Searching for "usability"

User Research and Usability (UX) Lab

Positioning UX as a Library Service

University of Toronto Libraries opened a User Research and Usability (UX) Lab in September 2017, the first space of its kind on campus. The UX Lab is open to students, staff, and faculty by appointment or during weekly drop in hours.

In this 90-minute webinar, our presenter will discuss:

  • The rationale behind building a physical usability lab and why a physical space isn’t always needed (or recommended)
  • Experience with community building efforts
  • How to raise awareness of UX as a service to staff and the University community at large
  • The evolution of the lab’s services
  • Next steps

Presenter: Lisa Gayhart, User Experience Librarian, University of Toronto Libraries
Thursday November 15, 2018, 1:00 – 2:30 pm Central Time

View details and Register here

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more on usability in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=usability

World Usability Day

World Usability Day

World Usability Day (WUD) or Make Things Easier Day[1] occurs annually to promote the values of usability, usability engineering, user-centered design, universal usability, and every user’s responsibility to ask for things that work better.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Usability_Day

http://usability.msu.edu/events/conferences/world-usability-day-2015

http://worldusabilityday.org/

http://worldusabilityday.org/events/2015/uxpa-mn-world-usability-day-event

Academic libraries opinion

https://medium.com/@allisonjaiodell/why-i-left-academic-libraries-26e2a63c8bf2

Data Architecture: I was an active member of the RBMS Bibliographic Standards Committee, the ARLIS/NA Artists’ Books Thesaurus project, and an OCLC initiative on Web archiving metadata. I used to contribute to development of international schemas, controlled vocabularies, and content standards for free, as a service activity. Meanwhile, I could have earned $134,677 as a data architect.

Web Development: I developed applications and customized discovery layers to help library patrons find resources. I learned several markup and scripting languages in order to take on this extra work for the library, in the hot-hot pursuit of grant funding to list on my CV. I could have earned $88,285 as a front-end developer (the folks who use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to build the parts of a website that you see), or $101,021 as a back-end developer (the folks who work with APIs, and transfer data to/from databases).

Data Engineering: Libraries are constantly integrating data from publishers, digitization projects, legacy catalogs, union catalogs, and more. I became a whizz at data wrangling and transformation. I developed countless data pipelines and ETL processes to combine disparate data streams. I should have been earning $112,935 as a data engineer.

User Experience Research: To inform cataloging guidelines, and to better design catalogs and finding aids to meet user needs, I spent a lot of time in libraries researching information-seeking behaviors. I became intimately familiar with Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager. I ran focus groups, conducted usability tests, and led card-sorting exercises in order to gather insights on how to improve our discovery interfaces and their navigation. As a user experience researcher outside of libraries, I could have earned $140,985.

Fundraising: As a special collections professional, I was routinely asked to give tours and host events, with the goal of building relationships with donors. I cultivated skills in storytelling, and learned to quickly craft narratives about my projects’ efficacy and impact. As an academic and a gig worker, I helped develop numerous grant applications, and served as a principal investigator on several large-sum projects. Overall, I honed techniques that are crucial to fundraising and philanthropy. In the nonprofit sector, I could have earned between $98,765 as a development manager and $102,546 as a director of development.

Project Management: In libraries, I never had less than five major projects going at once. I oversaw several large-scale database and website migrations, making sure that each of my team members’ contributions were completed in sequence and on time, while I myself served as a project contributor. In the tech sector, I could have been working as a project manager — someone whose sole job is to hold others accountable to the development timeline — and earned $87,086.

higher ed predictors for 2022

14 Predictions for Higher Education in 2022

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2022/01/04/14-predictions-for-higher-education-in-2022.aspx

Forget Hyflex

our faculty will discover that effectively teaching in a hyflex environment without adequate support is extremely difficult and truly exhausting.

Adapt Hyflex — and Be Ready for Anything (security)

Move Beyond Zoom into the Metaverse

Reap the Rewards of 2 Years of Strategic Decision-Making

campus leaders who have intentionally put students at the center of organization and system design will reap a great reward.

Expect More Disruption and More Innovation

look for movement in the augmented and virtual reality space.

Online Ed Becomes the Norm

online education will become the norm rather than the step-sister of “traditional” education

Build Off the Threads that Are Here to Stay

Alternatives Will Continue Gaining Ground

The cultures within institutions may prevent these significant changes from occurring. If that occurs, alternatives will continue to build momentum.

