Dozuki: Standards of Quality

Dozuki provides a stable, flexible platform to host all of the information to be an effective client at Terrapin Works, but it also offers methods of disseminating information among current and incoming staff. Through guides, wikis and additional documents, its possible to maintain higher standards of quality and service across the board for the different products offered at Terrapin Works.

Dozuki has “Category Pages”, “Guides” and “Wikis”

Category Pages: These serve as ‘folders’ to group guides and wikis of similar topics together

Guides: These can be organized into appropriate category pages and different ‘types’ (ex. “How-to”, “Replacement”, “Maintainance”, etc.).

Wikis: These are extremely flexible and better used as references such as the one you are currently reading

Terrapin Works utilizes a specific organization scheme that you can learn more about by contacting a Lab Coordinator.

In general, all Category Pages are assumed to be space-agnostic when they are “front-facing”. This means that they should not reference Terrapin Works specific workflows or Terrapin Works lab spaces. Ensuring that there is no reference to Terrapin Works allows these guides to be used in a wider variety of courses and applications, which translates to less work overall for Staff.

Category Pages that contain information that is specific to Terrapin Works, such as Machine workflows, Staff how-to’s, Staff training and other similar topics should be contained within specific folders that clearly state that they are only for staff use.

Staff Workflows is specific to Terrapin Works operations, and contains specific information for each lab space.

Staff How-to’s is specific to Terrapin Works operations, but contains information that applies to all staff regardless of which lab space they work in.

Digital Fabrication is where the majority of information about the machines at Terrapin Works is organized, but all of it is space-agnostic and could even be used to teach other people or organizations about Digital Fabrication.

Take a look at the folders that may pertain to the guide you are trying to write. We have dedicated folders for most things already, such as Software, Digital Fabrication, Logistics and Electronics. Reach out to a Lab Coordinator if you are not sure.

• Type of guide: Please select the most appropriate option
• Location (Category Name): This is the location which you want the guide to show up in
• Guide Title: This must be descriptive! If referring to a specific machine or software, the title should be “[Category]: [topic]”, such as “Formlabs Form 2: Harvesting”, or “PreForm: Basic Slicing”
• Search Summary: About one short sentence following structure similar to the above example- it should address “What” and “Who” at minimum
• Introduction: Should always provide background, then on a new line state where the pictures are from in that exact format- “Images by: Names/Sources.”
• Privacy: Set to Public unless told otherwise
• Data Capture: Turn ON for ALL guides

• Time Estimate: Critical - each guide MUST have time estimates filled out
• Difficulty: Very Easy/Easy means the task can be followed without supervision or experience, Moderate means that it may take several attempts to gain experience to complete smoothly, Difficult/Very Difficult means the task requires supervision or significant experience
• Prerequisites (Optional): This is append the named guide to the beginning of this one, we very rarely use this feature- if you think it is appropriate to use in a specific scenario then talk to an LC
• Tools: Any items required to preform any steps in the guide MUST be included here, to inform the user of the items they must gather
• Parts: Any replacement parts, COTS items, or consumables MUST be included here, to inform the user of the items they must gather
• Conclusion: Any follow-ups should be listed here, and for certain guides it may be appropriate to include more specific or advanced guides
• Attached Documents: Any documentation that was referenced through the guide or was used to develop the guide MUST be attached in .PDF format

• Pay attention to the different Bullet Point types- “Standard”, “Note”, “Reminder” and “Caution”
• Different Bullet Point types can be used for emphasis, and “Notes” are particularly useful for background information
• The “Standard” Bullet Point can be used with different colors to correspond with “Markers” in images, and should be used EXTENSIVELY in an easy-to-follow guide
• Utilize sub-bullets wherever possible, by creating a main bullet point with general info and sub-bullets with more specific notes, cautions, or reminders (such as in the example)

Bullet points in Guide Steps should be succinct and attempt to put action words first for “Standard” actions, such as “Navigate to”, “Click”, “Select”, etc. Bullet points should not exceed a single sentence, and punctuation should not be inconsistent within a step.

