Reading Response #4

The Use of Animation
Why is animation a useful tool?
The appropriate use of animation is a powerful tool for the classroom teacher. Typically, classroom teachers don't have the time to create their own animations, due to inadequate professional development time or skill sets necessary to learn animation-authoring tools. There are several basic options for teachers to use, typically they are Web 2.0 applications that allow for quick and easy animations to be created within a matter of minutes (for example, Go!Animate or xtranormal). Animation can allow teachers to emphasize certain key points or understandings in the curriculum and illustrate them clearly for their students. Personally, I don't make my own animations, very few teachers do, due to lack of time. However, it's easy to find great examples on the Internet. For example, in my Social Studies 30-1 class I show students the following video on the American electoral college system for electing a president. I'll probably also show my Social 10-1 students videos from The Story of Stuff project, like the one below.


Depending on your subject area, there are usually lots of animated online movies that could be used to help students understand key concepts. A simple Google search for "chemistry animations" yielded over 800,000 results, with the following looking very promising: chemistry Flash animations.

The Use of Animation on Prezi

Project Proposal and Storyboard

Here is the link to our Prezi that outlines our project proposal and storyboard:

Spry Werx's LaunchPad on Prezi

SpryWerx's LaunchPad Project Proposal and Storyboard

Reading Response #3

For this week's reading response I'll be looking at Chapter 14 in RBWD&U entitled "Graphics, Images and Multimedia". As the website's PDF points out "when used appropriately, graphics can facilitate learning". With our LaunchPad product we will definitely need to be aware of the rules and guidelines suggested by the Usability website. In Chapter 14 they state that the use of graphics, images and multimedia must follow the rules below:

• use simple background images
• label clickable images (the American Memory website that is used as an example is presented first without labels for the pictures and in the second picture there are descriptive labels to go along with the images. This applies to our product since when we did our user testing we found that people didn't necessarily understand the intent of the icons in our navigation system)
• ensure that images do not slow downloads
• use video, animation and audio meaningfully (in other words, use video, animation, and audio only when they help to convey, or are supportive of, the website’s message or other content. Any use of video, animation and audio should have a strong intended purpose, and not be used if it's going to be distracting for users)
• include logos
• graphics should not look like banner ads (this shouldn't be a problem for our product, as it is ad-free and optimized for smartphones, not a website with annoying ads in place)
• limit large images above the fold (large graphics that dominate the front page may lead readers to think that there is no text below the graphic)
• ensure website images convey intended messages (once again, this is applicable to our project, as we have to make sure that the images that we use are appropriate and have the intended message. This connects to our usability testing of our icon navigation system once again as we thought that the icons were easy to understand, but they weren't by our users)
• limit the use of images
• include actual data with data graphics
• display monitoring information graphically
• introduce animation (this is applicable to our project because we will be using animation as part of the LaunchPad. We need to make sure that we have introductory information for any animations that appear in our product)
• emulate real-world objects
• use thumbnail images to preview larger images (this is a good idea to do when you have large image files on your website and want it load faster. Most people have high-speed Internet access today in North America, but it is still something to consider)
• use images to facilitate learning (in other words, use images whenever possible to replace text)
• using photographs of people (in some cases it might be beneficial to have photos of people on a website. Given our focus of our project, this may not be necessary)

I also really appreciate the link to the LIFE magazine Google images link in this week's links. It might be useful to finding images for my teaching practice. I really like the Boston Globe's feature called "The Big Picture" which covers current events from around the world with amazing photojournalism.

