Message from the Executive Committee: update on SIGDOC 2020 regarding COVID-19

Hello, SIGDOC community—
We are writing to inform you that as of right now SIGDOC 2020 in Denton, TX is still scheduled to be held as planned (October 3-4, 2020). Even though we are seven months out from the event, we want to be transparent and active in our communication with you. The safety and well-being of all conference participants is of course our priority, and as such we are—as everyone is—following updates on the situation from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Center for Disease Control (CDC).

Story Mapping and Sea Level Rise: Listening to Global Risks at Street Level

by Sonia H. Stephens and Daniel P. Richards
While interactive maps are important tools for risk communication, most maps omit the lived experiences and personal stories of the community members who are most at risk. We describe a project to develop an interactive tool that juxtaposes coastal residents’ video- recorded stories about sea level rise and coastal flooding with an interactive map that shows future sea level rise projections. We outline project development including digital platform selection, project design, participant recruitment, and narrative framing, and tie our design decisions to rhetorical and ethical considerations of interest for others developing interactive tools with community participation.

Career Advancement Research Grant 2019 Winners Announced

On behalf of the SIGDOC Executive Committee, we are pleased to announce this year’s winners of the Career Advancement Research Grant:

“Ideals and Realities: Exploring Usability in Born-Digital Scholarship”—Rob Grace and Jason Tham (Texas Tech University)

“Social Media Article Visualizer Project”—Stephen Carradini (Arizona State University)

Join us in congratulating these amazing scholars and wonderful projects!

Humanistic Communication in Information Centric Workplaces

by Nupoor Ranade and Jason Swarts
Professional writers adapt their skills to suit expanded professional roles that involve production and management of information, but preparation through mere skill-based training is problematic because that communication work is messy in ways that are not addressable through simple skills training. We must understand how skills “influence and shape the discursive activities surrounding their use” (Selber, 1994). This paper reports the results of a study of people trained in humanities disciplines like communication, English, writing studies, technical communication, etc., on how they have found means to employ their training in their workplace and keep what is humanistic about writing and communicating at the foreground of their interactions with information technologies. Instead of focusing on technology alone, this research encourages a unified approach to preparing students for the workplace.

Toward a Heuristic for Teaching the Visual Rhetoric of Pitch Decks: A Pedagogical Approach in Entrepreneurship Communication

by Sean Williams, Clay Spinuzzi, and Curtis Newbold
This study examined how three successful entrepreneurs/investors assessed the visual rhetoric of actual pitch decks from novice entrepreneurs. We compare their evaluations to the result of a heuristic for assessing visual rhetoric, Color CRAYONTIP. While the pitch deck is recognized as a key artifact in entrepreneurship, no studies have specifically addressed the visual design of the deck nor the key design skills novice entrepreneurs should implement to effectively persuade potential investors of the idea’s promise. This preliminary and exploratory case study begins a dialogue on this topic by performing a visual analysis of seven novice decks which were deemed successful by experienced angel investors. The analysis revealed five key skills that appear to account for the success of these decks with the reviewers: rhetorical awareness, typography, color, photography, and contrast.

CDQ Issue 7-3 is now live!

We are happy to announce the latest issue of Communication Design Quarterly (Volume 7 Issue 3) is now live:

Editorial by Book Review Editor Avery Edenfield

Game Design Documentation: Four Perspectives from Independent Game Studios
by Richard Colby and Rebekah Shultz Colby

Usability Testing for Oppression
by Joseph Bartolotta

Book Review: Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism
by Gregory Zobel

Book Review: Network Sense: Methods for Visualizing a Discipline
by Gregory Zobel

CDQ issue 7-2 is now live!

We are happy to announce the latest issue of Communication Design Quarterly (Volume 7 Issue 2) is now live:

Editorial by Derek G. Ross

Guest Editorial by Mike Albers

Testing the Difference Between Appearance and Ability Customization by Ryan Rogers and Laura Dunlow

Reducing Harm by Designing for Opioid Users’ Contexts: The Chicago Recovery Alliance’s Community-Based Context of Use and PwrdBy’s Technology-Based Context of Use by Kristen Marie Bivens

DJs, Playlists, and Community: Imagining Communication Design through Hip Hop by Victor Del Hierro

How Developers Use API Documentation: An Observation Study by Michael Meng, Stephanie Steinhardt, and Andreas Schubert

Queering Consent: Design and Sexual Consent Messaging by Avery C. Edenfield

Book Review: Rhetoric and Experience Architecture by Leslie Hankey

Usability Testing for Oppression

This study examines a document produced by the United States Department of Homeland Security handed out to immigrant parents during the “Family Separation Policy” crisis of 2018. The article examines whether such a document could be ethically tested for usability. Ultimately, the text argues that by the standards of the Belmont Report and the best practices in usability research, such a document would be extremely difficult (if not impossible) to test ethically. It argues that, while usability testing is an excellent tool for exploring how users interact with texts that can have life- changing consequences, it may also be used as a tool to perpetuate injustice and marginalize potential users.