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Vicki Davis

Fever° Red hot. Well read. - 8 views

shared by Vicki Davis on 15 Dec 12 - Cached
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    A new RSS reader has come on the scene called Fever. It lets you say "how hot" certain feeds are for you and also looks at the web and predicts the hottest things for you to read. I'm on my ipad this weekend so I can't buy and install fever (I think it resides on a Mac -- looking for a PC version now.) This is basically software that one person designed that is getting some buzz in tech circles for usability and making RSS feed reading manageable again. Worth a look.
Vicki Davis

Blind Planet | The best blind community on the net! - 0 views

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    Great site with many resources for people who are blind.
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    This website has a wide variety of information for the blind community. You'll notice that this site doesn't have a lot of graphics -- that is because it is very accessible and usable for those using voice-enabled web browsing. This is a great resource for educators and those working with special needs.
Adrienne Michetti

Universal Design in Education: Principles and Applications - 11 views

  • to make all aspects of the educational experience more inclusive
  • philosophical framework
  • include
    • Adrienne Michetti
       
      I love that this is not just being restricted to technology, but is including spaces and texts.
  • ...39 more annotations...
  • Equitable use
  • Ronald Mace,
  • the design of products and environments to be usable to the greatest extent possible by people of all ages and abilities"
  • diversity and inclusiveness
    • Adrienne Michetti
       
      This is very reminiscent of MYP.
  • seven principles for the universal design of products and environments
  • a design foundation for more accessible and usable products and environments
  • Flexibility in use
  • applications in educational settings: physical spaces, information technology (IT), instruction, and student services.
    • Adrienne Michetti
       
      ALL educators should be participating in UD.
  • Perceptible information
  • Tolerance for error
  • Low physical effort
  • Size and space for approach and use.
  • benefits all students
  • Simple and intuitive use
  • UD can be applied to physical spaces to ensure that they are welcoming, comfortable, accessible, attractive, and functional.
  • Output and Displays.
  • Input and Controls.
  • Manipulations.
  • Documentation.
  • Safety.
  • it is possible to create products that are simultaneously accessible to people with a wide range of abilities, disabilities, and other characteristics.
  • institutions can express the desire to purchase accessible IT and inquire about the accessibility features of specific products.
  • UDL as "a research-based set of principles that together form a practical framework for using technology to maximize learning opportunities for every student"
  • curriculum designers create products to meet the needs of students with a wide range of abilities, learning styles, and preferences.
  • Multiple means of representation
  • Multiple means of action and expression
  • Multiple means of engagement
  • the following first steps for curriculum developers and teachers:
  • Unfortunately, most educational software programs available today do not apply these recommendations. Instead of including flexible features that provide access to students with disabilities, they continue to unintentionally erect barriers to the curriculum.
  • Universal design can be applied to all aspects of instruction—teaching techniques, curricula, assessment
  • Class Climate.
  • Interaction.
  • Physical Environments and Products.
  • Delivery Methods.
  • Information Resources and Technology.
  • Feedback
  • Assessment.
  • Accommodation.
  • When universal design is applied, everyone feels welcome,
Bret Willhoit

Wikimedia Commons - 13 views

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    A database of 6,663,392 freely usable media files to which anyone can contribute.
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    Thanks for sharing!
Jason Finley

Articles | What Makes Them Click - 13 views

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    What if we applied the psychology of what makes technology attractive to students...to our face-2-face practices in the classroom? Using this idea, instead of using more technology in the classroom, why not design the traditional human / face-to-face classroom experience to be more like what makes technology so engrossing to modern students? Do these principles sound familiar... Deliver information in bite sized chunks, Create mental models, Use short stories to help process information, Learning happens and is remembered through repetition, People are motivated by Progress and Mastery, Sustained attention lasts 10 minutes, and the use of Progressive Disclosure. Progressive Disclosure an interaction design technique often used in human computer interaction to help maintain the focus of a user's attention by reducing clutter, confusion, and cognitive workload. This improves usability by presenting only the minimum data required for the task at hand. Here are 100 little articles that could have big implications in the classroom.
Adrienne Michetti

