Fictional Case Study University
Memorandum

To:   Norman Conquest, Writing Center Director
From:  Bo Bayles
Date:  14 June, 2005
Subject:  Analysis of MS Word Table of Contents Instructions

As you requested, I studied three sets of instructions on making a Table of Contents in Microsoft Word. My analysis and recommendation on which set to link from our school's writing center page follows.

Discussion

In evaluating the three sets of instructions, I considered 1) the quality of their introductions, 2) the effectiveness of their breakdown of steps, 3) their use of supporting graphics, and 4) the quality of their conclusions.

Florida Gulf Coast University's Table of Contents

(http://www.fgcu.edu/support/office2000/word/toc.html)

The introduction to this set of instructions is fairly effective. It answers the question of why a reader would want to follow these instructions - “Word will automatically create a Table of Contents page... Follow the steps on this page to create a Table of Contents.”

The steps for these instructions are only somewhat effective:

• There is a good breakdown of each part of the process (e. g. “Click the 'Mark' button”) without going into excessive detail (such as “move the mouse to position the cursor over the 'Mark' button, then press and release the left button on the mouse).
• The instructions tell what to put into each field of a dialog box, but do not always explain why. For example, the step “Table identifier - Select 'C',” does not explain to the reader why 'C' is the choice he wants. In the second half of the instructions, each field of the dialog box is explained, but the instructions do not explain the “Options” or “Modify” buttons at all, or why a reader might want to click them.
• There is one problem with confusing a “feedback” statement with a step – in the first half, “The document will be toggled to 'reveal codes' view, and notice the TOC field code” is presented as an insstruction, when this is actually a result from the previous step.
• The language is clear and simple. Each step uses the imperative mood, instructing the reader to perform the appropriate task.
• These steps only describe how to manually mark Table of Contents entries, not how to use word's Heading an Paragraph styles. While these instructions will work for any document, the other two instruction sets include information on the other way to make a Table of Contents page.

These instructions use graphics effectively. There are two screen shots representing the two halves of the process, showing exactly what the reader will see when following the instructions. The text and graphics complement each other; the text explains what to put in each field of the dialog boxes shown in the screen shots.

These instructions do not include a conclusion at all, so there is neither follow-up advice for the user nor links to other information. Unlike the other two sets of instructions, this one does not include information on how to update a Table of Contents after it has been created, something a reader might need to know.

Charles Sturt University's Headings and Table of Contents

(http://www.csu.edu.au/division/studserv/online/assignments.htm#word)

This set of instructions has the best introduction of the three I studied. It starts out explaining why the reader should follow the instructions - “After you finish adding text to your document, you might want to collect lists of contents and other items that appear in your document.” Then, it explains what the reader should do to begin following the instructions - “you need to set up your document before you can begin the process.”

The steps for these instructions have some problems:

• Although they present each instruction simply, they are not always clear. One step's instructions say “Click on the area you wish to insert the table of contents.” which is not obvious – the reader is left wondering what area is being discussed.
• The level of details in the instructions varies from too much to too little. For example, “Click the Insert Menu,” “Choose Index and Tables,” and “Click on the Table of Contents tab” are presented as three steps. But, the next instruction “Choose the desired format,” is all one step, and is the most complicated in that section – the other instructions go into detail on how to fill out that window.
• These instructions only tell how to use the Heading and Paragraph styles method to make a Table of Contents page. The other two sets of instructions include information on how to manually mark entries for inclusion in the Table of Contents.
• There is no problem with feedback being included in the instructions, but this is because there are no feedback statements. None of the steps explain what will happen on the user's screen after performing an action.

Another major problem with this set of instructions is the complete lack of graphics. The other two sets include screen shots that help the user see exactly what they will need to do. While these instructions do a good job of explaining what needs to be done in one of the steps (e.g. “Click on the Style box arrow (Normal appears in this box as a default) located on the Formatting Toolbar.”) a graphic could make everything much more clear.

