A defense of play as an essential part of learning for young children -- probably in response to the ever-increasing pressure for "academic" work at earlier and earlier ages. The authors give suggestions for how teachers can help kids play in the most fruitful way possible -- how to stay out of their way, how to guide just enough and not too much. They recommend "supporting mature play" to facilitate language acquisition, literacy development and enhancement of social skills.
Affective Aspects -- Sharp, Rogers, Preece
A basic introduction to the topic of emotional responses to educational technology and how they vary according to different design choices. Reading the piece was nostalgic because it brought back memories of the old smiling and sad Apple icons and that annoying "Clippy" --which I remember but never knew by name. It's interesting how fast innovations in technology become ridiculously out of date. The article shows how every tiny detail-- including things as simple as the type of error message used-- contributes to the overall experience, making it a positive or negative one, and how eliciting positive emotions enhances learning. The authors describe interesting experiments such as the pairing of stuffed animals with cell phones in an effort to make phone interruptions less annoying.
Designing for Interaction --Saffer -- Chapters 5 &6
A simple and very clear introduction to working with/organizing data and various aspects of interaction design. Saffer recommends ways to gather, group, sort and categorize data. He says there are four major ways to analyze data: analysis, summation, extrapolation, and abstraction. He also shows different types of conceptual models that can help designers think about a project and make their ideas visible. Some of these are linear flow, circular flow, spider diagram, sets, Venn diagrams and maps. He describes another type of conceptual model, a persona, used to bring to life different types of potential users of the software or website, which helps designers explore and understand behavior and motivations of users-- a process that will strengthen the design solutions.
Chapter 6 offers methods of concept development including brainstorming, which Saffer presents in many different formats and flavors. Some of these include brainwriting (words or images used as jumping off points), "break the rules," "force fit," which juxtaposes opposite ideas to spark new thoughts, poetry, questioning, laddering up to more abstract ideas or down to more concrete ones, swiping (borrowing from another field or domain), and "bizarro world," wherein you try to design for the opposite result you really want, just to see where it will take you. These techniques are interesting and take the process of brainstorming further than the usual procedure of simply throwing out ideas, writing them down, and seeing what results from the ensuing creative conflict/conversation. Saffer is full of great advice about how to direct your thinking and analyze your ideas and solutions.
No comments:
Post a Comment