Emphasize Choice and Support

Alumni will be looking for upskilling opportunities via microcredentials, to navigate growth and career change during the “Great Resignation.” Recent high school grads will expect a variety of online, hybrid and in-person courses to choose from, many bringing with them years of experience with virtual learning.

Students Need Faster Routes to Completion

Climate Change Ed Gets Embedded

Hybrid Learning Tech Will Step Up

many lecture theaters might come to look like professional TV studios, to meet growing quality and usability expectations. Also, technologies will likely be expected to make classrooms environments more “peer-learning friendly” and inclusive

Blockchain Will Gain Ed Pickup

The (Arizon State) university announced that in 2022 it would release Pocket, a digital wallet for students as a comprehensive learner record.

Technology Acceptance Model

Chandrasekera, T. (n.d.). Using Augmented Reality Prototypes in Design Education. Design and Technology Education an International Journal. Retrieved October 12, 2021, from https://www.academia.edu/28187340/Using_Augmented_Reality_Prototypes_in_Design_Education

Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is the most widely used theoretical framework that looks at technology acceptance and there have been different iterations of the basic model (Fig 3). The two main variables that TAM incorporates are Perceived usefulness and Perceived ease of  use (Davis ,1989). The Technology acceptance model was developed in order to identify the user’s intention and bias to use a particular technology based upon its qualities of usefulness and ease of use

The survey was based on the Technology Acceptance Model and contained questions that were modified but previously used in other questionnaires. Technology Acceptance questionnaires contain questions on Perceived Ease of Use (PEU) and Perceived Usability (PU) of the technology as well as the Intent to Use (IU) it later on. For the question “I think I would like to use Augmented Reality in my designs frequently” while 45% agreed or strongly agreed, 45% either disagreed or strongly disagreed.
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More on Technology Acceptance Model in this blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=Technology+acceptance+model

XR (VR, AR, MR) Instructor

https://recruit.apo.ucla.edu/JPF06841

POSITION DESCRIPTION

UCLA Extension seeks XR (augmented and virtual reality) professionals to teach in a new online certificate program housed within the UCLA Extension Center for Immersive Media. This recruitment is for online instructors for remote and asynchronous instruction, three hours per week, for ten-week quarters.

The center is focused on enterprise applications, workforce training in XR, narrative structures for XR storytelling, and (UX) User Experience in XR. This XR program is focused on training individuals to become XR content developers. The emphasis of this certificate is not on advanced coding or hardware development. Areas of recruitment include:

  1. XR Frameworks, an introduction to the XR business, user cases & goal/needs evaluation
  2. XR Tools I, an introduction to a modeling software such as Blender
  3. XR Tools II, prototyping tools with an emphasis on Unity
  4. XR Narratives, the use of non-linear narrative structures in XR development
  5. XR User Experience I, usability applications and studies bringing together previous class course work into VR and XR projects
  6. XR User Experience II, advanced XR experience studies and applications
  7. XR Product Pipeline & Project Management, Best practices including stages of production, critical paths, etc.
  8. XR Capstone Project, creation of final portfolio piece UCLA Extension is the open-access, self-supporting continuing education division of UCLA. The Department of the Arts offers a wide variety of certificate programs and courses, including post-baccalaureate credit-bearing (400-level), continuing education (CEU) credit, and non-credit bearing general interest courses. Course disciplines in the Visual Arts span subject areas such as Design Communication Arts, User Experience, Photography, Studio Arts and Art History. Our courses and certificate programs offer students the opportunity to learn from highly qualified practitioners who are passionate about teaching. Applications to teach are accepted throughout the year in order to fill immediate program needs and to increase the depth of the instructor pool, but interviews will only be scheduled with qualified applicants who can fill anticipated openings. XR Instructor Qualified applicants possessing current industry knowledge and experience in the following topic area(s) are encouraged to apply: AR, VR, MR, XR, User Experience Design, Gaming, Immersive Interface Design, XR Research, Software (Unity, Blender), XR Hardware. Classes are currently online only. Two formats are available: asynchronous, or live Zoom lectures. Each course is 11 weeks, enrollment limited to 20 students. Instructor Duties: • Develop or update course syllabus to meet campus approval requirements, in consultation with the UCLA Extension Program Director and Program Manager. • Use subject-matter expertise to impart knowledge to students and leverage additional resources appropriately to enhance the curriculum (i.e. make arrangements for guest speakers, etc.) • Design interactive and motivational classroom activities to fully engage participants and to reinforce student learning. • Update materials periodically, and regularly monitor course evaluations in order to make adjustments and improvements to the curriculum. • Respond to student questions and learning needs in a timely manner. • Communicate with Program Director and Program Staff in a timely manner. • Complete required administrative tasks in a timely manner including: completing all new hire paperwork, submitting updated quarterly syllabus, posting bio and photo on the UCLA Extension website, accepting quarterly contract, submitting required textbook orders, and communicating classroom needs to the appropriate people. • Participate in required orientations and instructor training programs. • Employ culturally competent teaching methodologies in the classroom inclusive of both domestic and international student populations. • Stay current regarding the professional body of knowledge in the field • Respond to student inquiries about final grades and consult with Program Director as needed. • Maintain a record of final grades for up to 13 months following the last class session. Qualifications: • Creation of XR products, with portfolio examples and specific role(s) in producing • 3-5 years industry experience • Commitment to the highest level of academic standards and integrity. • Current knowledge of and demonstrated proficiency in subject area. • Highly effective oral and written communication skills, including the ability to convey conceptual and complex ideas and information. • Outstanding interpersonal skills and high emotional intelligence. • Proficiency in or willingness to learn the use of instructional technology and online teaching tools. • College-level and/or continuing education teaching experience preferred. • Experience designing curriculum and measuring student performance preferred.

