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Research
Learning is not instinctive
Occasionally around about half-term of the first A level term I have heard comments to the effect that "X has not yet sufficiently mastered the techniques of A level study". If I then asked X about the advice that had been offered concerning study technique, as often as not there had been none. Plenty of criticism, perhaps, of the work so far, but usually regarding its content without much concern as to how it had been acquired. The very few who say this have forgotten that the development of solid understanding is not an instinctive process; knowledge does not fall into your head without any effort. Everyone who teaches you has at some time had to go through the process of learning; there is no short-cut.
This page offers a guide as to what you might do. It does not, by any means, cover all that could be said. There are numerous books available to help you, but the core of what you should do is here.
Knowing something…..
is not the same as knowing the name of something. To know something takes time, real physical effort, and a period of assimilation and reflection. To know something you must develop a whole host of techniques; even if you have coped easily so far there will come a stage where the rate at which you are required to obtain knowledge and understanding will tax any informal techniques that you have to their limit. And, perhaps, beyond – to the point where you start to give up or to lose interest.
Design
Function (User-Interface)
Perceptual
Legible display: Make the characters and objects in the display describable.
Avoided absolute judgment limits: avoiding variable options.
Top-down processing: choosing the icons and signals according to what is expected based on the user’s past.
Redundancy gain: present the signals and icons in alternative physical forms (e.g. color and shape).
Avoid similarities: Unnecessary similar features should be removed and dissimilar features should be highlighted.
Mental
Pictorial realism: A display should look like the variable that it represents
Principle of the moving part: Moving elements should move in a pattern and direction compatible with the user’s mental model of how it actually moves in the system.
Attention
Minimizing information access cost: When the user’s attention is diverted from one location to another to access necessary information, there is an associated cost in time or
effort. A display design should minimize this cost by allowing for frequently accessed sources to be located at the nearest possible position.
Proximity compatibility: Divided attention between two information sources may be necessary for the completion of one task. These sources must be mentally integrated and are defined to have close mental proximity. Information access costs should be low, which can be achieved in many ways (e.g. close proximity, linkage by common colors, patterns, shapes, etc.).
Multiple resources: A user can more easily process information across different resources. For example, visual and auditory information can be presented simultaneously rather than presenting all visual or all auditory information.
Memory
Replace memory with visual information: A user should not need to retain important information solely in working memory or to retrieve it from long-term memory. A menu, checklist, or another display can aid the user by easing the use of their memory.
Predictive aiding: Proactive actions are usually more effective than reactive actions. A display should attempt to eliminate resource-demanding cognitive tasks and replace them with simpler perceptual tasks to reduce the use of the user’s mental resources. This will allow the user to not only focus on current conditions, but also think about possible future conditions.
Consistency: Old habits from other displays will easily transfer to support processing of new displays if they are designed in a consistent manner. A user’s long-term memory will trigger actions that are expected to be appropriate. A design must accept this fact and utilize consistency among different displays.
User-Experience
Difference: By saving the process of learning customized according to the user’s learning methods, the user can now go back and review their own learning process whenever and wherever they want.
Participation: By using the participation options, users will not feel different and not of the picture.
Perception: With this software users will have a simplified way of understanding and over viewing the class.
Accessibility: Users can carry all their notes and they’re saved classroom everywhere, instead of carrying a binder for each class.
User friendly: the interactive system should be fully functional and bug free, so it would not disappoint the user.
Aesthetics
Interface aesthetics
Color: By considering the Proximity compatibility and Minimizing information access cost, the color palette for this software is going to be in a monotone black-and-white range. Icons and signal: The way that the icons are going to be placed on the screen, is going to be consistence and similar to other softwares, also the icons should be designed universally. User’s long-term memory will trigger actions that are expected to be appropriate.
Visual language: All of the components in the screen should resemble and signify a normal desk.
Interactivity: Things should move around and act like they are real objects on the table, and therefore by eliminating options and replacing them by gestures, the user will have a much easier way to interact with the interface.