Rude 14.2

For this assignment I will be analyzing the two page (one 8.5x11 sheet front and back) 2010-2011 Student Health Insurance Plan brochure.

Analysis of the Document's Purpose, Readers, and Uses
Purpose: This document is meant to give graduate assistants, TAs, and RAs information about the insurance they receive through the school. It should tell them what benefits they receive, coverages, and potential costs in a very easy to use document. Also, because health insurance is expensive and often confusing and daunting to deal with, so this document should assuage some of the those fears and concerns.

Readers: The readers of this document are graduate students, possibly international students, who can read well and have plenty of experience navigating difficult documents. They are probably between 21 and 30 years old and are using this document to see what kind of protection they have against accident or tragedy. Most likely they will be given this brochure mailed with forms or other information. Upon reading this document, it's possible they will be happy to learn of the benefits, but more than likely, they will be upset at they are still required to pay for certain things, that dental and vision are not covered, that visiting the doctor will require a co-pay, that coverage for spouse and children is very expensive, etc. I imagine most readers will either file the paper in a secure spot where they can reference it later, or toss it aside after they've read it, knowing that the information is easily available in other places. Because it is printed in black and white on cheap paper, it doesn't feel like a document you'd hang on to for a long time.

Evaluation of the Document
Content: The document contains all the information I think I'd need along with a disclaimer that it doesn't contain all the information anyone could want. It gives a link to a "Complete Brochure," so we can assume that there is more any additional information I'd want is there.
Order: The first section is "Who is eligible?" This is confusing as the first item because I imagine that almost all of the people seeing this document are already enrolled in the health insurance. This is not a recruiting document, so it would be better if it read something like, "If you are... you are already enrolled in this plan." With a heading of "Are you covered?" This would serve to reinforce that the coverage that the TA already has, rather than trying to find new people. The coverages and costs are on the back and easy enough to follow. However, there is no good heading for the costs of covering a child or spouse.
Visual Design and Navigation: The drop shadow on the top box is ugly, and it is especially ugly because it is inconsistent. There is no other box on the brochure with a drop shadow. The Picture shows a good enough variety of students who are perhaps a little younger than the target audience. The Bottom picture is a better choice I think in terms of age ( but it portrays a stereotypical white male grad student with glasses working on a laptop). The text under the first picture is in a scripty decorative font that doesn't match the rest of the brochure and is hard to read. There are six different fonts used on the brochure, when only three were necessary. The small single-spaced serifed text at the bottom of the first page and the italic small print on the top and bottom of the second page is difficult to read. It is the "fine print" of the brochure and contains warnings and caveats. The fonts match their purposes well, but the design could have been streamlined.
Style: The diction begins in a familiar second person tone, but then becomes overly formal quickly. The back contains legal jargon and tables with no easy to read text.

Changes to be made: I would advocate keeping the familiar diction throughout. The document pretends to be comforting but becomes menacing and cautionary pretty quickly. I would use three fonts only. The decorative font from the logo for all large letters (titles, headings, etc.) the light san-serif (arial) for the tables. bulleted lists and subheadings, and the serifed font (Palatino, I think) for all the body text. I would change the "Who is eligible?" to "Are you covered?" keeping with the familiar second person and better addressing the needs of the audience. I would add some text explaining the tables and how to read them. For example the table labeled "Premium Costs and Coverage Periods" should clearly be explained as optional costs to avoid confusion.