Reading Response #2

Over the course of the Winter 2011 semester, we will be reading Donald Norman's The Design of Future Things. Here are some of my thoughts on the first chapter of the book entitled "Cautious Cars and Cantankerous Kitchens: How Machines Take Control." A few of Norman's assertions jumped out at me when I read Chapter 1, especially when he states that "we're giving objects around us more initiative, more intelligence, and more emotion and personality" (p.2), which I think is true. We also humanize the objects around us in our daily lives too. I do agree with Norman when he states that "so-called intelligent systems have become too smug. They think they know what is best for us." (p.9) He goes on to discuss how navigation systems for cars tend to pick the routes that are the shortest distance between point A and point B, and sometimes it doesn't account for local traffic conditions (on-going construction here in Calgary) or even the desires of the driver who may want to take the scenic route. There are other "so-called intelligent systems" that around us everyday like DVRs (digital video recorders) or PVRs (personal video recorders) that have the capability to learn the type of TV programs and movies that you like to watch and take it upon itself to record it for you. My Shaw TV Motorola PVR doesn't do this but TIVO does. Which could lead to situations such as the one below.

(I was actually looking for a clip from the TV show King of Queens where Patton Oswalt utters the almost identical line, but this TV show does a nice job of illustrating the point)

As Norman puts it, "the conflict between human and machine actions is fundamental because machines, whatever their capabilities simply do not know enough about the environment, the goals and motives of the people, and the special circumstances that invariably surround any set of activities." (p.15) Who knows why the character chose to record "Will and Grace" and the Ellen Degeneres Show, but by making those selections TIVO made some assumptions about its owner.
There are other recommendation systems out there that do a better job, probably because they have access to more data. These recommendation systems can analyze past selections of the user, search for similarities to other items in their databases, examine the likes and dislikes of other people whose interests appear similar to yours (p.20-21). You can see examples of this when you do some online shopping at Amazon or Chapters-Indigo or even when you have Genius recommendations turned on in your iTunes account. Sometimes these recommendations are really good with iTunes. For example, I downloaded Vampire Weekend's entire first album from the iTunes store (it's great, you should check it out), and the Genius recommendation was for me to check our Ra-Ra-Riot, which introduced me to another really cool band that maybe shares some musical similarities to Vampire Weekend, but they are not clones of one another.

Another tidbit in the first chapter that jumped out at me was the part about the future of advertising and how it may mimic the style that it is in the movie Minority Report. There is pervasive advertising around us all the time and the message of what they want us to buy is there but it's not as intrusive as it is depicted here in the movie.


I thought that I would also take a quick look at "Page Layout" from the RBWD&U website, since I thought that it might pertain to our project more than some of the other links for this week's readings. From this reading I've pulled out a few of the important usability rules:

• avoid cluttered displays (this connects to one of the later rules with the use of white space)
• place important items consistently (navigation menu in the same place on every single page)
• place important items at top center
• structure for easy comparison (comparing payment programs)
• establish level of importance (hierarchy in the design)
• optimize display density
• align items on a page
• use fluid layouts (to accommodate people that have their monitor displays set at 1024 x 768 pixels or higher; for our project, we'll have to have our icons optimized for a smartphone display)
• avoid scroll stoppers
• set appropriate page lengths (don't have users scroll through pages of information)
• use moderate white space
• choose appropriate line lengths
• use frames when functions must remain accessible

Reading Response # 1

I wrote what I thought was going to be my first reading response for the Winter 2011 semester, and then I looked at the course outline and found out that, in fact, I was supposed to start at the back of Donald Norman's book The Design of Future Things. In the "Summary of the Design Rules" Norman states the following design rules:

Design Rules for Human Designers of "Smart" Machines 
1. Provide rich, complex, and natural signals.
2. Be predictable.
3. Provide good conceptual models.
4. Make output understandable.
5. Provide continual awareness without annoyance.
6. Exploit natural mappings.

Design Rules Developed by Machines to Improve Their Interactions with People
1. Keep things simple.
2. Give people a conceptual model.
3. Give reasons.
4. Make people think they are in control.
5. Continually reassure.
6. Never label human behavior as "error". (Rule added by the human interviewer.)

From a design standpoint, as designers of a product that we wish people (and textbook companies) to use someday, we have to cognizant of the design rules that Norman has laid out for us here. We need to provide rich, complex and natural signals (which Norman details in Chapter 3 when he discusses the sound of a kettle whistling) in our product. We also have to not assume to much of our target audience that they will intuitively "get it" and there doesn't need to be as much explanation as to how our product will work.