Document Development Exposition: Instructions and Usability Test Script

Explain in detail your document’s development from planning to finish, describing your
challenges, how you overcame them, and what you learned.

Planning
The planning portion of this assignment was arguably more difficult than the assignment itself. There
is such a wide variety of things that I am proficient in that I could write a relatively simple set of
instructions for. Around the time of this assignment, I had the opportunity to make a charcuterie
board for the super bowl. Therefore, I decided that I would instruct people how to make charcuterie
boards, ensuring that I included additional notes on organizing by color and shape. I decided that
instead of making very detailed instructions that were step-by-step the exact process of making a
charcuterie board, I would make my instructions more like a general guideline.

First Draft (for peer editing)

The hardest thing about the first draft was deciding how concise everything needed to be. Since I
was making more of a general set of guidelines, there were many things that I could have been very
specific about. Also, since this was our first major project, it was a lot harder to take style into
consideration. I had a pretty hard time deciding on how the instructions should be organized and
what kinds of figures I should have included to make the instructions more clear.

Second Draft (for your packet)

The main thing I had to fix between the rough draft and the final draft was the overall design and
style of the document. I left the general style pretty open in my draft so that I could receive peer
recommendations on how things could be improved. Therefore, my final draft revisions basically just
consisted of adjusting the colors of my document to ensure a coherent and engaging style
throughout.

Final Draft (for your portfolio)

The most major thing I had to improve in my instructions for my portfolio was the overall design.
Although I took the style and design into consideration for my final draft revisions, I did not think
about framing the entire set of instructions with boxes and shading designs. When I made revisions
to my style for my final draft revisions, I mainly worked on the overall colors and font choices of
headings throughout the paper. For the portfolio, I had to work a lot more on creating actual design
elements throughout, like tip boxes that help to frame the overall paper. I learned the most about
how to create an engaging design through the completion of this assignment.