Drew Kist

WRIT 3001
25 October 2016

Klondike Solitaire

Introduction: Welcome, this is a step by step guide on how to play Klondike

Solitaire. For this game, you need at least one player , an area or surface on which to
play, and a set of regular playing cards. The Jokers will not be used in this game. Aces
are low in this game, meaning their value is lower than 2. The instructions for the game
are as follows

Setting up the cards to play.

A.) Keeping the cards face down, place the cards down from left to right on your playing
surface one at a time, in a row, making exactly 7 piles.
B.) The furthest pile on the left should have 1 card, the next pile should have 2 cards,
the third pile should have 3 cards, and so on and so forth until the last pile on the right
has 7 cards and you have used 28 cards. This group of cards will be called the Main
Table *(No. 4 in diagram)
C.) You should now have a pile of 32 cards left over. This is the Draw card pile, and
will be used in addition to the other 28 cards. *(No. 3)
D.) Leave a space above the piles of the Main Table. *(No. 1 & 2)
*Use this Diagram as a template for the playing area:

How to
Win.
The
game is
won
when the
player has moved all the cards to the 4 Goals in the space (No. 1). Each goal can only
hold one suit and the cards must placed in the following order (low to high): Ace, 2, 3, 4,
5, 6, 7, 8, 9, Jack, Queen, King. These 4 piles will be face up. *note that the No.2
space is a discard pile, which will be used when no further moves can be made. These
will be face up.

How to play.
A.) You may flip up the first (top) card in each of the Main Table piles.
B.) Using the diagram above as an example, you will take a card, and place it on top of
a card that is a rank higher of a different color.

For example, the 9 of Diamonds

(Black).

(Red) could be placed on the 10 of Spades

C.) Once the move has been made, the bottom card from the removed pile (9 of
Diamonds) must have the new top card flipped over. To summarize, a Main Table pile
must always have at least 1 card facing up at all times.
D.) If a pile become empty, it may only be replaced with a King or a another pile with a
King in it. If no cards can be moved, draw from the Draw pile and see if a move can be
made. If not, place the card in the Discard pile. The top card of the discard pile may be
used only if a move can be made.
E.) You may also select the amount of face up cards in a Main Table pile that you
would like to place on top of another face up pile, as long as the bottom card of the pile
you are transferring falls within the rules of section B of this Step.

For example, if you have a pile that has a 7 of Clubs

(Black) followed by a 6 of

Hearts (Red) and so on and so forth, you may transfer those cards as long at the
pile you transfer to has a face up 8 of Hearts or Diamond

(Red).

F.) Finally, a Goals space must first be filled with an Ace, then the 2 of the
corresponding suit, and so on and so forth. Once all 4 Goals spaces have been filled,
you have won!

Reflection
Although it was likely not the best idea, I found it easier to completely redo this
instruction guide. I found too many things: wording, grammar, organization, appearance,
etc. to be so confusing that I couldnt even find a place to start. I am more of a visual
learner in the first place, so this had no chance of teaching me the game. The first thing
I did was watch 3 videos on how to play this version of Solitaire. I feel this could be
useful to many TWC related projects in the future. By using outside sources, I can
further understand how to solve a problem I do not know much about. Taking what I had

learned well from these videos, and what I hated about these instructions, I attempted to
make something more appealing. The first change I made was making a distinct Set Up
section and Start/Play section. An introduction was added because I felt it would be
helpful to people like me, who had never played, or have no idea what Klondike Solitaire
even is. These sections were bolded and underlined to draw the player's attention and
outline their differences in purpose. I decided to use letters to list my steps, so not to
confuse the step numbers with the card numbers. I added spaces between my steps to
add a level of clarity, and also to keep the text from looking bulky. Although I had about
200 more words than the original instructions, I felt they were necessary to appeal to
everyone playing this game, from newcomers to veterans. Nielsen (2012) mentioned in
his article Usability is a quality attribute that assesses how easy user interfaces are to use.
The word "usability" also refers to methods for improving ease-of-use during the design
process. In using the 5 quality components that define usability, I was able to make this game
as learnable, efficient, memorable, error free and satisfactory. A diagram was added to help

those like me that are visual learners, and small art was added here and there to
brighten up and add character to the somewhat blandness that the instructions would
have otherwise. I also labeled the sections of the diagram so that players would not be
confused as to what the piles in the diagram ment (a map is not helpful without a
legend). I even added a little bit of color to the red suited cards just in case the player
needed a reference, and I think it spices up the instructions a bit ( a game is supposed
to be fun, so the instructions should at least be a little more fun than boring). I felt it
have it a kind of branding. Even Fisk (2014) mentioned in his article, As minimal as the
branding is, its enough to make the document look more professional, more organized,
and more approachable (p. 29.) Times New Roman font and single spacing was used
for clarity and efficiency, in that order. I did this in reference to when Redish (1989) said
The key to a successful users guide or help system is to let the user get in, get the
information, and get out as quickly as possible (p. 290). My attempts at minimalism

could have been better, but I didnt feel like sacrificing information I felt was important
for a more visually appealing instruction manual in this case. I drew this from Tylak
(1997) when she said The minimalism that creates action-oriented materials is a great
idea. Minimalism that only breaks information down into small components is not. If you
are not careful you can make something so minimal that it is almost a non-event (192).
I did that because I felt the original was just too bleak and short. It was just the small
components that Tylak mentioned. Plain language was used so that more people would
be able to understand this game better, making it more accessible. I wanted to add
examples so there was a level of situational realism. In any game, there should be
some helpful tips along the way. I wanted this instruction guide to be readable while
playing the game, and before playing the game.

Bibliography
Fisk, J. (2014). Putting language last: Using structure, visual cues, and marketing
style analysis as the primary tools of simplification. Intercom (February): 26-30
Nielsen, J. (2012). Usability 101: Introduction to usability. Alertbox.
[Link]
Redish, J. (1989). Reading to learn to do. IEEE Transactions on Professional
Communication 32(4): 289-293.
Tylak, K. (1997). Minimalism: Can you have too much of a good thing?
Crossroads in Communication: IPCC97 Proceedings: 181-192.