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What Research Tells us About Designing Online Content. Judith Norton Chief Instructional Architect B.E.S.T. Coffee Program El Camino College MERLOT International Conference Nashville, TN July 2005. Usability. Capability to be used by everyone including… interface,
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What Research Tells us About Designing Online Content Judith Norton Chief Instructional Architect B.E.S.T. Coffee Program El Camino College MERLOT International Conference Nashville, TN July 2005
Usability Capability to be used by everyone including… interface, navigation, content, accessibility and compatibility issues Red Net Networking and Internet Glossary
Usability Generic term ~ refers to design features that enable something to be user-friendly. Congress Online Project Glossary
Usability Designed to be user friendly.If not designed well ~ problems with navigation, difficult for disabled, or unclear instructions. Net Mechanic Glossary
Eyetracking Study ~ Estlow Center, University of Denver, Poynter Institute, Eyetools News and commercial websites. Eye tracking equipment ~ see patterns used when viewing website
Eye Headgear used in study Eyetrack headgear used by participants in study. Photo from Eyetrack.
How do people read online? Faster? Slower?
Read word or group of words .025 seconds Progress to another group 0.1 second How many words a minute? 300
25% Slower Difference between reading screen media vs. print media.
For Students Reading.. Content should flow well. It should be interesting. Pertinent to their success. Remember ~ reading slower online.
Want them to Read the page? Use a smaller font Source: Why Web Users Scan Instead of Read
Fonts Least preferred? Times Easiest to read? Verdana Georgia Arial Most preferred? Verdana
Headings and Sub-headings Headings & Sub-headings Notice consistency Less than a second is spent on heading
Eye Movements Source: Eyetools
Eye Priority Zones Source: Eyetools
For your students…. Good Headings and sub-headings Be consistent Same placement Same color Same font for like things Provide…
Shorter paragraphs work best Study found that participants spent twice as much time with shorter paragraphs as material in longer paragraphs. Chunk material 5 – 9 lines long Use 50% fewer words than print media Source: Chunking Principle
Using photos to enhance your topic … at photos Participants first look at Textual content, then… Use alt tags to describe non-textual information Photo taken from Los Angeles Times Exact oppositeof studies conducted on print media Source: Accessibility humanized: A user-centered approach to web accessibility
Image size The larger the image, the longer viewers engaged in page Viewers more engaged when image is at least 210 x 230 pixels
Some students…. …have lower bandwidth
95% of time… …Participants read all or part of the story that started with bold text. First few words on a page are critical for engaging the reader. Placing all content in bold is not appropriate.
Text? or Multimedia? Participants recall information better, if… Multimedia~ New information Conceptual in nature Text ~ to remember: Facts Names Places Give learner’s a choice
Process? Procedure? Animation to comprehended information better http://pdc.cvc.edu/resourcecenter/RC.htm Sometimes… Good, descriptive Writing is best Other times… Better with graphics. Source: Eyetools
Use Captivate or Camtasia sequential steps to complete a problem… audio is not necessary Orientation… Audio recommended
Allows for userinteraction throughexploration User Driven Medium Source: Information Foraging: Why Google Makes People Leave Your Site Faster
Source: Forrester report, Online Training Needs a New Course, August 2000 Learner Retention for following types of knowledge involvement 10% 20% 25% 70% 80%
Remember… Use of bold Headings & Sub-headings Font size & style Use of leading paragraphs Multimedia where appropriate Consistency Provide options for exploration Paragraph length Image size
Resources Chunking principle, http://www.chambers.com.au/glossary/chunk.htm Information Foraging: Why Google Makes People Leave Your Site Faster http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20030630.html Penn State, Fonts for the Web, http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/research/fonts.shtml The Best of Eyetrack III: What We Saw When We Looked Through Their Eyes, http://www.poynterextra.org/eyetrack2004/about.htm Usability…Considerations for Designing Online Courseshttp://pdc.cvc.edu/common/article.asp?entry=1&idx=2976 Why Users Scan Instead of Read, http://www.useit.com/alertbox/whyscanning.html
For further information, contact Judith Norton judithnorton@mindspring.com Cell: 714.726.3834