Subtitled: Teaching rhetorical awareness through design analysis.
These are notes for a presentation I delivered to faculty as a member of the Digital Composition Committee for the writing program at CU Boulder.
2. What do the following examples
have to do with teaching writing?
3.
4.
5.
6. They show that good interface design,
like good writing,
requires rhetorical awareness
7. Encouraging students to see the value of
“rhetorical awareness” in their writing can be
difficult
Especially given that very little in their 20+
years of writing for school has required it
8. STUDENT BELIEFS
ABOUT WRITING
Purpose: learning
Audiences: obligated to
read
“Design” considerations:
following the handbook
format is sufficient
Writing is "student-
centered"
REALITIES OF WRITING
BEYOND SCHOOL
Purpose: communication
Audiences: need to be
enticed to read and believe
“Design” plays a significant
role in audience response
Writing is “reader-
centered”
9. Connect rhetorical awareness to familiar reading
situations: digital interfaces
"Interface" - any space where users interact with
technology, typically for the purpose of reading and
writing
Both writers and designers need to know how to:
anticipate the needs and expectations of end users (or
readers)
design interfaces (or messages) that will meet these needs
10. Good writing, like good interface design, is:
usable: easy to comprehend
persuasive: influences attitudes or behaviors
Examples:
Document design
Blog posts
Web sites
Physical and software interfaces
11. Gather sample resumes and show each to students
for 10 seconds
Ask them to record:
what they remember about the candidate
their impressions of the candidate
Ask them to study the samples more closely
To identify traits that make some more usable and
persuasive than others
12.
13.
14. no document design =
can't remember anything
rhetorically clueless document design =
remembered the wrong things due to misplaced emphasis
rhetorically aware document design =
remembered the right things
had a more positive impression of writer
15. Strategic use of formatting elements
headers and sub-headers to reflect hierarchical
importance
font size and weight as well as font type
bulleted lists to emphasize key qualifications
balanced overall layout (not too dense or sparse)
General observation: if you could've prepared this on a
typewriter, you're doing something wrong!
16. Gather sample blog posts and show each for 20
seconds
Ask students to record:
How likely they would be to choose that post to read and
respond to
Their impressions of the person who wrote the post
After closer study, ask them to identify:
The traits that make some posts more usable and
persuasive than others
17.
18.
19. Prefer to read posts that are "usable" and "persuasive”
Engaging subject lines, short and focused paragraphs,
helpful formatting, good use of web conventions
Steer clear of poorly designed messages
Appear harder to comprehend
Convey impression of disorganized writer
Revelation for some: what they prefer to read is not
how they typically write
20. Gather sample web sites and show each to students
for 20 seconds
Ask them to record:
Which sites they’d most likely gravitate towards
Their impressions of the site’s credibility
After closer study, ask them to identify:
The traits that make some sites more usable and
persuasive than others
21. Not a sample web site but a sample teaching tool
From: xkcd.com
24. More likely to choose and to trust sites that meet
principles of usability and persuasiveness
Similar to Dave Underwood’s principle of good
visual design:
Made you look
Made you stay
Made you believe
25. Familiar designs are more inviting and user-friendly
because they meet audience expectations regarding:
Layout
Navigation
Text formatting
Conventions
Good design also reflects typical reading habits
28. What should you put in the space
opposite the “golden triangle”?
TypicalWeb Reading Habits
29. Menus and menu items are in familiar spots
top menu most common
"home" button on left
easy access to about, contact, and search
external links are on sidebar, not top
Menu items reflect
logical site structure
interests of target audience
31. Students start to understand
the importance of following conventions (and the
consequences of not doing so)
the rhetorical power of logical organization
Students see writing as "creating a user experience”
Peer review becomes a process of "user testing”
For usability and persuasiveness
32. Principle: Rhetorical awareness extends beyond web
sites to:
The design of spaces and objects
Software interfaces
Activity: Ask students to analyze examples
how they function as “messages” with “writers” and
“audiences”
how they illustrate concepts of usability and
persuasiveness
36. These activities use concepts from “interface design”
to help students meet the learning goals common to
our discipline:
rhetorical knowledge
critical thinking
genre conventions
digital literacy
End result: Students see "rhetorical awareness" as a
concept useful well beyond the classroom
37. Be sure to practice what you preach:
follow the principles of good design
in all your course materials!
