As I read and watched the instructional materials for modules 1-3, I encountered several things that surprised, delighted, and disappointed me.
It’s Pronounced GIF
Watching Tom Scott’s video “It’s pronounced GIF” delighted me. I am a fan of Tom Scott’s videos and I really like how clear and accessible this explanation of the difficulty in determining what is “right” in language. I particularly enjoy the clever title, and that although Scott does not take an explicit side, he points out that the creator of the word GIF says “It’s pronounced JIF, not GIF”.
Design Systems
Chris Nodder’s video series “UX Foundations: Style Guides and Design Systems” surprised me because I didn’t know about design systems before. The fact that design systems play a parallel role to style guides, but in the context of code, surprised me because I had never thought about how code is kept standardized.
It was very interesting and useful to learn about the role of design systems because many of the style guides that I looked at included or were a part of design systems. Without this explanation, I would have been confused by and likely avoided style guides that are paired with design systems.
This knowledge was useful when I was writing my style guide recommendation report because the style guide that I recommended is a part of a design system. Thanks to this video, rather than feeling intimidated by this, I recognized it as a strength.
Algorithmic Readability Tests
The weaknesses and gaps of formulaic reading scores that the article “What makes writing more readable?” described surprised and disappointed me. While I didn’t fully trust algorithmic reading scores, in the past, I didn’t focus on these downsides because these algorithms are very convenient. This information is meaningful to my career goals because in the future I will make sure to be conscious of these shortcomings and always use common sense and testing to check if my writing is appropriate.
Without the knowledge of their weaknesses, I would have over relied on technology that is not equipped for the task. Cultivating a good sense of plain language is fundamental for a career in technical communication. I have used Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level scores to represent the readability of text in the past, but I don’t think I would do so again. Although relying on a subjective judgement lacks the authority of a formula, it seems like such a subjective judgement would ultimately be more useful.
Mailchimp Style Guide
Reading through the Mailchimp style guide influenced my approach to the style guide recommendation report assignment by setting my baseline expectations for the features of a style guide. I analyzed this style guide and compared it to the style guide that I recommend instead. I found this style guide to be very interesting because humor is deeply woven into it. While this wasn’t the right choice in this case, it demonstrates how much a style guide can influence the voice of a company.