for the source file. Please note that I am using Macromedia Flash Professional 8 for production.
This is a floor map to show location of the book and periodical collection. It is for communication and learning as well, because it transfers the information to the receivers. Visuals with interaction increased the remember ability of the receiver (Dale,1969), so that they learn and practice where to find they want through this product.
Two levels of information expressed here:
- When clicking location name, floors showed. Users can learn the broad information, such as user should go to LG1 and LG4 directly without searching library catalog to do rough browsing of periodical.
- When clicking specific call number prefix range after location name, the red circle located the exact location of the floor to guide user to locate specific item.
I prefer keeping it simple, instead of adding more functions and contents to the product. Simple is better for communication. Visuals can communicate complex ideas and convey the most knowledge in the shortest time in the small space (Tufte,1983). If complicated ideas and contents placed in one screen, the information transferred are expanded exponentially, and how the audience can totally receive the information.
Moreover, layout and design of simple object can be reused to express a series of knowledge. This time I design for the floor map guide, next time, I can make use of the same layout and design for the service point location or office contact location. Audiences are only necessary to familiar with one similar layout and design. Besides, reuse is a common concept in the internet era. We always make use of cascade style sheet (.css) to standardize the layout of different pages in the web site for web design.
There are two concepts from the web interface usability design I made use here for the planning:
- Three-click rule: guide to design interface to make possible for anyone to find anything on the site with just three clicks. Because the effective Web page design must be easy to use and navigate to encourage the user to return. A successful site should follow this rule, allowing its visitors to find what they are looking for within these three clicks from the homepage. (Hughes, 2003)
- Human factors (Whitten, 2004): consider the following to avoid confusion for users using the learning object:
- show next set of buttons after selecting the first pair of button, to let users to aware of what to do next.
- avoid users to make mistake, only buttons are provided to operate the learning instead of inputting variable.
To make use of the above concepts because the learning object is accessed on the web, the web surfing behavior must be considered for effective communication with target audience. Besides, avoiding user frustrations make users to keep using the object, so that the information can be efficiency communicated. Nice picture may attract user to use, but frustration let users to reluctant and reject to use the object and information is no way to communicate with the users.
General Reference:
- Hughes, Arthur Middleton. 2003 The Customer Loyalty Solution : What Works and What Doesn't in Customer Loyalty Programs. McGraw-Hill Professional.
- Modified Eager Dale’s Cone of Experience from Dale, E. (1969) Audio-Visual Methods in Teaching, 3rd ed, Holt Rinehart, Winston.
- Whitten, J.L., Bentley, L.D. and Dittman, K.C. 2004. Systems Analysis and Design Methods, 6th edition, Irwin/McGraw Hill.
- Tufte, Edward R. 1983. The visual display of quantitative information. Graphics Press.