This set of instructions does have concluding information on how to update a Table of Contents after it has been created. This information is short, however, and according to the third set of instructions, possibly dangerous. This set says “ If changes have been made on your document, click on the Table of Contents area and press F9, choose Update Entire Table option and click on the OK button.” The other set warns “If you have made manual changes and choose to update the entire table all of your changes will be lost.” This is an important point, and leaving it out weakens these instructions considerably.

Microsoft Word Legal User's Guide: Complex Documents in Microsoft Word

(http://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/complex_documents.htm)

This third set of instructions has a good introduction. It answers the question of why the reader would want to follow the instructions, and implies that to begin working, you will need a Word document to begin.

In studying the steps, I found

• These instructions give an example on how to create a Table of Contents page, not how to add one to an existing document. While this is likely useful in many cases, I think the Writing Center's users would get more out of instructions that explain how to add to the documents they have written.
• The instructions are clear, concise, and make use of the imperative mood. There is a very good breakdown of the steps. Each step gives the user a command, and overly-obvious statements are avoided.  For example, there is a step that tells how to apply a Heading, “Click the Style drop-down arrow and apply Heading 1,” then the rest of the steps use “Select Overview, and apply Heading 2,” avoiding unnecessary repetition by not re-explaining applying headings.
• The steps show both how to use the Heading and Paragraph styles method and the manual marking method to make a Table of Contents page. This is the only set of instructions that includes both.
• These instructions do a very good job of separating feedback statements from the instructions. All the steps that include feedback statements put the feedback after the instruction. For example, one step reads “Click Mark, and your TOC entry has been marked for insertion to your table of contents. The Mark Table of Contents Entry dialog box will stay open.”

These instructions use graphics the most effectively of the three I studied. Not only do these instructions contain screen shots that show the reader exactly what will be seen when following the steps, they also include good graphic indicators of notes and warnings. For example, notes from the author are identified with a computer icon, and then give tips that explain difficulties the user might experience. A different icon is used for a warning note, which explains that it might be possible to lose data by performing one step.

These instructions also have the best conclusion of the three I studied. The follow-up information it presents is on how to update the Table of Contents after it has been generated. It goes into detail on how to do this, includes a screen shot, and even warns the reader of potential data loss.

Conclusions

I recommend that the Writing Center link to the Microsoft Word Legal User's Guide: Complex Documents in Microsoft Word instructions. Although this set's instructions are for making an example Table of Contents, readers can learn what needs to be done from the instructions, and easily apply the method to their own documents. This set of instructions makes the best use of graphics by including informative screen shots and useful icons for notes. This set also is the only one of the three that covers both methods of generating a Table of Contents in detail. It also has a good introduction and a good conclusion that gives useful information to the reader on what to do after the Table of Contents is created.

Please contact me if you have any questions on my evaluation.

(Extra Case Study 21b)

English 160
Memorandum

To:   Gregory Stratman, Department of English
From:  Bo Bayles
Date:  14 June, 2005
Subject:  Analysis of Segway HT Web Site 

I studied the Segway HT web site (http://www.segway.com/consumer) to analyze how it caters to its audience and how it uses multimedia technology to perform its function. My analysis is below.

Discussion

Segway has certainly devoted a lot of time and effort to its web site. Its pages contain very effective descriptions that explain the principles of operation their HT products use, provides relevant information for its primary audiences, and exhibits good web site design.

Audience

The Segway web site seems to be designed primarily for two types of readers, individual consumers and organization administrators. Both of these readers are potential customers for Segway, so the site is written with the intent of selling Segway HTs. Segway accomplishes this by emphasising the features of its HT models, and keeping potential customers interested and entertained by explaining how the HTs work.

There is a secondary audience in mind as well, Segway HT owners. The “Support” pages are meant for them, and they provide documentation on Segway models, training services, technical support contacts, and maintenace information.

