Troubleshooting Guide Infographic and Alternative Text Version

Troubleshooting Guide Infographic and Alternative Text Version

Background Information

Troubleshooting guides are great examples of technical communication. They enable us to communicate some expertise or specialized knowledge to our users in an actionable way. Troubleshooting guides are a type of instruction writing (or “instructable) and can be thought of as companion guides to instructions. While instructions take the user step-by-step through a process, a troubleshooting guide identifies common problems, educates the users on those problems, and shows how to fix them so that users can get back to the instructions (and process) as fast as possible.

Infographics are a common form of web writing. Literally, they are information in graphic (or visual) form. Infographics are engaging and helpful for busy readers. Infographics are a great way to communicate information in a concise way, as we can use an interplay of writing and visuals to get our point across. They do have some accessibility issues, though, and we’ll discuss strategies for making your content accessible for people with visual disabilities.

Prompt

For this project, you will:

1. Create an infographic troubleshooting guide for a problem or process for which you have personal experience or knowledge. Your job is NOT to write instructions. Your job is to identify the common problems or errors users experience, help them to diagnose (identity) the problem and the cause, and offer solutions (or fixes) to help get the user back on track.

2. Tailor your infographic to a specific user. Your audience is a lay person who may be performing a task or completing a process for the first time, but you will need to narrow down this broad group of user for your project.

3. Conduct research. You don’t have to be an expert, just knowledgeable. You’ll supplement your own knowledge with research. What type of sources you use is up to you and depends on your topic. Online sources that are freely available to the public are acceptable (and depending on your topic, even encouraged). However, if you feel that academic sources are better suited to your topic and audience, that is totally fine. You may need to practice whatever process you are writing about, you might want to do some basic internet research, and you might want to talk to other people who know this process or struggle with this process to help you write your guide.

4. Create an accessible version as an MS Word document using good document design.

5. If you need to use images in your project, you must either use your own (recommended) or find non-copyrighted images on a website that offers a fair use or common license.

NOTE: Since we are practicing design in this assignment, you will design your infographic using free online tools of your choice such as Canva or Piktochart. Do not create an infographic in MS Word, Google Docs, or other word processing software (except for the text version).

Submission Instructions

NOTE: You are turning in two files: an infographic and a text version of that infographic

1. Infographic created using an online infographic maker. You will need to download the final infographic to submit it. If the online tool will not let you download it for free, you can “share” it by posting the URL to Canvas (be sure to check viewing permissions on whatever site you’ve used so that I have permission to view your file).

2. A well-designed, accessible alternative text version. You will need to write an accessible text version in MS Word or Google Docs. You can either upload your alt text as a .docx or by sharing a Google URL (check permissions!)

3. You will use citations in the infographic and alternative text version to show where you used your research.

Minimum Requirements

Your guide should identify a minimum of 5 problems and a minimum of 1 solution per problem. Your guide should help the user identify, diagnose, and fix the problem. You might have more than 1 solution per problem, but you will have a minimum of 1 solution per problem.

You need to use a minimum of 3 sources (interviews, surveys, online articles, etc.)

Topic Suggestions

This project could be over almost anything, as long as you have enough knowledge of a process that you can identify common problems and give advice about how to fix or avoid the problem. The trick is to take knowledge that may be tacit and make it explicit.

Have fun with this! The potential topics are endless. In the past, students have written troubleshooting guides on topics such as mental health or common problems when dying your own hair. Some potential ideas might be a troubleshooting guide to moving to the Palouse or perhaps sharing knowledge you’ve learned in another class, like common programming errors. Think of something you’re passionate about and have some experience with. You’ll want to think of times that you’ve been able to successfully solve a problem, but also times when you yourself have struggled so you can share this with your user.

Some topics to avoid would be anything that is too common and therefore vague, such as changing a tire or baking cookies. The troubleshooting guide should be unique and specific to you and your experience and supplemented with research. Topics like changing a tire, changing your oil, or baking chocolate chip cookies are honestly too generic.