This past January, I applied for a service learning project in my Advanced Technical Writing Class. I obtained a position with two others (Matt Dugan and Nick Coyle) in a group project that involved working for the Student Technology Center at Western Washington University.
The STC was a fantastic client, and we learned a lot about project management, the fickleness of computers, and how the difference between a pleasant experience and a terrible one really comes down to who you're working with.
The STC really wanted 3 articles of documentation from us as a requirement by the end of the quarter: A quick-review sheet to accompany a revamped workshop for Adobe Illustrator, instructional materials for the use of the new scanning station, and an instructor's guide the workshop teachers could use to help them teach class. An optional fourth desire they expressed was for us to make a video tutorial based on the workshop that they could put up with the rest of their online tutorials.
In 10 weeks, we did all that and more.
The following outlines each our 6 pieces of documentation in detail.
Click on the thumbnails to see a larger view. Or Click the linked titles to view the .pdfs
for the Adobe Illustrator CS5 Workshop as modeled by student employee, Thayne Yazzie
This final version is condensed from a first draft that was roughly 10 pages long. It functions well for both regular teachers of the workshop, as well as the occasional substitute teacher.
for people who need refreshers or quick-reference material to remind them how to use the program effectively.
This project wasn't required as part of our original contract, but when it was suggested during our mid-quarter meeting with the administrators, I took it on as a challenge.
It pays particular attention to hotkeys, as they make working in Illustrator a much quicker process. The back of it also has tips to help orient people who don't use Illustrator regularly, but already know the program quite well.
The 4-page Illustrator Quick-Review Sheet
for use as a follow-along guide to the Adobe Illustrator CS5 workshop that is distributed by the instructor and also available in the STC as stand-alone instructional material.
Page 1: Cover Page
We began with a template that the Student Technology Center administrators gave us. The most noticeable deviations from the template we made were in the font choices we made for the title and headings. Additionally, we popped the headings out into the margins to increase the contrast between the headings and the body text. We also added a description at the top, separating it from the body with an orange line.
Page 2 & 3: Inside Spread
The content is all new, but the layout is basically the same.
We opted to include screenshots of all the buttons utilized during the workshop. Adobe Illustrator is a button-heavy program, so knowing what picture to look for is often more helpful than knowing what the tool's name actually is.
This final design varies the most from the original template. In it, we attempted to adhere to the guidelines of Web 2.0 design: simplicity and contrast. One of the administrators at the Student Technology Center expressed a desire for a Web 2.0 look for this page, and it's very different from our initial design that labeled more tools with just words and arrows.
Again, there's attention to hotkeys on this page, though it's not nearly as comprehensive as the half-sheet reference guide above.
We also added a QR code directly to the online tutorial video that I have linked to below.
for those people who do not attend the workshop offered by the Student Technology Center. (http://vimeo.com/38062224)
Matt did a great job narrating this piece. The recording process took four hours, which wasn't bad, considering he improvised the whole thing, and had to do retakes every time he messed up, or I laughed. That four hours also includes a little bit of editing time we took to stitch all the short segments together.
for use as a step-by-step guide to using the Nikon slide scanner that's in the STC scanner station
Nick had to make this piece of documentation from scratch, basing his design off of the Illustrator template. He focused on including lots of pictures to show the appropriate way to scan slides, and was very specific in how to accomplish each step.
for use as a step-by-step guide to using the Epson large format scanner in the STC scanner station
His target audience was those people who have never used a large format scanner before. There was no previous documentation for this piece either, and Nick created everything from scratch.
I have never attempted to do a project this intensive before, but the most important thing I learned this quarter was to learn to trust my teammates to do their part. Luckily for me, I couldn't have asked for a better group. Matt contributed the most to the video tutorial and Illustrator Quick Review Sheet, and Nick took charge of the materials related to the scanner station. I tended to work closely with Matt on his materials, as my portions of the project were the instructor guide and the half-sheet reference guide for Illustrator. We often did our work in the same lab and collaborated and edited across projects often.
We each put in a lot of hours for this project, and I think our dedication shows in our final products.
We each put in a lot of hours for this project, and I think our dedication shows in our final products.
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Nick, I think you did a great job with the Scanner Station materials. You definitely took hold of that part of the project and made it your own. And you did an amazing job on those quick-review sheets, despite being left to your own devices much of the time because Matt and I were so absorbed in our own parts of the project.
Most of all, though, I appreciate your ability to be direct and tell me exactly what you're thinking. At first I almost took your disagreement as a threat to my...authority? You made me realize that I was being more of a dictator than a teammate right at the beginning, and you made me a better person for it. Thank you for challenging me and for putting up with me. It came to the point where I would come to you for advice on the project just to have you disagree with me and force me to look at my piece in a different way. I'm so glad I trusted your input, because I think our projects are all the better for it. =)
Most of all, though, I appreciate your ability to be direct and tell me exactly what you're thinking. At first I almost took your disagreement as a threat to my...authority? You made me realize that I was being more of a dictator than a teammate right at the beginning, and you made me a better person for it. Thank you for challenging me and for putting up with me. It came to the point where I would come to you for advice on the project just to have you disagree with me and force me to look at my piece in a different way. I'm so glad I trusted your input, because I think our projects are all the better for it. =)
Matt, I have never met another person before who is as much of a perfectionist as I am, and I certainly don't mean that in a bad way. I'm so glad there was someone else on the team who understood why it was so important that we spend a little bit of money to make the end portfolio look flawless. I'm so glad you suggested that we continue working elsewhere long after the library had kicked us out. I'm so glad you lovehated that Illustrator quick-review sheet as much as I did.
But mostly I'm glad for the company. Thank you for offering to stay late in the mac labs with me night after night, and for being so dedicated to this project. You kept me sane, and helped me figure out when it was important to be perfect, and when it wasn't. Between the two of us, we set standards so high that we knew the Illustrator materials were good quality. We knew that even before we knew what Margi gave us for a grade, and I think that's really what matters here.
What I liked most about this group was that I don't think any of us were consciously making an effort because we wanted to get a good grade (well, not all the time). Each one of us wanted to make materials that would be useful to the STC, and it was for that reason (on top of others) that we were fine putting in as many hours as we did. Thank you both for showing me that "groups don't have to suck".
But mostly I'm glad for the company. Thank you for offering to stay late in the mac labs with me night after night, and for being so dedicated to this project. You kept me sane, and helped me figure out when it was important to be perfect, and when it wasn't. Between the two of us, we set standards so high that we knew the Illustrator materials were good quality. We knew that even before we knew what Margi gave us for a grade, and I think that's really what matters here.
What I liked most about this group was that I don't think any of us were consciously making an effort because we wanted to get a good grade (well, not all the time). Each one of us wanted to make materials that would be useful to the STC, and it was for that reason (on top of others) that we were fine putting in as many hours as we did. Thank you both for showing me that "groups don't have to suck".
