Greta Gage

10/26/15
WRIT 3001

Revised Klondike Solitaire Instructions

1. Materials Needed
1.1 A deck of cards
1.2 Table space or floor space to set up the game
2. Card Set Up
2.1 Take 28 cards from your deck and make 7 piles.
2.2 Every pile should have one more card than the
previous one.
The far left pile should have 1 card and the far
right pile should have 7. (See figure 1).
2.3 The last card in each pile should be face up. (See
figure 1).
2.4 Have one pile for the stock deck, one for the waste
deck (next to the stock deck), and 4 piles for the
foundations. (See figure 1).

Foundations
Stoc
k
Deck

Tableau

Figure 1- the waste deck should be placed next to the stock

deck and the last
card of each pile is face up.
3. How to Play
3.1 If you have any Aces, place them on a foundation
according to suit (hearts with hearts, diamonds with

diamonds, clubs with clubs, spades with spades). (See

figure 2).
3.2 Each foundation should be in numerical order from
Ace to King.
3.3 When placing cards make sure they match in
descending numerical order with alternating colors to
create a column in the tableau. (See figure 2).
3.4 If a facedown card is revealed, flip it over so it is
face-up.
3.5 Only Kings can be placed in the spot of an empty
pile. (See figure 2).
3.6 If you do not have any cards that match in the
tableau, draw a card from the stock deck. (See section
3).
3.7 Continue the game until you are blocked or clear the
tableau.

Figure 2- cards are in each foundation while the 10 of hearts is

the card in play, the column starting with the 9 of diamonds was
the last card in the pile to be shown.
4. How to Use the Stock Deck
4.1 Take the top card from the stock deck and see if it
matches with the order mentioned in step 2.2 and if it
matches, play the card.

4.2 If it does not match, place that card in the waste pile
and draw the next card.
4.3 When the stock deck is out of cards, use the waste
pile as the new stock deck repeating steps 4.1 and 4.2.
5. Ending the Game
5.1 The game is over when you are stuck because you
cannot place any more cards or you have all the cards in
their foundations.

Reflective Statement
I primarily used the original Klondike Solitaire instructions as a
guide for the edits I made. The first major change I made was
formatting and organizing the document. The original document had
numbering but all of it didnt make sense and it became annoying to
read because of that. The entire document was more of a massive
paragraph with bullet points, numbers with periods or half parentheses
to indicate major steps and sub-steps (but poorly organized) and a few
font style changes. What I did was format the major steps as
paragraphs with a single number and title with bold font as a heading,
sub-steps introduced by a bold font main step and sub-step number
with a sentence describing the step, and bold font to indicate
instructions leading to another part of the document or a figure. These
organizational changes made the document much more readable and
clear as to where certain information could be found.

Now that the document was better organized I could focus in on

the content of each step and how could I make the content easier to

understand. Before I could work on that I did a usability test on the

instructions provided. Because some of the steps were not clear I got
stuck and then prior knowledge of how to play Klondike Solitaire took
over. Nielsens article addresses the importance of usability tests, their
article focuses on websites but their main ideas apply to many
different areas. Usability tests involve letting people use the
instructions to complete the task and note the areas where they get
stuck and then fix your instructions based on that. I performed
usability tests at each step of editing the document (before I began
and after I made edits to the instructions). From that I learned that the
edits I made were much easier to understand. (Nielsen, 162). I then
looked up what are the names are for the locations of cards in the
game so that I could use them and hopefully shorten up the new
instructions. This is when I realized that explaining a game like
Klondike Solitaire needs a visual component so I used the app on my
phone to play through a game and take screenshots of the game
layout and how it is played. In Fisks article he says: Visual solutions
are actively sought and preferred. Everything remains fluid and
conditional for as long as possible. (Fisk, 26). Although I did not
organize this document as a table I tried to use as many visual
components as I could to easily communicate the instructions. The
visuals help by showing the user how the set up is supposed to look
without having to explain in great written detail.

The content for the edited instructions is more or less the same
as the original version because both are describing the same game.
The biggest change in word usage was rewriting the name of each
major step and each sub-step. With the sub-steps I rewrote instructions
so that they would be shorter and easier to read. For this I used plain
language and the imperative voice. I took the plain language
suggestions from Mauzers article (use common, everyday words,
except for necessary technical terms, you and other pronouns, the
active voice, and short sentences) and applied them to each section of
the document. (Mauzer, 207). The plain language makes it easier for
anyone to be able to read these instructions. Another major change
that I made was including a materials list (as recommended by
classmates after in-class usability tests) and a section on ending the
game instead of having a section on the foundations because I
included that information throughout the new document.

Sources
Fisk, Josiah. "Putting Language Last: Using Structure, Visual Cues, and
Marketing-Style Analysis as the Primary Tools of
Simplification." Intercom (2014): 26-30. Web. 28 Oct. 2015.
Mauzer, Beth. "Revisiting Plain Language." Technical Communication (2000):
205-011. Web. 28 Oct. 2015.
Nielsen, Jakob. "Usability 101: Introduction to Usability." Articles. Nielsen
Norman Group, 4 Jan. 2012. Web. 28 Oct. 2015.
Wiseman, Peter. "How to Play Klondike Solitaire." Solitaire City. N.p., n.d.
Web. 28 Oct. 2015.