benjaminskelton.weebly.com · web viewstudents will participate in lectures and read auxiliary...

LIBR 250-02_Benjamin_Skelton_ Learning Activity 7_Fall20111

Final Instructional Design Draft Plan

Step 1 – Needs Assessment and Instructional Goals

This class will examine the principle of web and interface usability. The content

and foci easily span several different disciplines including communications, graphic

design, computer science, psychology, cognitive science, human-machine cognition,

human factors and behavioral research.

Although usability is an emerging field of study, there has been some seminal

work done by the scholars Bill Moggridge, Bruce Toggnazzini, and Jacob Neilsen,

prominent as founders in the field, followed by many others. For this class, the primary

framework by which these best usability practices will be determined is the list of 10

usability heuristics described by Jacob Neilsen (accessible at

http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/heuristic_list.html).

The class will be a standard semester course, taught in person. The anticipated

demographic for this class will be undergraduate or graduate college students. The only

prerequisites required for the course will be basic online literacy skills and experience

sufficient enough to fully understand the web navigational terms and instructions that will

be used. The purpose of the class is to enhance the learner’s already existing navigational

skills in an attempt to make them better, more informed critics, designers and users of

online environments. For this reason it will be extremely important that they have some

online experience with web basics. The importance of this field of studying is becoming

[email protected] 12-9-2011

mailto:[email protected]


increasingly apparent as device manufacturers and interface designers attempt to create

ever more intuitive, user-centric devices and interfaces based on a conceptual idea of

what the user needs.

The instructional goals for this unit are based on the premise that many web

applications and interfaces display a lack of consideration for proper interaction design as

substantiated by methodical comparison to Neilsen’s list of heuristics. The primary goal

of this class is to better equip learners with the necessary tools and skills to actively

discern the differences between effective, well-designed web interfaces and their

counterparts.

Students will analyze a specific website and conceive of design interface changes

that could be implemented within the website’s design to increase usability. This will be

achieved through a series of structured exercises including case studies (comparisons of

well-designed interfaces with those that are not; to identify the differences, and how these

differences can be addressed), individual and/or group projects with other learners, topic-

appropriate discussions, strategic redesigns of existing website interfaces with reference

to Neilsen’s heuristics, and other exercises. The class will involve many rounds of refined

research around a small number of websites chosen for study.

Step 2: Instructional Analysis

A prototyping project to improve a currently existing interface design will be the

core component of the class. This project will be structured as a progressive iterative and




incremental development model based on a framework of four fundamental steps:

analysis and planning, redesign, user testing, and review.

The model is outlined in this illustration:

The “Redesign”, “User Testing” and “Review” phases are themselves iterative

within this framework. Each design change should be refined by repeated testing, review

and redesign, until design changes suitable for implementation into the general website

structure are found. When complete, the whole process is undertaken again by analyzing

the entire website structure and design for other changes that may need to be made in

light of the previous modifications.

The following illustration shows the specific student activities in regards to the

structure of the exercise:




Step 3. Entry Behavior and Learner Characteristics

Students will be required to demonstrate competence in basic Internet use and the

utilization of various basic types of online interfaces including contact forms and

registration submissions. These preliminary requirements are necessary to ensure that

students are capable of the rudimentary skills needed to perform the component online

tasks. The purpose of the class is to enhance students’ already existing skills, so as to

make them better and more informed critics, designers and users of online environments,

thus, a rudimentary, functional understanding of the general working environment is will

be required.

Initially, learners will provide feedback on a set of interface design examples

chosen by the instructor. After cursory readings and discussions regarding proper




interface design heuristics, they will be asked to grade these examples according to their

ease of use and aesthetic appeal and explain the reason behind the grades. These results

will be submitted during the second week and will be saved by the instructor for later use.

At this point, general instructional feedback will be given regarding the sites that were

either examples of good design practices or those that were not, and how these

determinations were made.

Next, learners will be asked to choose one website that they wish to focus on for

the remaining duration of the class. The instructor will provide a list of three websites

from which students can choose. Students will also be asked to choose three heuristics

from Nielsen’s list (http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/heuristic_list.html) and

analyze the website in regard to these three. Students will then write a short explanation

of what they discovered and begin planning what possible changes and modifications

could be made to the interface to help it adhere better to the three chosen heuristics, based

on their current knowledge of web usability. This will constitute the “Analysis and

Planning” phase in the diagram above. After completing a basic outline of appropriate

changes they will move on to the redesign phase and after a short lesson in prototyping,

begin to implement the design changes they envisioned using a paper or graphic

prototyping technique. This step will be actualized around a set of specific user activities

they will develop. The user activities should represent common use of the website

chosen, such as logging in, signing up, contacting, or using other basic functions of the

interface provided. There is no limit to the number of the user activities they can use but

at least three will be required.




