Document Design Project
Assignment: PAGOS Plan/Analysis

assignment | purpose | audience | genre | organization | style ||| example

Assignment:

clipboard-sm Write an informal but thorough “PAGOS analysis” of the document you’re working with for the document design project. Think of it as a “backwards PAGOS plan” where you look at the original document and work backwards to figure out the purpose, audience, genre, organization, and style.

To some extent, you should analyze the purpose, audience, genre, organization, and style of the existing document, as well as provide some brief thoughts about what the purpose, audience, genre, organization, and style of the document should be. In other words, I want you to spend the most effort considering the document in your hands (what it is), but also, briefly consider what a better, redesigned document might look like and how it might communicate (what it should be).

What’s below are some ideas and notes for PAGOS analysis. If it helps you to be thorough, you may choose to speak to each of the bullet points under P, A, G, O, and S. (you can copy/paste the points below into your post and respond to each if that’s easiest), but that’s not required. In other words, you don’t have to “fill it out” like a worksheet — the notes are there to remind you about all the considerations in each of the five areas. No matter how you choose to do the Backwards PAGOS analysis, what I want is for you to spend the most time and text on the things that are most important to the organization, it’s goals, and the immediate purpose of the document.

⌃

Immediate Results vs. Overarching Goals:

In general, an organization’s broad or overarching goal may be to increase business, gain more clients, sell more products, encourage membership, etc. But their immediate goals (what they want to happen as a direct result of the document) are usually much “smaller” and may be things like like getting potential customers to go to a website, getting potential new members to call for more information, etc.

Here’s an example. Molly’s Pizza Palace (a family-owned neighborhood pizza place) wants to sell more pizzas and increase profits — that’s their broad, overarching goal, and that’s the overarching goal the document (a take-out/delivery menu) is supposed to accomplish.

The menu is most frequently distributed to existing customers along with pizza deliveries and take out orders, so for that reason, it’s unlikely people will order more food on the same day they already bought food from Molly’s. So, the immediate goal of Molly’s menu isn’t to sell more pizza — it’s something else. Perhaps it’s to make the food look/sound attractive enough, or be priced low enough so that people who get the menu decide it’s worth keeping (instead of throwing in the trash), and hopefully, decide it’s worth putting somewhere prominent. If people keep the menu handy, then the next time a household thinks about dinner, or what to get for dinner, the menu is visible or accessible enough to be an option.

PURPOSE:

A) Consider what the purpose of your original document should be.

What does the business/organization want to have happen as an immediate result^* of this document?
What is the business’s/organization’s larger or overarching^* (or longer term, broad) goal for this document?
What information should the document contain to help it achieve its purpose?
What else should the document do/be to help it achieve its purpose?

B) Provide Criticism: How/where does the original document fail to achieve the purpose you described?

⌃

AUDIENCE:

A) Consider who the audience/s of your original document should be (who it’s meant for and who it should appeal to).

Who should the target audience/s be?
What is their age, background, situation, etc.?
What is their experience?
What do they value? What are they most interested in?
What do they know/need to know?
What are the benefits to them? What are possible objections?
How is this audience likely to be persuaded?
In what context is the audience likely to read the document?
What is their attitude toward the document/situation?

B) Provide Criticism: How does the original document fail to appeal to the audience you described? How does it meet/not meet the audiences needs, wants, and expectations?

⌃

GENRE:

Relationship Between Genre & Organization:

Genres are familiar and recognizable. To some degree, the genre of the document shapes readers expectations of what sort of information is contained within. Genre also provides the audience some information about the document is organized and how to “use” it. For example, audiences of formal reports know they can scan the executive summary for a quick overview of what’s contained in the report, or they can read through each section more slowly. Audiences of textbooks know they don’t have to read from the first page to the last–they can often read sections out of order, browse the table of contents, or use the index to find what they’re looking for. For these reasons, a document’s genre often affects its organization.

A) Consider what the genre of the document should be.

What should the genre of the document be?
What are the conventions (rules, attributes) of that genre?
How do people use the genre? What information or features do audience expect from the genre?

B) Provide Criticism: What is the genre of your original document? How does that genre (and/or the execution of that genre) fail to appeal to the audience and/or achieve the purpose?

⌃

ORGANIZATION:

Relationship Between Organization & General Purpose:

In the same way that genre affects organization, a document’s general purpose also affects organization. There are different “best practices” and techniques for organizing information depending on whether the general purpose is positive/neutral/informative, negative, or persuasive. We will cover those in more detail at a later time.

A) Consider how the document should be organized.

How should the document be organized?
What information should be prominent/more/most important?
Where should information be located?
(Consider types of information in the document, placement of information on individual pages/parts, and location of information such as on the back of the document, on the inside middle column, etc.)

B) Provide Criticism: How does the organization of the original document (and/or placement of information) fail to meet the audiences needs/wants/expectations? How does it negatively affect the document’s readability and usability?