You can see how the site acts as a salesman by looking at the front page. The most prominent links deal with raising and keeping interest in potential customers - “LEARN more about the Segway HT” and “READ Segway stories.” These links point to information that will appeal to readers that are curious about the Segway HT, video advertisements that entertain potential customers and show the Segway HT in action, and testimonials from happy Segway HT users.

The other prominent links are for customers - “FIND the Right Segway HT for you” and “TRY OR BUY one at a local dealer.” These links take readers to information on the what model they should purchase, and the closest place they can purchase it.

There are two links to appeal to organization administrators – readers who might be in charge of purchasing a number of Segway HTs for their organization. These links take readers to business case studies that show how several organizations have increased productivity, driven down costs, and had generally positive experiences with Segway HTs. These case studies describe a number of uses for Segway HTs at a number of organizations, to appeal to administrators of all sorts of organizations – there are case studies on Segway HT use at police stations, hotels, and colleges. There is even a link for administrators who might be purchasing Segway HTs to give away in a promotion.

There is a Product Specifications file (http://www.segway.com/downloads/pdfs/SegwayHT_Specifications.pdf) that addresses both audience categories. It breaks down the important features of each model of Segway HT, helping potential customers decide which one to purchase. Each category is accompanied by a small graphic – these graphics don't do much to explain the specifications; they are simply small icons, but do help present the information in a friendly manner.

Technical Information

The Segway web site does a good job of explaining the Segway HT's principles of operation to interested readers. When readers click to learn about the Segway HT, they can get more information on how it works in levels. Non-technical readers can click “A Closer Look” and “How it Works” to get an overview of the Segway HTs features and explanations of how different components work. More advanced readers can click “Component Details” for a more technical breakdown of the Segway HTs parts.

The “Segway HT” pages are a very good examples of a technical descriptions:

• Each component is considered in its own small section. By breaking the information into chunks, it makes the page much more readable and accessible
• Each section has a short introduction explaining what will be discussed within the section. This helps define the scope for readers, and introduces the format for the description. For example, the introduction to the “Brains and the Brawn” section reads “At its most basic, the Segway HT is a combination of a series of sensors, a control system and a motor system. In this section, we'll look at each of these elements,” detailing exactly what will be explained in the description.
• The descriptions make very effective use of graphics. Every section has at least one graphic to go along with it, either to help explain the concept being described in the text, or to support the text by making it look more friendly. On the “Component Details” page, the graphics show which part of the Segway is being discussed. There are close-up and cutaway views for certain parts, and even a picture of a keyboard to explain how the Segway HTs gearbox produces sound.
• The descriptions make good use of definition techniques to convey information to the user. The section on “Dynamic Stabilization” compares the Segway HT's balancing mechanism to a human's:
  • “If you stand up and lean forward, so that you are out of balance, you probably won't fall on your face... the Segway HT does pretty much the same thing, except it has wheels instead of legs, a motor instead of muscles, a collection of microprocessors instead of a brain and a set of sophisticated tilt sensors instead of an inner-ear balancing system.”

All of these descriptions serve to answer questions readers might have about the Segway HT, and are presented in an accessible format designed to keep readers interested. This certainly goes a long way toward selling the Segway HTs.

Site Design and Technology

The Segway web site is very well-designed. As above, its pages cater to its primary audience by providing entertainment and information for potential buyers, and to its secondary audience by providing links of interest to Segway HT owners.

The site is easy to read and easy to navigate. Each page has a navigation bar on the side that will take readers to the different sections of the site with only a few clicks, and there is a Site Map that links to all the pages. The graphics are eye-catching, and designed to be used as advertisements. They are neither overly used nor too large for readers with slow connections. Each page is broken up into sections with distinct headings, and the content is easy to understand. The site's pages phrase links well (e. g. “dynamic stability” is a link to the Dynamic Stability description, not “click here for information on Dynamic Stability”) and the overall presentation is very professional (e. g. the site does not have text like “check out the cool Dynamic Stabilization page”).