UCLA Extension is considered one of the top programs of its kind, offering to more than 35,000 students per year approximately 4,500 classes and non-degree certificate programs to meet the professional development, continuing education and personal enrichment needs of the full spectrum of nontraditional students as well as companies and organizations throughout and beyond the Los Angeles region.

Special Conditions of Employment
Instructors are hired on a quarterly contract basis.
Because Extension is a division of UCLA, all Extension degree-credit instructors and courses must be formally approved according to the regulations of the Academic Senate of the University of California. Eligibility to teach a course is contingent upon this formal academic approval. Once approved, teaching assignments are “by agreement.” The Instructor’s Contract outlines the deliverables for the course, the course schedule, and the compensation terms, subject to Extension policies and procedures. UCLA Extension makes no commitment to hire an instructor until it has sent and received a signed
Instructor Contract. Should the course section an instructor plans to teach be cancelled for any reason, the Instructor Contract, including rights to compensation for future section meetings, is voided.
In an effort to promote and maintain a healthy environment for our students, visitors and employees, UCLA is a smoke-free site. Smoking is prohibited within the boundaries of all UCLA owned, occupied, leased, and associated building and facilities. UCLA Extension is an Equal Opportunity Employer that values a diverse workforce.
To Apply:
Please follow the “apply now” link to submit the following:
Completed application form
Current CV
Link to portfolio or work samples if available
Cover letter”

QUALIFICATIONS

Basic qualifications (required at time of application)

Creation of XR products, with portfolio examples and specific role(s) in producing
3-5 years industry experience
Commitment to the highest level of academic standards and integrity.
Current knowledge of and demonstrated proficiency in subject area.
Highly effective oral and written communication skills, including the ability to convey conceptual and complex ideas and information.
Outstanding interpersonal skills and high emotional intelligence.
Proficiency in or willingness to learn the use of instructional technology and online
teaching tools.
College-level and/or continuing education teaching experience preferred.
Experience designing curriculum and measuring student performance preferred.

ID, UX and LXD

ID, UX and LXD: Differences and Similarities Explained

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/id-ux-lxd-differences-similarities-explained-sonia-tiwari/

LXD Learning Experience Design
UX User Experience Design
ID Instructional Design

Niels Floor‘s highly informative articles on lxd.org

Instructional Design focuses on instruction, User Experience Design focuses on the user, and Learning Experience Design focuses on the learner. This is not to say that IDs don’t care about learners, or that UX designers do not work on educational products, or that LXDs spend no time thinking about instruction or users. The difference lies in who these designers orient their process towards the most – instruction, user, learner.

history of ID at Instruction Design Central.

more about the origins of UX in this article in Career Foundary by Emily Stevens or this brief intro to HCI in Interaction Design Foundation by John Carroll. If you’re curious, learn about what Don Norman thinks of UX today.

ID as a field tends to be more scientific and organized, following academic frameworks

UX tends to be both scientific and artistic in its approach. UX designers are informed by academic theories and frameworks, but are also flexible and artistic in finding engaging, intuitive solutions to usability issues.

LXD tends to be more artistic than scientific. While LX designers care about the learning process deeply though understanding of related learning theories and cognitive processes of learners, their primary focus is on designing visually stunning, useful, and engaging learning experiences.