⌃

STYLE^*:

Considering Style:

Consider the style generally. I’m not looking for a detailed examination of design at this time. In other words, you don’t need to include small or specific details about document design elements here. We will do that later on.

A) Consider what the style of the document should be.

How should the document be styled?
What should the tone or feeling of the document be?
What should the style of the document communicate about the organization/event/service/etc.

⌃

Example: Brooklyn Boys Restaurant Take Out/Delivery Menu

front

inside left

inside right

back

Purpose

A) What the purpose should be.

Immediate Purposes: Brooklyn Boys (the business) wants people to take the menu home and/or keep the menu (if mailed)—they don’t want people to ignore it or throw it away.
Intermediate Goal/s?: they want people to use the takeout menu to order food.
Overarching/Long Term Goal: to sell more food to make more money.
This is about genre and style, but the document needs to be catchy enough to make someone leaving the restaurant take it with them or keep them from throwing it in the trash (if it’s mailed or stuck in people’s doors). It also needs to be recognizable as a menu and the same size as other takeout menus (because people keep might keep them in the same place at home).

B) Criticism: It isn’t colorful or professional enough to make someone take it home. Because of the plain paper and size (8 x 11 folded in half), it might be mistaken for some other document. Also, it’s not the same size as trifold brochure-style menus, so people might not keep it in their stacks of menus.

Audience

A) Who should the audience be? (who does the document appeal to? who is it meant for?)

Target Audiences: 1) customers leaving the restaurant and 2) new customers who might receive the menu in the mail or on their door.
Zip Code 33434 Demographics: average age = 60.7; average people per household = 2.27; median household income = $47,157; percentage of owned homes = 72.5% (according to aggregate data from Movato, ZipWho, and MelissaData)
Nearby Restaurants (competition?):
Very Close: Boston Market, Starbucks, Frozen Yogurt;
Close: McDs, Panera, TGI Friday’s, Pei Wei, Sybarite Pig ($$)
Closest Italian Restaurant = Dominic’s II; about same price for pizza, but Dominic’s is more expensive for everything else (about double); also, they don’t deliver (BB’s does)
Audience:
Zip Code 33434 Demographics: average age = 60.7; average people per household = 2.27; median household income = $47,157; percentage of owned homes = 72.5% (according to aggregate data from Movato, ZipWho, and MelissaData)
With the average age of 60 and average income of $47,000, customers may be looking for an inexpensive sit down option; also may be looking for delivery options (BB’s is one of very few restaurants in the immediate area that deliver).
Interested in an experience (sit down; no dishes, no cooking) at a low cost, but something more than fast food; interested in price; interested in delivery
Need to know: inexpensive entrees; fast and fresh; free delivery; restaurant type. Like to know?: family owned; “authentic”
Don’t need to know: catering menu; “same great pizza new york style and taste” (could include, but less prominently—not on cover)
Benefits: inexpensive entrees, easy, quick, not fast food, approximation of authenticity; delivery; family owned; single restaurant (not a chain)
Objections: expensive pizza, other (perhaps better) Italian restaurant nearby, not authentic enough
Context:
audience may take menu on their way out of restaurant; audience may receive menu through the mail or stuck in their door/over doorknob
audience is already hungry; forgot to plan for dinner; want a quick, easy, option for themselves or family; want delivery
Attitude:
may already like BB’s because they ate at restaurant and took a menu home with them.
may be annoyed at unsolicited advertising in the mail (or worse, in their door)
may be hungry

B) Criticism: The document fails to appeal to the audience because…

Genre

A) Consider what the genre of the document should be.

The genre should be a typical takeout/delivery menu.
Takeout menus generally are made of paper, but should be heavier and more durable.
Should be readable, usable, and enticing (on front page) to stand out from the stack of menus.
Audiences use take out menus at the last minute; when hungry.

B) Criticism: The document fails to adhere to this genre by…

Organization

A) Consider how the document should be organized.

The menu should be tri-fold
Might consider moving pizza items from cover (since they’re fairly expensive, more expensive than chain pizza shops); might show pizza on cover, but put other menu items more prominently; make delivery more prominent
Persuasive stuff on the front; ordering info on the back
Use groupings, headings, and white space to organize different types of menu items.

B) Criticism: The menu is organized as an 8×11 paper folded “hamburger style.” This way, it opens up like a book—not like tri-fold menus. It also contains extraneous info on the cover; isn’t organized logically (like other examples of the genre). Also, there’s a lot of redundancy and unnecessary info (catering). Also…

Style

A) Consider what the style of the document should be.

Tone and style should be eye catching; perhaps emphasizing Italian;
Feeling might emphasize “family owned” (so, maybe not TOO slick and professional)
Should be more readable than stylized; leave persuasive stuff for the cover
Back should be informational; phone number and hours prominent

B) Criticism: Menu has poor clipart; doesn’t use color; doesn’t adhere to genre; doesn’t say “Italian” or “family” or emphasize delivery. Also…

⌃