IFixit is a company that teaches consumers to fix their broken technology whether it be a 20-year-old legacy product or a brand new one. Often consumers no longer have the documentation for their item. So IFixit needed documentation for several items. My team received a Gateway Solo 1200, and we were asked to provide the missing online documentation that would make owning or buying this older technology more feasible.
I created two repair guides, including the Battery Replacement Guide and the RAM Stick Replacement Guide, which included providing content and creating custom images. I researched and wrote the specification section on the Gateway Solo 1200 Repair page. I also wrote the Laptop Does Not Hold a Charge Troubleshooting section on the Troubleshooting page. Once the documents were complete, my colleagues and I performed usability tests with the User Acceptance Testing (UAT) Protocol. My collaborators for this project were Diana Farris and Rikileigh Perry.
We researched common laptop-repair troubleshooting problems to determine what to include in our guide. Next, we created a device page for the Gateway Solo 1200 computer that acted as a homepage for all of the content related to the product. We then, in like manner, made repair guides for multiple situations. When we finished the documentation, we ran usability tests to confirm that our solutions were user-friendly and thorough.
This much-needed documentation provided current and future users of the Gateway Solo 1200 computer with usable documentation. This effort has the ecological benefit of extending product life, promoting customer satisfaction, and helping avoid product obsolescence by putting power back into the consumer’s hands to decide when to repair and replace.
Here are the key artifacts for the project.