High quality media (photos, videos) are a staple of any easy to follow guide. Terrapin Works employs several techniques for gathering high quality media for Dozuki guides, wikis and thumbnails.

ALL IMAGES IN DOZUKI SHOULD BE 4:3 RATIO TO MAXIMIZE IMAGE QUALITY AND CONSISTENCY. PICTURES SHOULD BE TAKEN MUCH WIDER THAN EXPECTED.

Utilize developer tools in your web browser! Take a look at this guide for Chrome. Good resolution options are 4000 x 3000 or 1800 x 1200. The important part is a aspect ratio of 4:3.

Use a program like GreenShot and maximize the resolution of the screenshot as much as possible. It may be necessary to ask a coworker to take a screenshot if they have access to a higher resolution display. Additionally, Dozuki uses a 4:3 aspect ratio, so keep in mind that you may have to crop the image slightly to achieve higher quality. Usually, it’s best to take screenshots at as high of a resolution as possible.

Terrapin Works owns a DSLR which you may be able to borrow. Additionally even using your phone camera you will be able to achieve better photos by ensuring the framing is good (keeping in mind you may have to crop the photo to achieve a 4:3 aspect ratio), and ensuring the photo is level to the subject or at a ‘dutch tilt’ for more artistic shots. Employing good lighting will also help image quality.

You may have to edit images by blurring sensitive information. Because most Dozuki guides are published publicly, customer information and other sensitive information should not be visible. The easiest way to blur information is using Photoshop or other photo editing software. Selecting the portions to blur using the marquee tool, and applying a Gaussian Blur of 10-20 pixels radius is a good way to accomplish this.

Be sure to have a peer review or check in with a Lab Coordinator to look over your work. This will serve as a secondary or final check for the quality of your guide, and in many cases is the most time-consuming part of a guide that has not been checked against the standards of quality highlighted in this Wiki. Check your guide against the standards of quality highlighted in this Wiki to avoid wasting time.

Your guide should always have a high quality, clean looking thumbnail before submission. This may mean including a high-resolution logo of the pertinent topic or category, but the thumbnail in most cases should be clean and easily identifiable what object, machine, process, lab or software it pertains to.

All machines should follow naming similar to the following for key steps in basic operation:

• “[Machine]: Workflow” in the “Workflows” folder appropriate to the space the machine currently resides in
• “[Slicing Software]: Getting Started” or “[Slicing Software]: Slicing” in the folder for the given slicing software (getting started includes software installation, but slicing would not)
• “[Machine]: Starting a Print” in the machine folder, should be space-agnostic
• “[Machine]: Harvesting” in the machine folder, should be space-agnostic
• “[Machine]: Changing _______” in the machine folder, should be space-agnostic, each resource should have a separate guide (eg., for the Markforged Mark Two there would be seperate guide for the Fiber replacement and Filament replacement)

All guides for deliverables associated with training courses should follow the following guide steps:

• Step 1: “Key Takeaways”
• Step 2-N: Action Items (eg. “PaperCut Training Request II”, “Taking the Tours”)
• Step N+1: “Checking Key Information and Sign-off” **This is the only guide that should enable step sign-off and form responses

A good example can be found here or here.

1. PaperCut is one word, but capitalized in the middle "PaperCut"
2. Use the bold text feature to emphasize buttons that people are clicking
3. You "click" or “select” a button, not "hit" it or "tap" it (unless its the touchscreen on a machine)- it's nit-picky but I'd like to be consistent
4. Please don't make a single bullet point with 2+ full sentences-> in fact most bullet points should put action words first, and this'll automatically force you to shorten each bullet
5. Don't use end punctuation if it doesn't make sense, and don't be inconsistent with it in the same step
6. Be sure to DM a Lab Coordinator if you have questions on whether the guide you're working on should include references to things like the TW staff portal, TW-specific nuances or TW workflow