21st Century Learners Are:
21st Century Learners Are:
(Mcleay,2007)
The goals of this web site were simple, “provide my audience: my instructors Dr. D. Michele Jacobsen , Lynn Moorman, classmates, and relatives with an easy to use, interactive, and engaging site where learning will take place. and provide, “a pleasant reflective memory….” (Norman, 2005, p. 88) for every person who drops in. To give users a site that engages and entices them on the visceral, the behavioral, and the reflective levels. I will now reflect upon and discuss the design decisions I have made in publishing my web-based portfolio; and analyze how I can better achieve my mission by drawing upon the literature used in the course and found on the web.
I began my site by engaging the user on the Visceral Level and the Reflective level with a quote as my banner. The quote describes 21st Century Learners, yet I felt it failed to act as a, “Tag line to increase user’s understanding of the site.” (U.S Department of Health and Human Services & U.S. General Services Administration, 2006, Chapter 5, p.4) ; A place where 21st Century Learners like themselves, “Explores new roles, ideas and strategies. One who approaches unfamiliar situations and uncertainty with courage and forethought.”(Mcleay, 2007) I wanted to make this perfectly clear, so I designed and posted the following tag on my home page:
The Visceral appeal of my home page was essential, I kept, ”the majority of the homepage visible ’above the fold,’ and should contain a limited amount of prose text. Designers should provide easy access to the homepage from every page in the site.” (rbgw,p.1) I Changed my Home page from assorted colours; to distinguish from different questions, to plain black and white text, thus making it easier to read and less tacky! I made this change on the advice of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as they state, ” Prepare information with the expectation that it will either be read on-line or printed. (p.11) With this information in mind, I decided to keep my fonts at a heading of 3 or 4, so readers could read it, as the paragraph font is too small. This is justified again by the U.S. Department, ” Use familiar fonts that are at least 12-points; Use black text on plain, high-contrast backgrounds.” ( U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, & U.S. General Services Administration, 2006, Chapter 11, p.1)
To ensure my sight appealed on the behavioral level, I utilized the, “four components of good behavioural design; function, understandability, usability, and physical feel.” (Norman, 2004, p.70) First, I checked the function of the links, and videos. To improve understandability, I added a Tech Terms (dictionary) page for users who are unfamiliar with some of the technological language. If the user wanted more information on a site or a book, I created a Bibliographypage for their reference, this page also documents all the sources used on this weblog for copyright purposes.
I performed 2 iterative tests on the usability of my Web Portfolio as, ” The iterative design process helps to substantially improve the usability of web sites.” (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, & U.S. General Services Administration, 2006, Chapter 18, p. 2). I asked 5 adults of various backgrounds to view my web site as, “The best results come from testing no more than 5 users and running as many small tests as you can afford.” (Neilsen, 2000) and provide me with their opinions. They suggested: the bibliography and a Tech Terminology page . They also suggested, I delete the Team Design Log, Teck Savvy Sites, and My Blogs as there was nothing to very little posted on them. One tester stated, ” Why do you have a whole page for Tech Savvy Sites with only one site on it ?” It’s disappointing! I removed the page and placed a variety of Technical and other interesting web sites through out my critiques. They all complained about the length of time to upload or open some of the critiques. To reduce the time, I removed pictures and text. They also told me when the pictures failed to show up or when the text went off the page. It’s nice to have these extra eyes out there-watching and helping me improve on the behavioral level of design.
On the reflective level, I provided my users with my opinions and my understanding of the readings in Creative Critiques. These Blogs had a secondary theme of how Technology has changed how we do things. My hope was to engage the user into reflecting on how Technology has changed the way we percieve, interact and feel about everyday things. As Norman states, “Love it, hate it, or indifferent to it. Our interaction with our everyday things reflects the three levels of design in very different ways.” (Norman, 2004, p.214) and “If you want a Golden rule that will fit everybody, this is it: Have nothing in your homes (weblogs) that you do not know to be useful, or brlieve to be beautiful.” (Norman, 2004, p. 3 & 227)