When they feel that their prototype is complete, they will perform user testing

with third party subjects such as friends, family members or co-workers and record the

feedback they receive. They will then review their design in regards to the feedback and

redesign as necessary, repeating this redesign, testing and review process until they feel

their design is suitable for integration into the greater website framework. At least two

revisions are required.

Step 4. Performance Objectives

Frustration with certain websites and interfaces is a routine part of the online

experience. Whether clicking a button that doesn’t work, following a link that takes one

elsewhere than anticipated, or being confronted with panoply of contrasting colors that

renders a page almost unreadable, all Internet users have encountered difficulties with

online interfaces. However, most don’t understand the experience beyond the difficulty.

After successful completion of this course students will understand why such websites

and interfaces are hard to navigate. They will be able to actively discern the problems

inherent in bad interface design and will be equipped with the tools to rectify the

problems, if possible. At the very least they will be much more informed, able travelers

through the various interfaces they encounter everyday. They will also have a versatile

suite of enhanced tools in their possession to address common problems, should they be

in the position to design well-developed interfaces from the ground up and/or redesign

those initially built with poor or no usability standards considered.




Step 5. Instructional Strategy

As this specific design of the class is being developed as an undergraduate college

course, students’ predominant motivation will be the credit they will receive toward their

degree and their GPA, though another strong incentive will be the creation of a tangible

product that will be a suitable addition to their personal portfolio - in this case, paper and

digital prototypes of website design changes that they have developed as well as a

recording of their final presentation. The primary performance objective is to help the

students establish a working knowledge of proper web usability and interface design

standards to assist them in their future endeavors both navigating and designing

interfaces.

Students will participate in lectures and read auxiliary articles and material based

chiefly around the concepts presented in the required textbook “Usability Engineering”

by Jacob Nielsen. Discussions based on these materials and concepts will take place

during the class meeting time. Main projects will include an exercise wherein the students

will provide feedback on a set of interface design examples chosen by the instructor and

the aforementioned prototyping project that will involve developing a paper or digital

mock-up of design changes to an online interface as well as a series of user testing

interviews and a final presentation.

Initially, after cursory readings and discussion regarding proper interface design

heuristics, they will be asked to grade a series of examples according to their ease of use

and aesthetic appeal and explain the reason behind the grades. These results will be

submitted during the second week and will be kept by the instructor for later use, though




they will not be graded. At this point, general instructional feedback will be given

regarding the sites that were either examples of good design practices or those that were

not, and how these determinations were made.

Next, learners will be asked to choose one website that they wish to focus on for

the remaining duration of the class. The instructor will provide a list of three websites

from which students can choose. Students will also be asked to choose three heuristics

from Neilsen’s list (http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/heuristic_list.html) and

analyze the website in regard to these heuristics. Students will write a short explanation

for each heuristic and begin planning what possible changes and modifications could be

made to the interface to help it adhere better to the three chosen heuristics. Lecture and

discussions at this time will focus on the chosen site designs as they relate to the usability

concepts currently being studied.

As a final project, students will actively demonstrate the design changes they

envisioned using a paper or graphic prototyping technique and an accompanying paper

and presentation. These projects will be graded according to the thoroughness of their

work in four main areas: the identification and description of the design problem; the

description and illustration of their proposed solution; an description of the process they

undertook to address the problem; and a finally, an comprehensive assessment of their

success and/or failure in addressing the problem.

The students’ process descriptions should cover their experience performing user

testing with third party subjects such as friends, family members or co-workers and an

account of how they utilized the feedback they received. The purpose of assessing learner

progress through these various methods is to gain a comprehensive understanding of




which heuristics seem more troublesome than others and why. Students will also be asked

to explain their decision making process in regards to choosing heuristics and why the

three they settled on were chosen over others.

Participation will be highly encouraged during this project – students will be able

to work in groups, or separately, depending on their preference. However, before the

projects are submitted for a grade, a round of presentations will be made. Students will

present their new, updated designs in comparison to the original website and the fourfold

process they described in the accompanying paper.

As a follow-through final activity, students will repeat the first analysis exercise

they undertook. They will be presented with their original critiques of the interface design

examples chosen by the instructor in the beginning of the course. They will re-analyze

the design examples them with specific attention given to utilizing the new usability

skills they have developed. By refining their own original work, they will gain an

overview of how far their skills have progressed.

Step 6. Planning Instructional Materials

Since this instructional class is going to be designed for in-person delivery,

specifically, an undergraduate college course, it will be composed primarily of materials,

rather than learning objects. However, some of the materials will be translated into

learning objects for later online student access via a dedicated course website. The

materials used in class will include: one assigned textbook; selected articles for weekly

review; images, lecture notes, PowerPoint slides and other presentation equipment,




screencasts of instructor interaction with online interfaces; and selected videos of

presentations given by prominent scholars in the usability field. The videos will be

embedded on the class website, as will video recordings and audio podcasts of the

lectures, for those students who were not present or for those who wish to review the

lectures at their convenience. When possible, auxiliary links and learning objects will be

included on the website. It will support one-way to one, one-way to many, interactive one

to one and interactive group discussions.