Digital Web Magazine - The Principles of Design - 11 views

  • concepts that can that make any project stronger without interfering in the more technical considerations later on
  • one of many disciplines within the larger field of design
  • a discipline within the field of art
  • ...37 more annotations...
  • the basic tenets of design into two categories: principles and elements
  • the principles of design are the overarching truths of the profession
  • the elements of design are the components of design themselves, the objects to be arranged.
  • principles
  • Balance Rhythm Proportion Dominance Unity
  • Balance is an equilibrium
  • visual weight within a composition
  • Symmetrical balance
  • When symmetry occurs with similar, but not identical, forms it is called approximate symmetry
  • Symmetrical balance is also known as formal balance.
  • ntral axis.
  • Asymmetrical balance
  • tend to have a greater sense of visual tension. Asymmetrical balance is also known as informal balance.
  • Rhythm is the repetition or alternation of elements
  • Regular
  • Flowing
  • Progressive
  • three stages of dominance
  • Proportion is the comparison of dimensions or distribution of forms.
  • Dominance relates to varying degrees of emphasis in design
  • visual weight
  • relationship in scale between one element and another,
  • Dominant
  • Sub-dominant
  • Subordinate
  • unity describes the relationship between the individual parts and the whole of a composition
  • Gestalt theories of visual perception and psychology, specifically those dealing with how the human brain organizes visual information into categories, or groups
  • Closure is the idea that the brain tends to fill in missing information when it perceives an object is missing some of its pieces.
  • Continuance is the idea that once you begin looking in one direction, you will continue to do so until something more significant catches your attention
  • Items of similar size, shape and color tend to be grouped together by the brain, and a semantic relationship between the items is formed.
  • In addition, items in close proximity to or aligned with one another tend to be grouped in a similar way.
  • Contrast addresses the notion of dynamic tensionÔthe degree of conflict that exists within a given design between the visual elements in the composition.
  • The objects in the environment represent the positive space, and the environment itself is the negative space.
  • The rule of thirds is a compositional tool that makes use of the notion that the most interesting compositions are those in which the primary element is off center.
  • The visual center of any page is just slightly above and to the right of the actual (mathematical) center.
  • sometimes referred to as museum height.
  • The principles of design are the guiding truths of our profession, the basic concepts of balance, rhythm, proportion, dominance and unity. Successful use of these core ideas insures a solid foundation upon which any design can thrive.
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    These principles of design can be applied to almost anything, I believe.
Adrienne Michetti

OLPC Human Interface Guidelines/Design Fundamentals/Key Design Principles - OLPC - 0 views

  • n which provides a low floor to the inexperienced, but doesn't impose a ceiling upon those who are.
  • tailored to the needs of children in the context of their learning
  • n activity ring that contains icons representing each instance of an open activity
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • limitations
  • mphasis on discoverability and usability
  • the actual behavior of the activities, the layout of the buttons and tools, and the feedback that the interface provides to the children when they interact with it
  • there is no substitute for user testing
  • imple doesn't necessarily mean limited
  • simple—even minimal—controls can have great expressive power.
  • a "fail-soft" approach to their designs
  • five categories of "bad things" software can do: damaging the laptop; compromising privacy; damaging the children's data; doing bad things to other people; and impersonating the child.
  • without the use of menus, pop-up boxes, passwords, etc., as these approaches are meaningless to most people.
  • no noticeable side-effects
  • When children know they have a fallback plan—a way back to the current state of things—they will much more frequently go beyond their comfortable boundaries and experiment with new tools and new creative means of expression
  • the ability to undo one's actions.
  • Interoperability
  • Towards this end, a view source key has been added to the laptop keyboards, providing them with instant access to the code that enables the activities that they use from day to day. This key will allow those interested to peel away layers of abstraction, digging deeper into the codebase as they learn.
  • (without a mouse or trackpad)
Vicki Davis

ID Webcomic #1 - Working with SMEs on Content « The Usable Learning Blog - 0 views

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    Great cartoon about how we make mistakes with designing instruction - and it is all in one cartoon. Beautiful!
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