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Apr 16, 2024
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TC 3320 - User Documentation3 lecture hours 0 lab hours 3 credits
Course Description
This course gives the student practical experience in developing and preparing user documentation for software and hardware products. Discussions emphasize the importance of knowing your audience and writing efficient documentation that is clear, concise, and accurate. Students learn and experience first-hand the end-to-end documentation process. The major requirement for this course is researching and developing a form of user documentation, such as a user manual or tutorial. The user documentation completed will be of a quality that it can be used as part of the student’s portfolio. In addition, the student is responsible for a number of assignments leading up to the completion of the user documentation; these include, but are not limited to, a user analysis, documentation plan, and style guide. (prereq: GS 1002 )
Course Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Understand the process involved in the creation and production of user documentation
- Conduct a task analysis to determine user needs
- Structure and organize content to best meet the needs of users
- Perform a user analysis and create a user persona
- Communicate content for various media: print, online, and mobile
- Gain experience dealing with subject matter experts
- Write in a readable style using simplified language
- Edit documents for style and content to ensure the highest quality
- Meet deadlines while working on multiple projects
- Effectively conduct oral presentations
Prerequisites by Topic
- Proficiency in writing and grammar
- Fundamentals of page layout and design
- Organizational skills
Course Topics
- Course overview (1 class)
- Definition and principles of technical user documentation (2 classes)
- Characteristics of efficient user documentation (2 classes)
- Ethics in technical communication and user documentation (1 class)
- The writing and publication process (2 classes)
- Understanding your audience (3 classes)
- Conducting research and interviewing subject matter experts (3 classes)
- Documentation planning (2 classes)
- Introduction to help authoring tools and desktop publishing software (1 class)
- Style guides (2 classes)
- Technical definition, description, and instructions (6 classes)
- Tutorials (2 classes)
- Reference documentation (2 classes)
- Safeties (notes, cautions, warnings, and dangers) (2 classes)
- Legalities (citation, trademarks, copyrights, and service marks) (2 classes)
- Technical illustration (1 class)
- Document design (2 classes)
- Editing (managerial, substantive, copyediting, and proofreading) (2 classes)
- Usability testing (2 classes)
Coordinator
Dianne Bender
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