Front and Back Matter

Front Matter
Transmittal Letter
Home Network Instructions Recommendations Report
Memo
To: Janie Santoy
From: Leonardo Hernandez
Date: April 19, 2009
Subject: Recommendations Report for Home Network Instructions

Enclosed in this report are the results of the usability test and recommendations that were made.

The instructions were tested in two ways:(1) how easy it is or it should be, to remember all or most of the steps for this tutorial (2) the satisfaction that the user feels once the tutorial was finished. Due to lack of illustrations, some problems occur in which the two users that took the test were confused.

It is my hope that the creator of this tutorial will take the time to read and fix the problems found in this tutorial. The tutorial is good to use if you want to set up a home network but it needs a little work.

Cover
Home Network Instruction
Recommendations Report




Leonardo Hernandez
April 19, 2009
Texas State Technical College




Title Page

Home Network Instructions
Recommendations Report

Prepared By Leonardo Hernandez

Report was submitted April 21, 2009

Prepared for
Janie Santoy


Abstract
The purpose of this report is to recommend changes to a tutorial that was created to help a student at TSTC. There were two ways of testing the effectiveness of this tutorial. The first was to test how easy it was to learn this set of instructions or tutorial and the second was to see if the tutorial satisfied the needs of the user. There several test conducted and there are some recommendations that are going to be submitted in the report. I hope the creator of this tutorial will take in mind the recommendations and does the changes in his tutorial.

Executive Summary
In this report I will recommend some changes to the tutorial title “Home Network Instructions”.
The purpose of this report is to test the tutorial and see if it does what it was meant to do. There were several test conducted and two of them were based on learn ability and satisfaction. In the learn ability test, the test was to see if the tutorial was easy to learn or remember the major steps that were needed in order for the tutorial to work. The second test was to see if the tutorial meets or satisfied the user’s requirements. During these test the two users that took the tests were confronted with a series of problems. For one user, the whole tutorial was a big puzzle. The user did not understand what was needed due to the fact that tutorial consisted of just words and no illustrations. The steps were just written down and the user did not know were to start. I recommend that the tutorial will be a much better tutorial if there were more illustrations and more simple and easy to follow steps. The use of illustrations is extremely important because it is proven that the majority of the population understands more threw a picture than a word. A picture is worth a thousand words.

Table of Contents
Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………
Executive Summery…………………………………………………………………………….
Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………..
MEELS………………………………………………………………………………………….
Methodology…………………………………………………………………………………….
Results…………………………………………………………………………………………..
Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………
Recommendations……………………………………………………………………………….
Work Cited………………………………………………………………………………………



Back Matter
Work Cited
Downe, Natalie. "Fast and Simple Usability Testing." 12/16/2006 8 Apr 2009.

Mauerer, R. (2002). "Usability Testing." University of Colorado System. Retrieved from https://www.cu.edu/irm/stds/usability/index.html on April 08, 2009.

Petersen, Constance J.. "Remove Stumbling Blocks by Usability Testing." 1999 8 Apr
2009.

Intro & Body

The recommendations report is based on the information giving by the usability test.

Here is an overview of my report
• Summary
• Introduction
• Methodology
• Test Results
• Conclusion
• Recommendations

MEELS
The meals that I choose were Learn ability and Satisfaction. I wanted to learn how easy it is for the user to learn the test and I also wanted to know if it satisfied the user on what they wanted. There aren’t many tutorials (that I can find) on how to create a Home Network, so I wanted to see how essay it was for the user to learn this tutorial at first glance. And after that was taken care of, I wanted to see how pleased the user was with this tutorial. Did the tutorial cover what the user wanted? Did the tutorial explain in detail and made it ease for the user to understand?

Methodology
In part of my report I will be focusing the students that took the usability test. I will explain in more detail the steps used to conduct the usability test and will also give a little background on the students that took the test.

Conclusion
I will be presenting the findings of the usability test. I will present my results for the all test that were conducted.

Recommendations
In order for a tutorial to have a good effect, I believe that illustrations are a key ingredient to making that tutorial helpful. I also recommend that more information can be giving about the item that are being used and that the information that is in the tutorial can be a little more separated.

Analysis of Research

What did you find that your client can use to improve the tutorial?

I found many reports that suggest that the use of illustrations can help improve the instructions. Many people learn more if they see rather than just read.

What categories does your information fit into? What were the types of issues, etc. which were revealed via your research?

The categories that the information will be fall into will be visual and writing. During my research I found that one test proved that in order for you to use this test, you must have computer knowledge. To improve the tutorial you must have some type of illustrations in order for it to be a really successful tutorial.

Refrence

Downe, Natalie. "Fast and Simple Usability Testing." 12/16/2006 8 Apr 2009.

Mauerer, R. (2002). "Usability Testing." University of Colorado System. Retrieved from https://www.cu.edu/irm/stds/usability/index.html on April 08, 2009.

Petersen, Constance J.. "Remove Stumbling Blocks by Usability Testing." 1999 8 Apr
2009.

Recommendations Report

A recommendations report is a report that is used to literally recommend a certain item or product or even a service. It is used when a client request a recommendation on a certain thing. Or sometimes it is used by the same people that are trying to sell you that item or service. The will hire people that will test this product or service and with there feedback the can know what they need to improve on or what don’t they need.

Main Section of Recommendations Report
1. Introduction
2. Technical background
3. Background on the situation
4. Requirements and criteria
5. Conclusions
6. Recommendation or final opinion

Test Plan

Leo Hernandez
Ms. Santoy
4/1/09


Notes for the 1st person that will take the test plan for “Home Network Instructions”
• The first problem that was encountered was figuring out what cable was going to be disconnected and were it was going to be connected (small problem-solved easily)
• Didn’t understand what ISP stood for
• Had a hard time remember the password they used
• Connection failed due to a mission wire


Notes for the 2nd person that will take the test plan for “Home Network Instructions”
• Did not know which one was the router and which one was the modem
• Could not figure out where to insert the network cable
• Got confused with the first and second step
• Did pretty well once they set up the wires
• Once CD was installed they did much better
• Did not know what ISP was
• Could not think of a Password or name to use

Reflection–Rhetorical

Who is your audience?
My audience is the people that would like to upgrade there computer hard ware.
*
What visuals did you choose to include Why? If you included a visual, why did you choose to include this particular visual?
I used images that could help me explain what the instructions have to say. there were some instructions that I needed to explain but i felt that the reader wasn't going to be able to understand them so I used and image to explain the IDE cable and the Power cable.
*
What are the important or essential design elements of your set of instructions?
*It was illustrated in a power point presentation with many many pictures.
In which medium do you anticipate these instructions would be used?
*The many that would like to save money and do it themselves
How would you change the presentation of your instructions if you had to physically present them to a user?
I would add more pictures.