Picking the Topic
What to Do
1️⃣Identify Your Field of Interest: Start with where you want to work and spend time learning more. If you have a clear career goal, you should go with it. If you are still exploring fields, use this project to learn more about issues in one of your options. If you really don’t know about a career, then pick something related to UCCS, Colorado Springs, or a big decision in your community.
2️⃣Consider Your Expertise: A strong report leverages your knowledge and research skills. What areas are you most passionate about within the field of interest? Where do you have a strong knowledge base or recent research experience? What classes are you taking with readings, projects, and professors you could use as sources?
3️⃣Research Current Trends: Look for recent industry publications, news articles, or conference proceedings related to the field. Are there emerging challenges or opportunities that a well-researched recommendation could address? You need to ensure there are at least TWO viable options to compare related to the problem you want to research for the recommendation report. The usability report uses a real product that you can access and test, so find something that has questions in performance, functionality, or user perception.
4️⃣Talk it Out: Discuss potential topics with your classmates. Their insights can help refine your ideas, ensure feasibility, and identify potential roadblocks.
5️⃣Refine and Focus: From your brainstorm, select the top 3-4 ideas. Then, narrow it down to a specific, actionable topic that can be thoroughly researched, resulting in clear, impactful recommendations.
Your analytical report should address a specific problem or opportunity, not simply promote a general technology or approach. Focus on topics where your recommendations (for both report options) can have a real impact and contribute knowledge.
Good vs. Bad Report Topics
This report heavily depends on picking the right topic (no pressure but also pressure). The project is easier, more realistic, and more successful when you pick focused and direct topics.
Recommendation Report: You need to avoid broad, unrealistic, descriptive, and too unknown of topics (lacking current research or actual solutions). If your topic simply describes a current problem without proposing solutions, it’s unsuitable for a recommendation report.
Usability Report: You need to avoid products you don’t have hands-on access too because it will be difficult to test. You should also avoid products that are too simple/easy to use or generally considered high quality. Pick something that is complicated, has many features, or a bit frustrating so you have recommendations to make.
✅Qualities of Good Topics✅
Good topics will define the industry, situation, metrics, and potential outcomes to guide your research.
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Specific: A well-defined topic allows for targeted research and clear recommendations based on a comparison of options.
- Recommendation Example: “Optimizing Data Center Cooling Systems for Energy Efficiency”
- Usability Example: “Improving the navigation of X app”
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Actionable: Your recommendations should be feasible to implement and lead to positive change for both report types.
- Recommendation Example: “Implementing a phased rollout of AI-powered traffic management to reduce city congestion by 10% within two years.”
- Usability Example: “Optimizing the Canvas platform for college students to increase efficiency when navigating course materials.”
❌Qualities of Bad Topics❌
Bad topics will leave you wondering what to research and write throughout your report. Your topic needs to be a guide for the main moves you need to research to reach the outcomes.
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Too Broad: Broad topics make providing specific, actionable recommendations and user testing difficult.
- Example: “The Future of Transportation”
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Unrealistic: Recommendations should be based on achievable solutions, not utopian ideals. The more real your topic, the easier and better your report becomes.
- Example: “Eliminating Traffic Congestion Completely”
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Unfocused: Topics that lack a clear direction make research and report writing challenging. The more grounded and narrow your topic, the easier and better your report becomes.
- Example: “Things We Can Do to Improve the Environment”
More Ideas using the AI Intern
Content generated with Google Bard. Prompt: Brainstorm ideas for this prompt: “Your individual design challenge is to create a useful, useable, and enjoyable recommendation report about a sustainability, equity, economic, or technological issue (in a field of your choosing) and the existing solutions.” 10/10/2023.
- Sustainability: A recommendation report on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector. You compare expanded bus routes vs. tram lines in Denver.
- Equity: A recommendation report on reducing homelessness in high-cost cities. You compare converting abandoned malls into housing vs. building a new shelter.
- Economic: A recommendation report on implementing automation in a company without contributing to high layoffs and unemployment. You compare upskilling employees vs.
- Technological: A recommendation report on how to use artificial intelligence to improve the efficiency of the healthcare system.
Once you have a topic, you need to consider your criteria. Here are a few questions you might need to research as part of the “decision-making requirements:”
- Availability of resources: Are there sufficient resources available to address the issue?
- Cost related resources
- Material related resources
- Labor-related resources
- Equity: How equitably will the solutions impact different communities?
- Impact on the economy: How significant is the impact of the issue on the overall economy?
- Impact on businesses and workers: How does the issue impact businesses and workers of different sizes and industries?
- Urgency: How urgently does the issue need to be addressed?
- Logistics: How complicated is the solution to implement, and what has to be addressed?
Content generated with Google Bard. Prompt: You are reporting primary (you generate data) and secondary research to prioritize usability issues and recommend fixes for products with a client focus as a technical writing student. You will write a formal usability report detailing your research results, targeted toward decision-makers in the company/product you tested. You write a cover letter addressed to that stakeholder. Pitch me topic ideas that a student could complete as a project. 10/29/2024
1. “Streamlining the Course Registration Process: Usability Enhancements for the University’s Online Portal”
- Why it’s good for students: Most students have firsthand experience with course registration systems and can easily relate to the pain points. They can readily recruit fellow students as test participants.
- Potential research: Task analysis (observe students registering for courses), heuristic evaluation of the current system, surveys to gather feedback on usability and pain points, A/B testing different registration flows.
- Client focus: The target audience is the university administration, who have a vested interest in making the registration process smooth and efficient for students.
2. “Enhancing the ‘CityGuide’ Mobile App: Improving Navigation and Accessibility for Tourists”
- Why it’s good for students: City guide apps are widely used, and students can easily access and test them. This topic allows for a focus on information design and accessibility, crucial aspects of usability.
- Potential research: Conduct field studies observing tourists using the app in a real-world setting, perform heuristic evaluations benchmarking against competitor apps, use eye-tracking to analyze how users interact with maps and navigation features.
- Client focus: The report could be aimed at the app developers or the city’s tourism board, both of whom benefit from a user-friendly app that enhances the tourist experience.
3. “Optimizing the ‘JobConnect’ Platform: Improving the User Experience for Job Seekers and Employers”
- Why it’s good for students: Many students will soon be job seekers themselves, so they have a personal stake in this topic. It also allows for exploring usability from two distinct user perspectives (job seekers and employers).
- Potential research: Conduct user interviews with both job seekers and employers to understand their needs and frustrations, perform A/B testing on different profile layouts and search functionalities, analyze user engagement metrics to identify areas for improvement.
- Client focus: The report would be relevant to the JobConnect platform developers or the career services department of a university, both of whom want to ensure their platform is effective for all user groups.
4. “Improving the ‘NutriTrack’ App: Enhancing User Engagement and Promoting Healthy Habits”
- Why it’s good for students: Health and fitness apps are popular, and students can easily grasp the importance of usability in this context. The topic allows for exploring persuasive design principles and behavioral science.
- Potential research: Analyze user drop-off rates and identify barriers to consistent app usage, conduct user interviews to understand motivations and challenges in tracking nutrition, A/B test different gamification features or feedback mechanisms.
- Client focus: The report would target the NutriTrack app developers, who are likely interested in increasing user engagement and demonstrating the app’s effectiveness in promoting healthy behaviors.