The site will be based on Moodle, a fully capable open source Learning

Management System that will provide the ideal format for the needs of this supporting

site that will basically exist as a multimedia repository and optional, online forum for the

discussion of class issues. Expert help will not be needed with the set-up and

maintenance of the site, however, student assistants might be recruited to perform the

weekly uploads and upkeep, which will be time consuming. A Learning Management

System is the preferred choice over a Communication Support Tool, since the website

needs to act as an archive repository as well. Moodle’s included modules will include all

the tools that a properly designed online counterpart to the classroom lectures should

contain, including a calendar, messaging and notifications, the ability to display scores

and transcripts and the ability to act as a server for course materials and archived lectures.

Moodle is preferred over Desire2Learn because of its open source and customizable

platform and the plethora of third-party developed plug-ins.

Step 7. Learning Objects and Formative Evaluation




The tangible products of the course will be the paper or graphical prototypes the

learners will develop for their portfolio and the credit and personal feedback they receive

regarding this project. Additionally, final student presentations will be recorded and

available for students, should they wish a copy for their portfolio.

Near the end of the semester a formative evaluation will be conducted. Students

will be enticed to participate by an offer of extra credit for those that answer all the

questions. Elaboration will be encouraged on basic answers and questions will be phrased

in such a way to facilitate constructive information sharing from all participants. The

evaluation questions will begin with a general focus on overall class experience, and the

student’s opinion of the instructor’s approach, but will get progressively more specific in

an effort to elicit a thorough recall of the student’s involvement.

To avoid an excessively long evaluation, there will be two versions that share the

same basic questions, but that have different sets of short answer questions about specific

assignments and projects. These are marked as “alternate” below. In order to avoid

superfluous feedback, specifics will be required for each question. The evaluation will be

delivered via print form and the questions will include:

1) What were you hoping to learn from this class when you registered? Do you

feel like you achieved this goal?

2) Did the activities help guide you toward a better understanding of the general

concepts of usability?

3) Was the teaching style effective? Are there areas for improvement?

4) Were you pleased with the websites chosen for examination? Why or why




not?

5) Did the online module help? Why?

6) Do you feel like the presentation recordings and digital prototypes you

developed will be useful to you later? Why or why not? (Alternate)

7) Will you save any of the materials from this class for later use? If so, which

ones and why? (Alternate)

8) Were the materials used appropriate for demonstrating the concepts? Which

ones were most effective and why? (Alternate)

9) What was your favorite learning tool? (Alternate)

10) Did you like the use of live online demonstration? Were you able to follow the

navigation easily? Why or why not? (Alternate)

11) What websites do you think the class should study in the future and why?

12) Are you glad you took this class? Please explain.

13) Will you recommend this class to other students? Why or why not?

Outcomes will be read and recorded and any major issues will be addressed as

needed. To encourage students to complete the evaluation, extra credit will be given to

those that fill out every field. Submissions will be recorded and responses will be divided

into two categories – learning objects/materials and instructional approach. Answers will

be reviewed in response to previous semesters’ feedback and the methodological

approach will be adjusted to the best discretion of the instructor.

This will be a contemporary classroom-based unit of instruction concerned with

current Internet technology tools and concepts. Since these tools and concepts exist in a




state of constant refinement, the requisite materials, learning objects and teaching

methods will reflect this. The curriculum is based on a mercurial set of concepts that

attempt to interpret user behavior in a new and changing medium. Taking into account

student feedback and the changing technology landscape, the curriculum will be adapted

to keep abreast of current trends in both technology and user behavior.

Implementation

This instructional design plan has been presented as a proposal for an

undergraduate college course, which I believe is its ideal presentation format. Though the

class is adaptable to different lengths as circumstances dictate, with appropriate

contextual revisions, the anticipated demographic for this program is the undergraduate

or graduate college student with enthusiasm and curiosity toward the growth of dynamic

content on the web. I believe that the content could be adapted successfully for many

different learning groups, provided they have the necessary experience in web navigation

to understand its basic premise. It is even conceivable that it could even be shaped for

absolute beginners, when paired with an appropriate introductory course to computers

and the Internet. However, in this situation it would need to be pared down to its most

basic concepts, and would not be nearly as successful. This course could easily be

adapted to many different learning environments and circumstances, due to the universal

and increasingly ubiquitous nature of human computer interaction. I chose to design it for

a college semester length course since such context provides access to a fairly lengthy

term and possibly, a more motivated demographic, both of which would help facilitate a




successful exploration into a very contemporary, complex and evolving field of study.



benjaminskelton.weebly.com · web viewstudents will participate in lectures and read auxiliary...

Documents