The artifact I have chosen is the Final Project for IT-385. It was created in semester 20EW3, which runs from January through February of 2020. The project required creating a training manual for a company to train their employees how to use Google services in a business environment.
Requirements and Knowledge
When creating this artifact, it required creating a training manual that could be used by people of multiple levels of technical proficiency. The training had to include information on doing basic business tasks as well as more advanced features of the service. I needed to be able to identify the needs of multiple groups of users, examine what tasks they would need to be able to replicate on Google services from Microsoft Outlook.
After identifying the required tasks, I also needed to be able to examine groups of users’ technical proficiency and adjust the wording and graphics to be considerate of the varied skills of the people receiving the training.
Key Takeaways
I chose this item because I think it showcases my ability to identify and analyze user needs and consider them when creating and administrating computer systems. Specifically, the training shows basic tasks in enough detail that someone unfamiliar with Google services would be able to perform those tasks. The training manual includes enough graphics to show users what needs to be done. By creating a static document instead of just videos, it also gives users the ability to print of sections to quickly reference sections when necessary.
When creating this document, I needed to learn how to take my own experiences and preferences out of the equation. As someone with a higher technical level, many of the tasks in the intermediate training section were tasks that I considered to be basic. However, someone with little to no experience may find them to be difficult or advanced features such as attaching files to meetings or using cloud storage.
Challenges
The biggest difficulty when creating this document was deciding how many tasks to include in the training and ensuring that the document was complete without being dull or boring to an end user. It needed to be engaging enough to keep the readers attention but not flamboyant or unprofessional.
If I had to create this artifact again I may have done in it a different format such as a PowerPoint presentation so videos or audio could be included and used if the user wanted.