Team 1 Response – Design
For this week’s submission, we created a Webspiration map. It looks great, but there is one problem – publishing it is cumbersome and unclear (bad design!).
To view our map without the notes/links enabled: Team 1 map
To view our full map, go to: Webspiration
and type in the following:
username: team 1 guest
password: team1guest
Go to Launch Webspiration – then to Recently Opened
You will get a message that says that you are just a viewer – click okay and then you can scroll around to see our map.
To see the text associated with our map, see below!
Elements of design
Visibility
-Users need to be able to see what their options are and perceive what the outcomes of their actions will be. To do so, there should be a visible structure and clue which “indicates what parts operate and how the user is to interact with the device” (Norman, 1990, p. 8). Norman’s door example illustrates that the designer should provide signals for users to recognize the operation of the object in a visual way.
See our bad design section below to view a counter example.
Feedback
-Users receive immediate information about what action has been done and its result. By receiving feedback, users can tell that they are operating in an appropriate and proper way.
-When they don’t receive feedback, users are left wondering if they accomplished what it was that they wanted to accomplish. The lack of immediate feedback makes it impossible to interpret the perceived actions of the device. Lack of feedback also prevents users from correcting/modifying their actions for future use.
Mapping
-Mapping is the relationship between two things: what you want to do and what appears to be possible. In order to accomplish good design, those relationships should be natural and intuitive. The relationship between controls and actions need to be apparent to the user.
-If mapping is visible, clearly related to the desired outcome, and provides immediate feedback, it will be easily learned and remembered (Norman, 1990).
Conceptual models
– In the description of his refrigerator, Norman introduces what often presents a hurdle to understanding design: lack of clear conceptual model. The directions for the thermostat of a refrigerator were easier than the actual process of using the thermostat. This concept relates to Argyris’ Theories of Action. The contradiction of theory of action versus the theory in use, which establishes the difference between how something is justified/explained and what is actually going on (Argyris 1957, 1962, 1964).
-In educational research, we experience Theories of Action when interviewing subjects for a study, for example teachers. The way they might describe their teaching might be vastly different than what we observe when we are in their classroom. This contradiction problematizes our study, just like it problematizes operating the refrigerator thermostat.
-Apple products are often considered well-designed because their conceptual models allow them to contain visible clues to their operation. We can easily predict the effects of our actions when using these products.
Good Design
Examples of good design
An example of user-friendly design
Does this count as good design?
Bad Design
-Bad design perpetuates when useless/confusing things become reified and remain as part of the design despite their problems. For example, the “R” button on Don Norman’s phone at the Applied Psychology Unit in Cambridge (p. 21). The designer of the phone could not even explain what it was there for.
Examples of bad design
Yikes! Click here for a Subaru cup holder debacle
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Diffusion
Innovation
-An innovation is an idea, practice, or object that is perceived as new by an individual or other unit of adoption. An innovation does not actually have to be something that is new to everyone, but rather if an idea seems new to the individual it is an innovation.
-“Newness” of an innovation may be expressed in terms of knowledge, persuasion, or a decision to adopt (Rogers, p.12)
Time
-It takes time to decide on adoption of a new innovation. Sometimes decisions are made not by individuals, but by communities.
–Questions: How might this alter the relationships among members? How does it affect individual participants?
Communication Channels
-The idea that people tend to accept innovations when they view people like them demonstrating or trying out those innovations directly relates to the psychology behind commercials. While not all commercials are promoting “new” innovations, some do. That is why, for example, new mothers are depicted on new diaper commercials. How does the idea of homophily relate to our understanding of participants/members of a community?
-Are we more likely to accept innovations that are communicated to us through our established communities because of the homophily that exists? Do we think that if it works for someone who is similar to ourselves then it will work for us as well?
-How does the notion of “if it works for someone else it may work for me” fit into our own identity?
Social System
-Is a social system the same thing as community? Or are new designs accepted differently in the social system as a whole rather than in individual communities?
-What may be accepted as a new design in a certain community may be rejected by the social system as a whole because it is not acceptable to the system. There may be certain communities that deviate from the social system on a minor scale but what is accepted as a design in the community may be different than what is accepted as design in the social system.
-Maybe communities would be the “units” of the social system that Rogers mentions (p. 23 – 24).
*IMPLICATIONS OF DESIGN FOR EDUCATION
-Motivation for students is an important issue, one that is inherently wrapped up in the design of classroom activities. If directions are clear and the activity makes sense to students (aka if the conceptual models are clear), then motivation and self-efficacy seem to increase provided that the activity is appealing to the students. In other words, if a task is “do-able”, students are more likely to engage.
-We have to make sure not to be “innovation-oriented” rather than “client-oriented” with our students. We don’t want to focus so much on the technology/innovation that we forget to take our students’ backgrounds and needs into account.
-Just as the poorly designed QWERTY keyboard has perpetuated, we often perpetuate the status quo in a system of education that is not well designed. How can we as teachers make sure that we are innovators and change agents within our education system? How do we feel when authority innovation-decisions (Rogers, p. 28-29) get handed down to us? Are we less likely to want to implement the innovation because we are now being required to do so?
-What happens if teachers do fall into the “late majority/laggards” category of adopting innovations while students are “innovators/early adopters”?
Design of Webspiration Analyzed…
-When we went to publish – ALL of the notes and links we created were no longer active!!! BAD DESIGN for sharing to a web page or blog!
-Too many thoughts/ideas = too many bubbles. There does not seem to be an easy way to keep the map from getting unwieldy and overwhelming to the user other than limiting what we choose to talk about.
-There doesn’t seem to be a way to preview what the map will look like to the final user or to preview what the user’s interactions will be like with the map.
-It was often difficult to place the linking arrows between bubbles exactly where we wanted them to be, as there was a requirement for them to attach only at specific points on the square editing area (which is only available to the editor).
-Good design was demonstrated in that it was extremely intuitive to select multiple bubbles at once (using the shift button) and change their color with just one click rather than having to change each bubble individually.
-The ability to insert hyperlinks into the map is a good function. It made it easy to insert video and other images that users could easily interact with.
– The chat function is a great one, an addition that many express need for in google docs. That said, while members can chat about their map, they are not permitted to edit the map concurrently. This provides problems, as one member has to wait for another to finish or take a break before he or she can edit.