The purpose of the GenderMag Design Catalog (http://gendermag.org/dc/) is to provide ideas for making software user interfaces inclusive to more cognitive styles.
Prerequisites: These instructions are for GenderMagProject/dc repo collaborators with access to gendermag/dc on the OSU guille server. Please contact Lara Letaw at letawl@oregonstate.edu if you'd like to become a new collaborator.
Overall procedure for getting started and contributing:
- Modify files in gendermag/dc as needed.
- If you feel like it, commit, push to origin---or you can wait for another maintainer to do that.
I know this setup is a little unconventional, but it should be fine for our purposes for now.
- Create a new top-level folder. The name of the folder is title (short description) of the design change.
- Add these files to the folder:
- cats.txt (the non-facet categories the design goes in, one per line. options: survey, opensource, website)
- problem.txt (why the design isn't inclusive to some cognitive styles)
- solution.txt (how the design tries to solve the problem)
- facets.txt (one facet per line, use these abbreviations: m, cse, atr, ips, ls)
- zoom_before.png (what the design looked like before it was changed; png or jpg; other image formats might also work)
- zoom_after.png (what the design looked like after it was changed; png or jpg; other image formats might also work)
- evidence.txt (what paper proves it's a good design change -- optional)
- long_title.txt (a brief description of the problem / design change, about a sentence)
- See rubric below for more guidance
- m - Motivation
- cse - Computer Self-Efficacy
- atr - Attitude Toward Risk
- ips - Information Processing Style
- ls - Learning Style
- Folder name / Title: follow the format of the other titles.
- Long title: put solution first followed by verbage used in the facet description (e.g., helps with confidence, navigating, etc.)
- Problem Column:
- Problem statement about which items specifically in the UI are problematic (past tense)
- A single facet is chosen as the “prominent” facet and used to describe why a user would run into issues (present tense)
- "Also affects users with:" other facets that are implicated but said with an Abi or Tim trait (i.e., low computer self efficacy, selective information processing style, etc.)
- Solution Column:
- Solution statement about which items specifically in the UI were fixed (past tense)
- Reference a single “prominent” facet to describe how the fix helps that type of user. Also, include how it doesn’t hinder a persona with the opposite end of the spectrum facet. (i.e., help risk aversion but doesn’t hurt risk tolerant) (present tense)
- Use wording that applies to the fix (e.g., Better organization also helps users with:) and list the facets that were implicated with the problem column
- Evidence File (optional):
- Add a validation (e.g., user study) (past tense)