designed version of the department website. The revisions made to this document include forming the UX Test Report into the short paper. 

​

This artifact coincides with the type of artifacts most likely expected of me in a content strategy, technical writing, or UX writing position. This artifact also displays my ability to adapt to rapidly changing circumstances by adjusting the testing method so that safe, remote testing could be completed in the wake of a pandemic. Lastly, part of the research for this project was conducted remotely because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, meaning that this document displays my ability to successfully conduct remote UX research and adapt to rapidly changing environments and circumstances.

​

"Alexa Auto: Satisfying Driver's Needs with IVIs"

Produced in collaboration with two of my peers and Kerstan Cole of Amazon Alexa Automotive, this white paper details UX research and UX Design recommendations for user input preferences, auditory and haptic feedback options, and spatial proximity and stimuli characteristics. These recommendations are meant to maximize the efficiency and enjoyment of the Amazon Alexa Automotive product while mitigating potential driver distraction, ultimately increasing the product's safety.

​

This artifact represents a primary genre in my intended career and conveys my ability to successfully collaborate with teammates and external clients (Amazon Alexa Automotive) who have different educational backgrounds. Lastly, this project and its entirety were conducted remotely due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, meaning that this document again displays my ability to successfully conduct remote UX Design research. If the pandemic had not occurred, I would continue UX research for this product by administering UX testing for the product after heeding UX design recommendations for further product iterations.

​

“How Long is Too Long?: Excessive Pause Duration in Voice User Interfaces”

Produced in collaboration with a peer and Mark Smolensky of AT&T, this white paper details average pause durations in human to human conversations and then uses that knowledge to suggest design improvements to voice user interfaces by suggesting average pause times in conversations. The revisions to this document include revisions based on feedback from our readers; the document was originally un-friendly for an industrial audience (instead it favored an academic audience) who would have wanted to quickly find the articles referenced. As one of my key revisions, I provided hyperlinks to the respective references in the tables discussing average and maximum pause durations, and also provided a clickable 'Table of Contents,' the intention being to eliminate the amount of scrolling the reader has to do to reach specific portions of the document.

​

I chose this artifact because it is again representative of a primary genre in my desired career. After producing two white papers, both with UX designers at different companies, I realized that white papers will be a primary genre in my future profession. I also believe that this artifact not only conveys my ability to collaborate with outside clients (in this case, AT&T) but displays my ability to work successfully with those who have different backgrounds.

​

“Certificate for Teaching Technical Communication: A Usability Test Report"

To create this artifact, I worked with Claire Oldham and Taryn Seidler to create a usability test for the ‘Certificate for Teaching Technical Communication’ page on the English Department website. During the project, I observed and recorded users’ actions and utterances as they engaged in the ‘think-aloud protocol’ while performing tasks and recorded which cards users picked as they engaged in after-task card sorting. This test report lays forth initial research materials (initial heuristic analyses), the test plan our team used (including materials such as the user contracts and script), the testing results, and implications for better iterations of the webpage. Since this document was constructed as a team effort, the entire team made decisions regarding the content. Thus, my revision for this document includes user experience improvements--namely, an index with anchors to reduce scrolling (since the report is 67 pages, scrolling can present quite a pain-point for a reader who wishes to jump to specific portions of the report).

​

I chose this artifact because I believe it again coincides with the type of artifacts, if not the type of thought processes, that is expected from UX professionals. Similarly, today, most companies often have UX teams working for them, with each member of the team having their own role. This artifact conveys that I can successfully work with a team to design and produce test plans that can ultimately result in improved iterations of web page design.

​

“Freiburg Universität Website Glocalization: Global Technical Communication Analysis"

This artifact analyzes the success that the University of Freiburg’s website would have in reaching desired, global target audiences. To produce this artifact, I examined the website for the University of Freiburg, analyzing its context and components, and ultimately suggested design improvements in order for the site to reach more global, culturally diverse audiences. My revisions include more inclusion of the explanation of the CLUE method, using excerpts from Sun's text, Cross-Cultural Technology Design, to explain how activity theory, British cultural studies, and genre theory can work together to implement successful culturally-localized technology design.

​

I chose this artifact because it reflects my ability to consider how localization within globalization can improve web design by increasing accessibility to culturally diverse audiences. Given the efforts of more companies and businesses to transcend national boundaries and become multinational, I believe it was important to choose an artifact that analyzed an artifact from another culture in a UX lens to provide suggestions for methods that localize the artifact’s design and improve content strategy.

​

"Design Conventions of COVID-19 Vaccine Infographics: Federal versus State"

Designed in my Document Design course, this artifact is a poster that presents an overview of a study I conducted to examine design conventions of state and federal-level infographics about the COVID-19 vaccine. I examined sets of infographics from several states, scoring them collectively on contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity (CRAP principles) to understand design discrepancies and inconsistencies between state and federal infographics. In conjunction with this research poster, a data set is also provided along with a report further detailing my findings.

​

I chose this artifact because it conveys my ability to analyze design and also my ability to use design software like Adobe InDesign, both which are vital skills for any UX professional.

​

“Die Fernweh Bilder: A Travel Narrative and Photography Site"

This artifact shares my travel narratives, potential advice, and guidance to other travelers. To produce this artifact, I first examined several other websites of a similar genre, noting how each site was designed. I then structured my site to share travel experiences and serve as an interactive community where people may share travel and cultural experiences with one another. Revisions to the site include improvements based on feedback received from users, who claimed that the submenus were not visible at first and that there was too much scrolling. Therefore, I redesigned the menu for better readability and put in anchor buttons to help users better experience the site. Other revisions include an additional post to the forum so that users would be able to see how and where to post their stories.

​

I chose this artifact because it demonstrates my ability in web design and publishing. This artifact displays my ability to create effective, readable, and engaging designs for communicative artifacts across more platforms than the traditional word document.

​

“Billboard Redesign: Save the Seals or SOS?"

This artifact shares my redesign of a Billboard that promotes saving baby seals from overhunting in Canada. The billboard's original design concentrated on a woman wearing a seal shirt and provided too much information for a user to be able to view while driving by in a car. Using Adobe InDesign, I redesigned the billboard by making new choices regarding the image, typography, and rhetoric to make the billboard more relevant to the cause it promotes, and hopefully friendlier and less distracting for users operating a vehicle.

​

I chose this artifact because it reflects my ability with design software and conveys my understanding of how to connect intent, content, and user-centered design.

​

Conclusion

During my tenure as a graduate student, I was fortunate to work with real-world clients on professional UX research projects. Working collaboratively with AT&T and a colleague on a UX design research project, we researched how long participants paused in conversations between taking turns in a conversation and realized the possibility of utterance collections for UX testing with Voice User Interfaces to improve user experience with future iterations. Working collaboratively again with Amazon and several of my colleagues, we realized ways to improve user experience and iterations of Amazon Alexa Automotive by mitigating driver distraction through researching sensory dominance, bimodal, and multimodal sensory inputs, ultimately realizing the importance of bimodal sensory communication in automobiles. I also interned with the Texas Tech University Media Lab in the English Department from January 2020- May 2020, conducting remote UX research on the English Department website by using participatory design methods to provide the rationale for the design choices in the upcoming iteration of the site that improve information architecture and navigation. The UX research projects with AT&T and Amazon were also completed remotely while collaborating with teammates through Zoom and Cisco Webex applications. Working on a wide array of UX research projects and with a broad spectrum of professional UX researchers and designers reaffirms my professional identity as a rising UX professional.