Is This Broken or Is This Design Broken?

   Seth Godin at Gel 2006 from Gel Conference on Vimeo.

The title of the above presentation was actually, This Is Broken, and according to the explanatory text asks, " Why are so many things broken?" and then, "Seth Godin gives a tour of things poorly designed, the 7 reasons why they are that way, and how to fix them." 

This is a very amusing look around our shared environment with the focus on whether  innovations within it help or hinder our day to day lives. 

Essentially, Seth Godin is highlighting some of the aspects and concerns of Interaction Design, defined by Preece, Rogers, and Sharp as "designing interactive products to support the way people communicate and interact in their everyday and working lives." (Preface)

This means that objects or technologies that have been designed for use in some fashion in our world should have decent functionality for the human user and, as Vicente states, "should focus on the physical and the non-physical aspects of the system." (p.24) For Vicente, results can be, and sometimes are, catastrophic:

"More and more, we're being asked to live with technology that is technically reliable, because it was created to fit our knowledge of the physical world., but that is so complex or so counterintuitive that it's actually unusable by most human beings." (p.17)

As I watched the above movie clip, I was often reminded of the usability goals as outlined in the Preece, Rogers, and Sharp text. 

For instance, several of the sign examples were obviously not effective, as they confused vital information with spurious information so that the reader could not see the essential text. 

The airport information sign was not efficient in providing speedy and important information to the traveler

The cup holder design for the car suggests several safety and utility issues!

The video thus provides some simple examples of what Vicente says are "unrealistic assumptions about human beings, creating a bad fit between people and technology." (p.44)

Listen to Kim Vicente discussing, The Human Factor

Hence my blog title for this posting points to the design process as broken as opposed to the item itself !

Is This Broken or Is This Design Broken? You tell me!

Usability! Usability! Usability!

{This Wordle or word cloud was created from the text at Usability 101 by Jakob Nielsen }

The word cloud above serves to remind that usability of any innovation is paramount: words that occur frequently in a text, and imply importance, are seen clearly!  Interestingly, the word design jumps out at you with words connected to the user bearing down! 

Significant I think! 

It affirms the words by Robert Wright that Vicente includes in the opening pages of, The Human Factor:

"Your brain may give birth to any technology, but other brains will decide whether the technology thrives. The number of possible technologies is infinite, and only a few pass this test of affinity with human nature."

Line Up by Logan Brumm

 I was reminded of this concept recently on a visit to the Chinook Movie Theaters, here in Calgary. My family rarely go out to see movies these days due to in-home convenience, but this was a special occasion and we looked forward to dining out and seeing a new release!

And then we experienced the automatic ticket vending machines which are placed almost immediately at the top of the escalators. I'm sure on a non-new-release-night this necessary process and technology runs very smoothly. 

However, this wasn't one of those nights!

There seemed to be hundreds of bodies milling around, trying to attach themselves to a ticket queue, but more people kept plopping  from the top of the escalator and immediately affixing themselves to the ever growing lineup, which was gradually working its clumsy way DOWN the escalator! I think the egg in this picture expresses our dilemma very well!. We were all in jeopardy! Needless to say, the ticket machines also seemed to think this and several immediately protested at the hustle, bustle, and non-to-pleasant comments...they too became overloaded and quit! The machines kindly suggested we line up to use a different machine! Hardly conducive to a pleasant and worry free experience!

Essentially, the designers and creators of this environment and its technological gadgetry had not, it seems, fully considered the human factor. For example, much observation of people in the natural setting may have led to  possible experiences of varying traffic pattern fluctuations. This knowledge could then have been applied, say, to the placement of items. As well, product mock-ups that could demonstrate what happens when more people than expected try to use the technology would have allowed for iterative design of the ticket machine technology.

What did we do?
We went home and played board games...much more accessible!

Usability? Usability? Usability?You bet!

Under Digital Pressure

{Click on the link to go to this map at MindMeister.

 Choose an item to explore on the web.  

 Add your own digital ideas too!} 

Visualization of Participatory Digital World

After all of the reflection on my teaching practise and experience, I sum up my current predicament as experiencing digital pressure: my previous ideas had hardly identified a focus on using instructional design to incorporate technological ideas, objects or processes. Thankfully, I was drawn to, and accepted into, a collaborative group that immediately identified various technological innovations that we could design and use to prepare children, situated on the autistic disorder spectrum, to better cope with stressful social and emotional situations. An inspiring and positive outlook! This actually closely resembled my poorly articulated first thoughts around demystifying certain situations for English Language Learners. 

However, having found a somewhat like-minded group does not in itself alleviate the digital pressure: I and we are inundated with new and evolving technologies - daily it seems! The never ending quest to catch up, be current, be hip, close the digital divide, multi-task, multi-think, and become multi-competent in multi-digital contexts, is exhausting and exhilarating at the same time! The image above is an attempt to visualize and realize the participatory digital world that Dr. Jacobsen describes in, Teaching in a Participatory Digital World. Please visit the map and add your own digital connections! 

Dr. Jacobsen rightly states that, 

"Teachers... are now expected to embrace online participatory learning technologies in support of active, passion-based learning by students who live and work in a digital world." 