IDs are typically working on products such as Courses, e-learning modules, curriculum, workshops. UX designers are typically working on products such as mobile apps, websites, digital games, software. LXDs are typically working on all these things – courses, apps, AND other forms of learning experiences which could take the form of museum exhibits, summer camps, AR interactive booklets, children’s books, movies, toys and games or any other medium that can be used to generate a learning experience.

Indeed.com

software tools are just like paintbrushes, they don’t make an artist. Some popular paintbrushes for IDs are Adobe Captivate, Articulate Storyline, Brainshark. For UX designers some popular tools are Adobe XD, Sketch, Figma, Balsamiq. For LXDs everything Adobe Creative Cloud has to offer – and many other ID/UX tools as well (depending on what the experience design needs) come in handy.

For IDs, one of the popular frameworks is ADDIE: Analyze, Design, Development, Implement, Evaluation

For UX designers, a popular framework quoted often is Design Thinking: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test

For LXDs, Neils floor outlines this LXD process: Question, Research, Design, Build, Test, Improve, Launch

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more on ID instructional design in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=instructional+design

 

Video Game Design And Storytelling

The Future Of Mobile Web Design: Video Game Design And Storytelling

As attention spans shorten and visitors just want to get to the good stuff on a website, designers have to get more creative in how they communicate their website’s “story.”

By Suzanne Scacca  June 25, 2018

https://medium.com/@smashingmag/the-future-of-mobile-web-design-video-game-design-and-storytelling-11f5add41d25

What is truly impressive, however, is how we are now able to use design to tell a story. In other words, we no longer need to use long scrolls to set up plots or describe what a company does. This is especially great when designing for the mobile experience, which already sets pretty strict limits on how much we can “tell” versus “show.”

Three Video Game Storytelling Techniques We Need More Of In Web Design

1. Make Your Visitor the Hero

Create User Personas

Develop user personas before you do anything else when strategizing and planning for a website. Your personas should have a key “problem” they face.

Enable Avatar Setup

Use Relatable Content

In video game design, there is something known as “ludonarrative dissonance.”
the unpleasant situation where we’re asking players to do something they don’t want to do… or prevent them from doing what they want.

Spin a Fantasy

Here’s an interesting fact: people are 22 times more likely to remember data when it’s presented in a narrative form.

The brain digests visual content 60% more quickly than written content, so your web designs and other visuals (like video, animation, and so on) are the keys to doing this.

The Airbnb blog always does a great job of this type of visual storytelling.

2. Minimize Distractions by Using Symbols

As of August 2017, 52.64% of all visits to websites were done via a smartphone. And, starting in 2017, the most popular size for a smartphonewas between five and six inches and will only continue to grow in popularity as the years go on.

That’s not a lot of space to fill with content for the majority of site visitors, is it?

Functional minimalism is already something you’re doing in your own web design efforts, but have you thought about how it can tie into the storytelling aspect as well?

Here are some ways in which you might use symbols to declutter your site:

  • Hamburger icon (for the navigation)
  • Profile photo icon (for account details)
  • Pencil icon (for an editing interface)
  • Gear icon (for settings)
  • Shopping cart icon (to checkout)
  • Magnifying glass (to expand the search bar)
  • Connector icon (to open social sharing and RSS feed options)
  • Question mark (to expand live chat, search, or help options)
  • And so on.

3. Be Smart About How You Use Space

Use a Spotlight

In video games, you can use light and darkness to draw attention to important pathways. On websites, it’s not always easy to employ the use of lightness or darkness as too-dark of a design or too-light of text could lead to a bad user experience. What you want to do instead is create a “spotlight” of sorts. You can do this by infusing a key area of your design with a dramatic color or a boldly stylized font.

Add Clues

If you’ve ever played a horror video game before, you know how critical the element of sound can be for it.

That said, while you might not be able to direct visitors down the page with the sound of something playing down below, you can use other elements to lead them. For one, you can use interactive elements like animation to draw their attention to where it needs to go.

Employ a Mascot

For some brands, it might make sense to employ the use of an actual mascot to guide visitors through the story.

Summary

As attention spans shorten and visitors just want to get to the good stuff on a website, designers have to get more creative in how they communicate their website’s “story.” Ideally, your web design will do more showing of that story instead of telling, which is how video game design tends to succeed in this matter.

