Date of Award
8-21-2007
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
English
First Advisor
Dr. Jennifer L. Bowie - Chair
Second Advisor
Dr. George Pullman
Third Advisor
Dr. Elizabeth Lopez
Abstract
This thesis examines the user-centered design methods and methodology inherent to designing and testing a web-based Dreamweaver 8 tutorial for undergraduate and graduate students who enroll in certain English rhetoric and composition courses at Georgia State University. The tutorial’s three interfaces were rhetorically designed to support three corresponding types of user—novices, intermediates, and experts— whose familiarity with Dreamweaver and student web space determined their starting point of interaction with the artifact. Three usability tests examined each interface based on four usability attributes. Findings revealed the novice and expert interfaces to be usable, while the intermediate interface was more problematic. The analysis of findings indicated the advanced documentation theory to be sound; however, the practical implementation of the theory to this artifact was comparatively ineffective. More research is suggested for determining whether a multimodal tutorial design is the most useful and usable for the target audience(s).
DOI
https://doi.org/10.57709/1059485
Recommended Citation
Hatter, Alicia Nicole, "Levelling Up: Designing and Testing a Contextual, Web-based Dreamweaver 8 Tutorial for Students with Technological Aptitude Differences." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2007.
doi: https://doi.org/10.57709/1059485