"Expected" is a well chosen word: for teachers, this implies a huge investment of extra time, resources, and often personal expense, and yet there is an assumption that by saying it will be...it will be! I agree that teachers, myself included, need more effective, timely, and realistic support in order to affect practice: indeed, my very presence in this graduate program is an attempt to improve my understanding, skills, and approach to this collaborative and digital teaching and learning landscape. Given that many  of these contexts remain ill equipped with hardware and/or access to adequate technologies, I am encouraged that the learning design and process remains paramount as, "active participation in knowledge construction allows for deeper conceptual understanding of disciplinary concepts and increased motivation for learning." (Dr.Jacobsen)

I liken the emphasis on peer collaboration, inquiry, problem solving, designing of meaningful and great tasks, and individual and peer evaluation, to the current reality in the world of work. My husband is experiencing a shift in how project planning is carried out in the software development environment: "Agile" planning requires attending to emergent needs, a focus on timely, specific tasks, constant review, revision, and continual contact with the user. In fact, I was surprised to find this development process explained in the text, Interaction Design, by Sharp, Rogers, and Preece. I had never heard of it before my husband's recent involvement with it. 

And so, to rise from under digital pressure, my newly formed team will be "Agile" and meet in a "Scrum" to review what we have already done, define what we will do today, and uncover any blockers to our "Sprint" project goals. 

By the way... I just added to our group wiki! 

I'm scrambling my way out from under, "Digital Pressure!"

On Second Thoughts!

 {Click link and type in 'perspectives.' TagGalaxy will load images. Click on Sun and watch!}

Perspectives in TagGalaxy 

Then again... I read and re-read Dr. Michele Jacobsen's article, Teaching in a Participatory Digital World and examined several of the project ideas suggested in the course outline for EDER 679.27.  Reflection on my teaching experiences in designing and actualizing Multiple Literacies projects inspired a different problem proposal:

• How could I design a collaborative learning/inquiry experience for, say, Grades 5/6, in which multiple literacies/perspectives are encompassed, choice of learning path is provided, and motivating and varied technologies are used as appropriate to a variety of tasks?
• How will I motivate students to be engaged and absorbed in their learning?
• How might I design a student centered project, that provides for the uncovering of certain curriculum and/or skills and/or attitudes which also respects student diversity and individual emotional/social/physical/learning needs?
• How might such a project allow for ongoing assessment and evaluation by each student, peer group, and teacher?
• How could I provide for different end points and encompass choice in final presentations/projects that would allow for feelings and expressions of accomplishment? Would sharing with the rest of the school/world be appropriate or a choice students make?
• What type of teaching and learning environment would support success for all? Blended?
• How might this project encourage the use of appropriate and inspiring digital tools for each stage of defined tasks?

This initial proposal should involve several subject discipline areas with explorations of real world experiences and/or applications. The major goal is to promote and understand multiple ways of looking, thinking, learning, and sharing about our world.

Is this progress?
Will others be interested in this proposal?
Or is this just Second Thoughts?

First Impressions

by Adam Foster 

On Sept. 13th 2010 I attended my first class, “User-Centered Design,” and so began my Graduate Diploma program in Educational Technology. 

I felt quite overwhelmed and extremely apprehensive: I don't have adequate capabilities for the class! Although I have been a teacher for most of my adult life, my inner voice convinced me that the other students in this class possessed much more technical, business, and educational experience than I. 

At the initial request to brainstorm for a “problem to be solved,” I felt that the world was suddenly way too big; I couldn’t define or imagine any parameters! What assumptions did I need to make? What context was I to work in? I was filled with panic. I couldn’t imagine an amazing project on the spot like this! I thought that I needed to propose something totally “out there,” “unique,” and “earth-shattering!” Oh! What to do? 

I shook my head to clear the gathering fog and looked back on what experiences I could bring to this new challenge in my professional life. 

During my twenty-five years within education I have managed diverse roles and responsibilities. Each context has provided me with a range of successes, challenges and opportunities, which led, in turn, to new explorations and experiences. I should view this current adventure as a continuation of the same. Hmm! 

Although not a classroom teacher per-se, my most recent teaching experience has clearly presented challenges-a growing student population with very diverse needs. In particular, meeting the social, emotional, and learning needs of students whose first (and sometimes second) language is not English has been difficult. Students of many different cultural and ethnic backgrounds, together with varying levels of exposure to the English language, are challenged daily to comprehend and/or share with others. 

Here was my problem! “How could I improve explanation, communication and understanding for my E.L.L. (English Language Learners) within a variety of teaching and learning situations?” For example, could I provide some sort of teaching tutorial that explains, demonstrates, and provides authentic opportunities and adequate time for the learner to demonstrate understanding and then use what they have learned to participate as part of a class activity? Maybe... how to gather and display data? How to organize for a simple inquiry project? How to access and use the library? Or...? Would this fit with, a “problem to be solved?” 

The Design class shared the most amazing ideas, truly global in scope, and the products of fabulous imaginations! Again, I was filled with doubt and trepidation. I tried to look to the positive: two members of the class shared ideas around challenges faced by autistic children in schools… I could see how my language learners might have similar challenges. Perhaps we could form a group! 

Is this progress?

Is this just First Impressions?