Final Report

Many thanks to Professor Michael Salvo and students in the fall 2014 ENGL 515 class for the research they did in preparing recommendations for the future of the Purdue OWL. 

The final recommendation report is now available at https://owl.english.purdue.edu/research/owluxd. 

Summary:

Consisting of six sections, this report was completed by groups composed of students registered for ENGL515: Advanced Professional Writing. Studying the concepts of User-centered Design, Usability, and User Experience Design (UxD), the students offer this report and accompanying redesign materials for the use of Purdue’s Online Writing Lab (OWL). It is presented to Tammy S. Conard-Salvo, Associate Director of the OWL, in support of user research conducted throughout fall 2014 and into spring 2015. This report is aimed at improving the user’s experience of the OWL and as such offers methods of learning more about the site’s audience and both responding to user need and developing methods of gathering data about these users and their needs. The first task, then, is to collect data about users using a demographic questionnaire. Then, this report recommends developing a series of online research tools that will reveal users’ preferences before performing any redesign. We forecast potential for primary research developing and reporting the results of developing user measurement tools that can be used remotely through Qualtrics.

Authors:

Michael J. Salvo (Associate Professor and Director of Professional Writing)

Andrea Alvarez

Kira M. Cazenave

Carly A. Harmon

Tanner B. Heffner

Mary A. McCall

Kristin B. McFarland

Kaitlyn S. Neis

Jessica L. Schwingendorf

Broc B. Smith

Andrew H. Yim (Project Manager)