Design activity #4: strategizing
In which we attempt to describe how we think we are accomplishing our rhetorical goals, and
satisfying our audience expectations, through our design choices.
Through the preliminary reflection, learning, and especially the envisioning activities, we’ve
started to get a sense of what we want our collections to be, what our audiences might initially
expect when interacting with our collections, and how we might use the various design elements
at our disposal—resource selection, descriptive strategies, the grouping and arranging of
resources, and other digital library features—to negotiate between our ideas and audience
expectations and forge a truly persuasive rhetorical strategy. In this activity, we begin to describe
what we are trying to do and how we think we are doing it. Yes, we before we have actually
“done” it, or created design sketches. Why? So that we can commence sketching in a more
informed way, with a better sense of our broader goals and concerns.
The product of our strategizing is the brief, the second of the three documents that together make
up your collection design. The brief has two parts: in the first part, you articulate your authorial
goals for the collection, balanced against the audience beliefs, values, and expectations that you
see. You also describe the scope of the artifact you want to create to advance your goals in this
audience environment. (That is, you describe what you mean by “a collection of videos,”
similarly to the way that Marcia Bates clarifies what she means by “systematic bibliography.” In
our case, the video collection will include the digital library features that provide access to and
describe the videos, and form the collection experience.) In the second part, you lay out in some
detail precisely how each design decision you make, in terms of resource selection, resource
description, information design, and so on, works to facilitate the goals that you described.
In your first draft of the brief, your documentation will be concise and general, limited to
discussion of your overall strategy. As your design takes greater shape, via the scenarios and the
“sketch,” you should be able to explain how every decision fits into your overall plan, and you
will be able to provide greater detail in the brief. At the conclusion of the project, you should
provide some rationale for the way you’ve approached every item listed in the following outline.
You won’t need to provide a blow-by-blow of every decision that you made in cataloging each
video, but you should, for example, describe the general strategy you used in to determine the
values for each cataloging attribute, how you created titles for your videos, your approach in
writing abstracts and summaries, and so on. You might use specific examples to clarify things: if
your basic approach in writing abstracts was to provide deliciously barbed commentary that
deconstructs the Orientalist tendencies of the superficially sincere video creators, for example,
you might show how you did this in one or two cases.
Note: You do not need separate sections for each of these items in your final brief. These details
are included to help you, not unduly constrain you. You might end up writing a paragraph or two
for each numbered section in the Goals part of the brief, for example.
For next week’s class on March 10: Bring an initial brief with material for Part 1 only. Will the
strategies you describe in the brief require changes to your scenarios? I think so! Revise those
too.
Strategy brief structure
Part 1: Goals
1. Authorial goals
Your definition of alternative medicine/wellness (AS THE AUTHOR of this
collection, not AS YOU PERSONALLY)
Your position on alternative medicine/wellness, or the argument that you want
the collection to express
2. Audience background
Knowledge
Goals, information needs
Beliefs
Values
Expectations for this type of artifact (i.e., videos, a digital library, a Web site, and
so on)
3. Summary of your design solution, framed as a negotiation between author and
audience
4. Outcomes
What might constitute a successful outcome for audience interaction with this
artifact, in terms of both author and audience?
What might a failed outcome for audience interaction with this artifact, in terms
of both author and audience?
Part 2: Design Rationale
1. General strategy: how will you design your collection to structure a compelling
interactive experience for the audience, where your authorial goals are met and the audience’s
information needs are satisfied?
Overall approach
Specific approach for basic areas
Resource selection
Resource description
Information design (arrangement of elements on home page, for
example, general tone of writing, etc)
2. Specific strategy: how is your general strategy implemented when making specific
design decisions?
Resource selection
Resource description
Design of descriptor types (browsing categories) and their ordering on
the home page
Customization of other metadata (roles, date types, and so on)
Description of individual resources (or why you decided not to use these
features)
Titles
Content (abstract and summary)
Tags
Descriptor assignment
Poster frame selection
Other metadata, if you choose to use it (roles, dates, etc)
Information design
Library settings (tab names, library name, image, etc)
Use of featured videos
Use of “collections” within the library
Creation
Feature decisions
Description
Specific proposals for additional features in any area, with associated rationale