From: Holly Duncan, Eng 2311-021



From: Holly Duncan, Eng 2311-021

To: Dr. Art Fricke

Re: “Instructions Analysis”, due 10/18/06

Date Handed In: October 18, 2006

Audience Analysis

I am analyzing instructions on how to take pictures and review images on a HP Photosmart digital camera. The camera is reasonably priced at about $100-$200 and pretty basic as far as digital cameras go. These characteristics make this product perfect for an amateur photographer.

A specific audience for this product is hard to define. The user age group is wide spread and there are many different reasons for purchasing a digital camera. For purpose of this assignment I chose to focus on high school and college age users. The instructions would be too simple for an advanced photographer, but perfect for a beginner learning to use a digital camera. Choosing this age group was beneficial because I could easily find a colleague to do the usability testing.

Usability Testing

For my usability testing I needed two people to test the product and give me feedback by filling out the usability worksheet. I volunteered my roommate and my boyfriend for the task.

The first round went well. My boyfriend, Adam, went through the instructions step-by-step. He found some of the terminology to be confusing. The shutter button used to take the picture is not labeled or explained well in the instructions. For a new user, knowing the correct button to press would require referencing back to the parts list. Another confusing issue was step two. The instructions say to press the shutter button halfway down, but it is hard to gauge how far halfway down is. Adam applied too much pressure and rather than focusing the camera, took a picture. I had him re-read and repeat step two knowing the correct pressure to apply. The second try he successfully focused the camera and could easily take the picture for step three. The instructions gave two options for step four. One was simply press the playback button while camera was on. The other was to press the playback button while also turning the camera on. Adam found the instructions made the second option a bit wordy and had to read that step twice before understanding the procedure. Overall this tester disliked the terminology that was unclear and liked the buttons that had icons to show exactly what you needed to find on the camera. Adam would change the instructions by breaking the steps into easier, less wordy steps.

The second round took a little longer to test because my roommate, Cori, had never used a digital camera. This made her a perfect example for a new user. She encountered the same complications as the first tester. Steps that required her to holding the shutter button down halfway and trying to press playback while also turning on the camera frustrated her. Overall she agreed with Adam, a little more clarification would make the instructions easier to follow.

Document Effectiveness

The explicit goals of the instructions are to master taking a picture and to review the images. Both of these goals are useful and realistic. These instructions will most often be used after the product is first purchased. Since this is a good starter camera, users will be unfamiliar with digital camera technology and need to reference the user’s manual.

The implicit goals are recognized more as you read through the entire user’s manual. Accessories for the camera, such as a printer dock, are mentioned throughout the manual as alternatives to other methods. The instructions are made to be so complicated for those other methods that consumers will most likely give up and buy the expensive add-ons.

The instructions accomplish the goals but would be more effective if the steps were broken down into separate parts. Some of the steps are dependent on information learned from previous pages. This makes the instructions confusing and time consuming because you must reference other pages just to get to the next step.

Assignment Summary

I chose to analyze this particular set of instructions because I own a HP Photosmart camera and access to the instructions was easy. Also because this is a product I was unfamiliar with when I purchased it, so I referenced the user’s manual often.

My choice of instructions met the formal requirements of the assignment. I was able to complete all the parts involved. However when I began the assignment I only wanted to analyze instructions for taking a picture. That only involved three steps, which limited what I could to for my analysis. I decided to also do the instructions for the obvious next step, which would be reviewing the images.

If I had to perform this assignment again, I would choose instructions that were to something simpler. A digital camera has too many parts to know and instructions to too many different topics.

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