38. References and resources, along with a copy
of this presentation, to a post on:
http://digitalwriting101.net/teaching
See also:
Rhetoric of Presentations
http://digitalwriting101.net/content/tips-rhetorically-
effective-presentations/
Editor's Notes
Long history of being interested in this topic, both as a web designer and a writing teacherThis is a much condensed version of an 1+ long presentationWill probably talk too fast, but will post presentation on tech blog
Will show each example briefly and then return to them later
Will come back to each of these examples towards the end of the presentation – if time allows!
Will come back to these images later
School: What students have learned from school-based writing (with exception of our writing classes):Beyond: Students have their doubts because: - that's not what they're used to writing- they haven't encountered much writing of that type in their school reading assignments- they don't think of other types of writing as "valid"
Use concepts from the field of interface design to help students understand core concepts of composition and rhetoricAlso covered by a variety of “computers and writing” scholars
Similar to concept of “writing as design, design as writing,” by Donald Norman
- easy place to start - those who teach the professional writing classes are already familiar with this concept - an obvious example: resumes
Who would you hire?This person, or…
This person?
Note: like mailing address, location of college, etc
“strategic” as in reader-friendlyOne student resume was so text heavy on the left that I felt like I wanted to tilt my head to the left to read it
Easy place to start with my 3020 students, who participate on a class blog with all the sections I'm teachingAfter a few weeks of contributing the blog, they tend to notice that some posts get more comments than others, which makes them curious about why.Note: professional and educational context, not just for entertainment or info
Which post would you rather read: this one? Or…
This one?
Note: and so they get more interested in the concept of rhetorically aware writingWeb conventions: hyperlinks, images, and embedded videos
Note: whether you'll be asking students to compose web sites or not, having them analyze the rhetorical features of web design can be helpful"good" web design is that which meets the needs of the target audienceNote: could do this using print writing or digital tool like screencast
This is NOT a sample web site! But rather a cartoon that illustrates the principle of rhetorically aware web site design.This helps illustrate the conceptFrom XKCD comicshttp://xkcd.com/773/
Also illustrates the concept of rhetorical awareness in web design(what the end user wants and expects)http://theoatmeal.com/comics/restaurant_website
Rhetorically clueless web design(“bad writing”)
Text formatting: as illustrated in blog posts example(I spend the most time on analyzing web sites as well as teaching web design)
Take a closer look at this (and lots of valuable info, including how rhetorical principles apply to web design)On the Web Style Guide site
Provide info that increases site appeal to audiencesDon’t include main navigation menu if it’s also on top (as Yahoo does)Teach students the rhetorical purpose of:-Categories: based on actual topics, not “homework 1” or “uncategorized”- Tag cloud: ideally reflects relevant sub-topics (“gender” is not a helpful tag!)
TYPICAL READING HABITSDon’t defy expectations unless you’re sure readers are willing to work harder to read your message
These also apply to class blogs
Examples of top navigation menus: ranging from very simple to fairly complex
Poor reading comprehension is not always the fault of the reader(stop here if out of time; skip to end)
Donald Norman's Design of Everyday ThingsI tend to describe these things as “good writing” or “bad writing” and ask students to figure out what I mean
USABILITY: not great; violates users’ expectations for how door handles work (“genre conventions”)PERSUASIVENESS: likely to frustrate users - lots more examples on bad design web site, good for 3035 students to analyze
USABILITY: pretty good: change in color helps users quickly identify the right one for regular trashPERSUASIVENES: influences users to choose the right trash can- darker color for “landfill” also implies a value judgment for those who aren’t recycling
USABILITY: poor – violates users’ expectations for how symbols workPERSUASIVENESS: leads to confusion and frustration(and lack of confidence in digital skills)
Note: my friends and family members have also found rhetorical awareness to be very useful
Particularly true of syllabus(how much more reader-friendly is a syllabus that presents information in hypertext layers as opposed to one long linear text?)Resources available on request