Questions to Keep in Mind

Do some research on issues of web privacy. As you think about and plan your texts, the questions below can help guide your work. Keep them in mind as you do research about the topic and return to them as you’re working on the texts to help keep you focused.

  1. What change do you want to make in your audience? Consider both your client’s comments and what you’ve learned in your research.
  2. What advice do experts in this area offer? What aspects of the threat are real? What aspects seem overblown? Which issues should your poster focus on? If you think your client’s concerns are overly dramatic, will you want to design something more subtle or less alarming for your teen audience? If so, will you need to make arguments to the client about why your text was not as alarming as he or she might have wished? Having objective data about the issue may help you make those arguments.
  3. What have other writers/designers done? Look for other texts on websites or in local places like the community library. What approaches do these other texts take? Can you learn anything from them (using them either as good or as bad examples)?
  4. What textual and graphical elements resonate with this audience? What images seem most suitable for this text? What words? What layouts or arrangements of words and images? Spend some time looking at texts that engage teens. What are the differences between texts that suggest happiness or calm versus those that suggest warning or danger? How might you use those techniques in your poster?