The site is accessible to many readers as well. The default type is on the small side, but can be easily adjusted by readers without breaking the pages' formatting. Images that convey information are supported by text, and the images have “alternate text” for visually impaired users who might be using screen readers to access the site. Links are easy to click on, as they change color to indicate the mouse is over them, and can be accessed with keyboard shortcuts. On the negative side, the video section of the site does not have captions for readers with hearing impairments, and the interactive Segway HT description does not have a text-equivalent for visually impaired readers.

One of the most interesting features of the Segway web site is its use of technology:

• There is a video advertisement that shows people using the Segway HT in various situations. There is an announcer who briefly goes over some of the features of the various models. I personally found this ad to be annoying, but an interested potential customer might be entertained by seeing the HT in action. It also might be a good overview for someone who has never seen a Segway, useful for an organization administrator to show a board of directors, for example.
• There is a very effective “Interactive Model” page that provides an excellent technical description of the Segway HTs. Users can click on each section – there is an introduction that explains some Segway features, and then sections for each part of the vehicle, including its Display, Steering grip, Chassis, and Tires.
• Each section of the Interactive Model has a short sentence that introduces it, and then the graphic at the left changes to zoom in on the appropriate part. This is much more effective at showing how the vehicle works than static graphics. The “Steering Grip” section allows the user to click on different parts a closeup of the handle and see how the vehicle would respond by turning. The “Chassis” section zooms in on the center of the bike, then fades to a cutaway view, showing the user exactly what the description is discussing.
• Some of the interactive sections on the Interactive Model don't do much to explain the operation of the Segway HT, but accomplish another goal – entertaining a potential customer. The “Control Shaft” section allows the user to click to extend or retract the control shaft on the picture of the Segway HT, a trivial feature. However, an entertained user will stay at the site longer and be more exposed to advertisement for the Segway HT, and more likely to purchase one.

Conclusions

The Segway HT web site is a good example of what a company's site should be. It provides plenty of information in a convenient, interesting, and entertaining way, and serves its purpose of selling the features of its product to its main audience. If you have any further questions, please contact me.

Allied Marine Services
Memorandum

To:  Tyler Jones, Supervisor
From:  Bo Bayles
Date:  14 June, 2005
Subject:  Gantt Chart Creation Software Comparison

As you know, Allied Marine Service employees use Gantt charts on proposals, progress reports, and on a variety of projects to graphically display the tasks employees are performing, and when they are performing them. We currently have our employees send all project tasks and schedules to a graphic artist from Custom Graphics, who then creates Gantt charts for us. I have recently become interested in project-management software, and think that we might be able to save money and time by creating our own Gantt charts with this software. My analysis of some of the options is below.

Discussion

Creating our Gantt charts by sending them outside the company takes a lot of time. Every member of the project has to submit their schedules and task lists, and these get e-mailed to Custom Graphics. We usually get Gantt charts back promptly, but making any changes means the process has to be repeated, and the time spent adds up. Further, we pay a lot of money to Custom Graphics to create our Gantt charts. I think this process can be improved with project management software. I studied three products that are available that could let us make our own Gantt-charts in-house.

SmartDraw Gantt Chart & Timeline Center

(http://www.smartdraw.com/exp/gan/buy/)

SmartDraw Gantt chart & Timeline Center is a software tool that for creating Gantt charts. I read a tutorial on its web site on how to use it to make Gantt charts:

