Context

Aside from creating almost all Blackboard training materials, I was asked to create a few Banner training materials. Banner is the new user management system at Auburn, taking over the previous system, OASIS, which was in place for many years. Banner users enter the course information each semester allowing students to enroll. Because of the shift from OASIS to Banner, some of the procedures have changed. An example of Banner help materials I have created is a 24-hour clock and semester quick reference guide for Banner. The guide is half a page in size with full color.

Audience

The audience for the reference guide would be administrative assistants or departmental secretaries in charge of maintaining records in Banner. They will know how to perform the tasks in OASIS, but not how to perform the same tasks in Banner. Much like going from Office 2003 to Office 2007, there is a learning curve with the new system. Two very confusing elements for many users are the 24-hour clock and the new semester numbering system. The information would have to fit on half a page, as the intention was to use the guide as reference during work. It can be taped next to the computer monitor until the user feels comfortable with Banner.

For this project, I had two authoritative audiences. The first was Sara Wolf, an administrator for the new Banner system. Every so often, she would come to IMG and ask me to create a few documents. She gave me a sheet she had written with all the information she wanted me to condense into a half-sheet reference guide. After creating the document, she would look at it and offer suggestions. This document is an excellent example of iterative design as I would design a draft and then she would suggest changes. As Criag Baehr says notes on webdesign, but applicable to any design process, "this [design] process can be followed from one phase to the next, and most likely the work in other phases might lead to new ideas and require changes. So, a design might need to revisit work completed in other phases to make changes or adjustments." (Baehr) Even when she was satisfied with the changes, she would present it to the second authoritative audience who would offer more suggestions. The process repeated until everyone was satisfied with the document. This second audience was a group whom I assume had the final say for Banner materials. I never met them and am not sure exactly who was in the group. This made it slightly more difficult to create the document since I was unable to speak to them directly about suggestions or requests they made.

Process

The 24-hour clock can be confusing for those used to the 12-hour clock, possibly leading to incorrect schedules. To help Banner users quickly translate from 12-hour to 24-hour, I created a graphic to show the correlation. I wanted to use something with which people used to 12-hour clocks would be comfortable. The face of the clock is a normal 12-hour clock, except for the "12" position which is replaced with a "0." The outside represents the PM time of day. If someone needed to see what time 8 PM translates to on a 24-hour clock, then he or she looks up "8" on the clock and sees that the PM version is "20." The colors of the numbers represent the AM/PM as well. The light yellow mimics daytime while the darker blue represents night time. The lighter colors also let the vision slide to the darker PM times, speeding up the process of looking up the proper time. When I first presented the clock, the 24-hour illustration was not chosen by the second authoritative audience, so I had to create a separate graph of AM/PM.

The right side of the reference guide translates Banner's semester numbering system to something coherent. There are two parts for the Banner semester system. The first part refers to the academic year for the semester (for example, 2007) and the second part refers to the semester itself. For the semesters Fall 2007, Spring 2008, Summer 2008, the academic year is considered "2008." This can cause confusion in Banner since some people may think Fall would be under 2007 instead of 2008. But Banner only uses one year, so the Fall 2007 semester is considered part of 2008. The second part of the numbering system defines the semester: 10 for Fall, 20 for Spring, 30 for Summer. Fall 2007 in Banner would be 200810.

To help Banner users decide on the correct year, the sheet defines the information and gives an example. Also, at the bottom, I've listed the next couple of years as references. That should be enough time for Banner users to retrain their minds to use the new numbering system.

Reflections

The major hurdle for the chart was to condense all the information given to me to fit in such a small space. My usual contact for Banner related materials is very verbose and adds a lot of information that can be cut out. She will often bring me pages of material and ask me to condense it to a single, one-sided document. Working with her is always good practice as a technical communicator as her verbosity creates a challenge since she often desires her often multipage help documents to fit on one page or less.

Aside from the challenge of condensing information, I learned that sometimes you have to sacrifice your own design ideals to satisfy decision makers. I really liked the way the clock turned out and was disheartened that it wasn't used. But I understand that the authoritative audience has the final say whether the primary audience ever even sees the document. I have to pass their judgment before the target audience will ever see the document.