iFixit Repair Guide
Challenge
The challenge was to create a repair guide for an assigned device that already existed on the iFixit website. Our device was the Panasonic KX-TGA600M home phone. We had to show users how to replace the phone's keypad with a level of ease by including easy-to-understand instructions that corresponded with a set of step-by-step photos.
In Conclusion
This process taught me the importance of client feedback, collaboration, and usability testing. This project also gave me a better understanding of a personas' role in projects. Simple steps and precise use of words can significantly impact a user's overall experience.
My Roles
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Usability Testing
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Writing and editing
Deliverables
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Proposal Email
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Usability Test
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Repair Guide
Click on the image above to view the repair guide.
Client
iFixit is a wiki-based website designed to assist anyone who wants to repair any device. You (yes, you) are the primary user of this website. You can send a proposal to the site owners to ask to create a new repair guide for a device, if there isn't one available, or you can send a proposal to ask if you can revise an existing guide to improve it.
Project
This project was completed with a group of classmates and part of my Capstone class for the Technical Communication program at the University of North Texas.
Persona
We were required to create one persona for our target audience to base our level of usability choice.
Our persona was a male lawyer named Brad. He was also a single father who's in his mid-40's and has two kids. Brad was seeking help to repair a Panasonic KX-TGA600M home phone on his own. He needed to repair his phone's keypad because his children played with it and damaged it. Brad recently bought the phone and did not want to spend more money to replace the whole phone. He needed specific tools and a keypad replacement repair guide for that phone to fix the phone successfully.
Process
First, we researched and compiled a list of common problems Panasonic users had regarding the KX-TGA600M phone. We then sent our client, the iFixit owners, a valid proposal to create a repair guide for one of the common issues we found for the device. The client approved our proposal, allowed us to choose our desired repair issue, and we decided to create a repair guide to replace the phone's keypad.
Tools
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Google Docs
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iFixit tools
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Panasonic KX-TGA600M phone
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T3i DSLR Camera
Next, we carefully disassembled the phone. As we took it apart, we jotted down the steps to reach the keypad to replace it and took detailed pictures for each step using a DLSR camera. Then, we put it back together.
After we completed the guide, we brainstormed and created a usability test for our repair guide to find out if it was easy to understand, and if improvements were needed. We asked 4 participants, all varied in age, to complete the keypad replacement using the repair guide we wrote for iFixit.
Click on slideshow above to view the usability test form.