Characterizing Audience for Informational Web Site Design    

Presents a sample of audience analysis results and discusses how they were used to make design decisions. Reflects on the strategy, the insights gained from the data, and the impact of the results on the subject Web site.

Turns, Jennifer and Tracey S. Wagner. Technical Communication Online (2004). Articles>Web Design>Audience Analysis

Expanding the Scope of Technical Communication: Examples from the Department of Technical Communication at the University of Washington    

Argues that the technical communication field is expanding far beyond traditional areas of writing, editing, and production. Describes research at the University of Washington that helps clarify the expanding scope of our field.

Haselkorn, Mark P., Geoffrey Sauer, Jennifer Turns, Deborah L. Illman, Michio Tsutsui, Carolyn Plumb, Tom Williams, Beth E. Kolko and Jan Spyridakis. Technical Communication Online (2003). Articles>TC

Listening to the Learners: A Case Study in Health Information Website Design  

An important mantra of user-centered design is to 'know thy user.' Accomplishing this requires one to decide what should be known about the user and how to gather the information. In this paper, we focus on the specific instance where the user is a learner. Specifically, we describe our efforts to listen to the learners of an information website, the Arthritis Source, and to act on this information.

Turns, Jennifer and Tracey S. Wagner. STC Proceedings (2002). Articles>User Centered Design>Scientific Communication>Usability

Moving Toward Knowledge-Building Communities in Health Information Website Design

In this paper, we describe our work with the Arthritis Source website and our efforts to develop a community of learners in that context. We argue that given proper architectural support, efforts to listen to learners can effectively foster collaboration between the authors of an informational web site and its users and help community building among its users through a dynamic knowledge base.

Turns, Jennifer, Kristina Liu and Tracey S. Wagner. Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (2002). Articles>Web Design>Community Building

Moving Toward Knowledge-Building Communities in Informational Web Site Design    

In this article, we describe how a knowledge-building community perspective can lead to a framework for designing an informational Web site. We illustrate the framework through our work on the Arthritis source, an informational Web site helping users acquire information about arthritis. The resulting framework provides one means of addressing challenges that arise in the design and development of such informational Web sites.

Turns, Jennifer, Tracey Wagner and Kristen Shuyler. Technical Communication Online (2005). Articles>Web Design>Community Building

Portfolios to Demonstrate Professional Skills

Explains how electronic portfolios bring together all the assignments in a TC core course, including learning the tools supported by the profession, student assignments, design rationales, and students' reflections on the tools and their skills and abilities.

Turns, Jennifer. University of Washington-Seattle (2001). Presentations>Education>Streaming>Video

Synthesis of Results of 'Interview with Designer': Goals of the Designer and Implications for Research and Re-Design  

In order to gain a better understanding of the designer’s intentions with the Arthritis Source, we conducted an interview with the designer, Rick Matsen, on November 15, 1999. Further, we wanted to gather more information that would generate potential research questions for the PETTT team as well as re-design ideas for the D3 team. Below is a summary of Rick’s interview compiled from observations of four researchers, followed by the implications for re-design and research questions.

Fondiller, Julianne, Jennifer Turns, Jake Burghardt, Brett Shelton and Scott Macklin. PETTT (2000). Articles>Web Design>User Centered Design

Using Portfolios to Help Students Navigate Across Borders  

The concept of borders provides a powerful lens for understanding the student experience in technical communication. During the educational process, our students navigate across borders between teaching and research, between theory and practice, and between nations, cultures, disciplines, and professional organizations. Asking students to think about their experiences at such borders can give rise to interesting questions, insights, and concerns. Student portfolios, developed over the course of their academic careers, provide students with a powerful mechanism for reflecting on and integrating their experiences at these borders.

Turns, Jennifer and Judith A. Ramey. CPTSC Proceedings (2003). Academic>Portfolios