Remember: Storytelling isn’t just relegated to big brands that can weave bright and shiny tales about how consumers’ lives were changed with their products. Nor is it just for video game designers that have hours of gameplay to develop for their audiences. A story simply needs to convey to the end-user how their problem can be fixed by your site’s solution. Through subtle design strategies inspired by video game storytelling techniques, you can effectively share and shape your own story.

 

edtech implementation failures

5 All-Too-Common Ways Edtech Implementations Fail

Chris Liang-Vergara and Kerry Gallagher (Columnist)     Apr 6, 2017

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2017-04-06-5-all-too-common-ways-edtech-implementations-fail

End users are too often removed from the decision-making process during procurement. Educators argue that too many products don’t actually meet the needs of teachers or students. Still others worry that it is too easy to implement new and popular technology without considering whether it is research-based and effective.

Only 33 percent of parents surveyed by the Learning Assembly said their child’s school did an excellent job using technology to tailor instruction.

Insufficient Modeling of Best Practices

A survey from Samsung found that 37 percent of teachers say they would love to use technology but don’t know how, and 76 percent say they would like a professional development day dedicated to technology.

implementations should start with the “why” and then address the “how.” Trainings should first model the best pedagogical approach, and how technology fits into this approach to support a learning objective. How to effectively use and troubleshoot the tool itself is also important, but it’s not the only factor.

How teachers integrate technology into their own teaching practices can have a dramatic impact on the results, even when they’re all using the same edtech tool. Videos that focus on scaling and modeling best practices (produced by places like the Teaching Channel and The Learning Accelerator) can help teachers and schools do this.

Teachers face initiative fatigue: They are constantly being asked to implement new programs, integrate new technologies, and add on layers of responsibility.

take the time to learn from the challenges of other schools, and recruit a coalition of the willing.

Real-World Usability Challenges

Relying on multiple devices (remote, clicker, iPad, computer mouse) to launch or navigate technology can be difficult. Additionally, teachers may start to use a tool, only to realize it is not flexible enough to meet their original needs, fit into the constraints of their particular school or classroom, or allow them to integrate their own content or supplemental resources.

The Right Data to Track Progress

Sometimes tech implementations fail because the products themselves don’t have the right depth of data for teachers or a workable interface. And sometimes they fail when eager IT directors lock down hardware and networks for security purposes in a way that makes the tool far less valuable for instructors.

edtech implementation fails

5 All-Too-Common Ways Edtech Implementations Fail

By Chris Liang-Vergara and Kerry Gallagher (Columnist)     Apr 6, 2017

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2017-04-06-5-all-too-common-ways-edtech-implementations-fail

On the surface, adopting technology to support teacher needs or student challenges isn’t terribly complex: define the problem you’re trying to solve, identify the right tools for the job, and implement the tools effectively and with fidelity.

challenges. End users are too often removed from the decision-making process during procurement. Educators argue that too many products don’t actually meet the needs of teachers or students. Still others worry that it is too easy to implement new and popular technology without considering whether it is research-based and effective.

Only 33 percent of parents surveyed by the Learning Assembly said their child’s school did an excellent job using technology to tailor instruction.

  • Understanding Purpose

Technology is just a tool, not a means in and of itself. Any school or teacher that sets out to use technology for its sake alone, and not in the service of personalizing learning or addressing specific needs, is on a mission to fail.

  • Insufficient Modeling of Best Practices

A survey from Samsung found that 37 percent of teachers say they would love to use technology but don’t know how, and 76 percent say they would like a professional development day dedicated to technology.

ideos that focus on scaling and modeling best practices (produced by places like the Teaching Channel and The Learning Accelerator) can help teachers and schools do this.

  • Bad First Impressions

Teachers face initiative fatigue: They are constantly being asked to implement new programs, integrate new technologies, and add on layers of responsibility. In one Wisconsin district, nearly half of teachers felt ongoing district initiatives were a “significant area of concern.”

Forward-thinking schools take the time to learn from the challenges of other schools, and recruit a coalition of the willing.

  • Real-World Usability Challenges

Relying on multiple devices (remote, clicker, iPad, computer mouse) to launch or navigate technology can be difficult. Additionally, teachers may start to use a tool, only to realize it is not flexible enough to meet their original needs, fit into the constraints of their particular school or classroom, or allow them to integrate their own content or supplemental resources.

  • The Right Data to Track Progress

Lack of useful data, problem definition, weak teacher buy-in, first impressions, and usability challenges all have the potential to torpedo smart technology products.

 

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