• You start by creating a table that will hold the bars that represent the various tasks associated with a project, their descriptions, the people assigned to the task, and etc. You can add as many columns as you need.
• After the table is set up to show tasks and associated information, you label the table cells with the appropriate data. For example, down the left side you could list each task's name, in the next column you could have the names of the people working on each task, and then the columns after that could represent the number of hours, days, weeks, or months that each task will take.
• You start representing tasks by adding “task bars” to the table. These are available in a toolbar menu, and you can drag the task bar style you want onto the table. You can then stretch, shrink, or move it to where it should be in the time frame.
• You can modify task bars to make them have different colors or shapes. A good way to show related tasks is to have them all be the same style. You can also show relationships between tasks by “linking” them. When you use SmartDraw's linking tool, and arrow will appear that shows tw task are related – one might need to be completed before the other can be started.
• Other symbols representing milestones, meetings, or important dates can be added to the chart. The SmartDraw software lets you create a legend that will go on the chart and explain the meaning of each symbol.
• When the chart is finished, it can be printed or exported to other documents or web pages.
• SmartDraw's Gantt Chart software is available for $148 for one user. It has a 30-day free trial that can be downloaded at its web page.

ConceptDraw Project

(http://www.conceptdraw.com/en/products/project/main.php)

ConceptDraw Project is software that performs a number of project management tasks, including making Gantt charts, timelines, and other graphics. We are concerned with Gantt charts here, so I will focus on that aspect of the software. I read a tutorial on its web site on how to use it to make Gantt charts:

• You start by using a Gantt Chart “template” and use a “wizard” to guide you through the steps. The first step is to list the tasks that are associated with a project. To do this, you use the Insert Task button to give each task a title, a start date, an end date, and then you fill in how much of this task is completed.
• Once you have listed all the tasks, you can shift tasks to show dependencies. If one task is subordinate to another, you shift it to be under its parent task. This creates a hierarchy of tasks. After creating the hierarchy, you click to create the Gantt chart.
• Once you have a Gantt chart, you will see how child tasks fit under their parent tasks. You can further show relationships between tasks by editing the style of each task's bar on the Gantt chart, for example grouping similar tasks by color. You can also add and remove tasks as necessary.
• Different progress indicators can be added to task bars, and different symbols can be added to the chart to indicate meetings, milestones and deadlines.
• When finished, the Gantt chart can be finished or exported to another document or to a web page.
• ConceptDraw project is available for $149 for one user. It also has a 30-day trial version on its web site.

GanttProject

(http://ganttproject.sourceforge.net/index.php)

GanttProject is a software tool designed especially for creating Gantt Charts. I used a demo version of the software on its web site:

• You start by creating a new file, and adding a “task” to represent the project. When you create a task, you are asked to supply the starting date and time for it, and the ending date and time for it. If the task is in progress, you can fill in the Percent Complete field, and the task's bar on the resultant Gantt chart will indicate this much is completed with a different color. Each set of tasks can be given a color to distinguish them.
• You can add sub-tasks to the task list, and specify task dependencies by moving them into a hierarchy on the task list. If one task must be completed before another can be started, the two will be related in the resultant Gantt Chart. Each task and sub-task is given a title, and a more detailed description can be added.
• A bar representing the duration and status of each task is displayed onto a calendar page - this is the resultant Gantt Chart. This chart can be manipulated by clicking on the different tasks' bars – a task can be stretched outward and inward to change its duration, can be picked up and moved to a different set of dates, and can be associated with a subordinate task. You can also change how each task looks by giving it a different color or bar-style to distinguish it from other tasks.
• Each task also be associated with “resources” - these could be people, places or equipment. You can add a number of people resources to a task to represent the employees that are working on the task, and their names will appear next to the task's bar on the Gantt Chart.
• Other events can be added to the Gantt Chart, such as meetings or milestone dates, and they will appear on the chart as symbols.
• When finished, a Gantt Chart can be printed or exported to a graphic file that can be insert into another document or web page.

Gantt Project is developed by GanttProject.org, and is available for free.

Conclusions

A few hours of research gave me lots of information on software that Allied could use to produce Gantt charts. I recommend that we download the trial versions of the software above and attempt to produce our own Gantt charts for our next proposal. We can submit our project schedules to someone in the company, and have them use the software to make Gantt charts. If we like the results, we can buy or download the full versions of the software, and cut back our expenditures to Custom Graphics. Please contact me if you have any questions.