Sydney Brooks ENGL 3360

This week, we finished up our iFixit Projects and started Unit 3 which is crazy that we’re so close to the end of the semester already. We also started our discussion on platforms with our reading on “The politics of ‘platforms’ by Tarleton Gillespie. Gillespie talks about the various kinds of platforms that exist including computational, architectural, figurative, and political. Computational platforms involve computer hardware and operating systems; architectural platforms involve physical structures; figurative platforms involve metaphysical foundations, and political platforms are articulated beliefs. In class, we learned the key terms that Gillespie includes in his discussion on the various kinds of platforms and how the biggest platform, YouTube, is working to ensure its platform is fair to all of its creators. However, the discussion point of how YouTube tries to empower each individual evenly with their content was false. Like Cesar mentioned, I also have noticed how they will ...

Good news! We got the device we wanted, the Ridgid Pipe Cutter, our proposal was accepted, and we have already received feedback on our device page.  The only negative thing we need to fix is the wording used in the background section. The technical writing team said, "Because the primary purpose of this page is to help people with failing devices, you should avoid marketing language in this section. Please revise your text to be more informative than salesy." So we'll get that fixed. I also had a couple of questions on the use of the warranty page and if we should include that so that may also be a change. 

This week, we talked a little more about how SEO terminology will be fitting into professional settings as we start to get to work on our iFixIt projects. Specifically, when we’re designing pages for a certain product, User Experience will be really important. We’ll want to make sure that each page is loaded up with helpful information, images, and step-by-step instructions so that users can easily navigate the fixes and the page itself. From the User Context Signals & Search Engine Rankings reading that we had this week, Nguyen said, “Visitors should be able to quickly discern whether you’re offering what they’re looking for. Since audiences’ expectations vary greatly, so too will UX from site to site. Hone in on your audience’s preferences and tail your pages to meet their needs.” We can do that by applying the specific glossary that iFixIt provided on their website, such as using natural language, packing the page with content, using headings, and using keywords. In class, we ...