Creating the best materials

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Creating the best materials

• Design principles based
• on research

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Why should I pay attention to this?

• Empirical research conducted by
• Richard E. Mayer, Professor of Psychology at UC
  Santa Barbara supports these principles as good
  practice.
• Dr. Mayer has published a wealth of research on
  multimedia learning.

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Multimedia Principle

• Students learn better from words and pictures
  than from words alone

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What can I do?

• Add clipart to handouts
• Use concept mapping such as Inspiration and
  Mindmeister
• Add animations and/or clipart to your
  presentations

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Spatial contiguity principle

• Students learn better when corresponding words
  and pictures are presented near rather than far
  from each other on the page or screen.

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What can I do?

• Instead of adding images at the top or corners of
  your work, consider incorporating the images into
  the text.
• Change a picture into a watermark and type over
  top of it.

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Temporal contiguity principle

• Students learn better when corresponding words
  and pictures are presented simultaneously rather
  than successively.

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What can I do?

• In PowerPoint, use your custom animation to have
  images and text enter together.

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Coherence Principle

• Students learn better when extraneous words,
  pictures, and sounds are excluded rather than
  included.

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What can I do?

• Ask yourself if youre adding extras because you
  should or because you want to do so.
• Share your presentation with a friend and ask him
  or her to help you eliminate distracting extras.

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Modality principle

• Students learn better from animation and
  narration than from animation and on-screen text.
  

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What can I do?

• Consider PhotoStory where you can add narration
  to your images.
• Attend an audacity training to understand how to
  add audio files. (I am working on perfecting
  this before training.)

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Redundancy Principle

• Students learn better from animation and
  narration than from animation, narration, and
  on-screen text.

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What can I do?

• With this principle, less is more.
• Eliminate all but essential text and increase
  your use of narration.

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Individual differences principle

• Design effects are stronger for low-knowledge
  learners than for high-knowledge learners and for
  high-spatial learners than for low-spatial
  learners.

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Give me some guidelines!

• The following slides are a good set of guidelines
  to use.
• Of course you know your students better, but
  these are general rules of thumb to guide your
  choices when creating materials.

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Orient Users

• Provide information on each screen or webpage
  that tells users where they are in the
  presentation.
• Use headings and captions to show your
  organization

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Justify Text Appropriately

• Everything should be left justified except for
  numbers in a table, which should be right
  justified.

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Limit Type Styles

• Do not use more than three type styles per
  screen.
• Consider one style for headings, another for
  captions, and another for text.
• Be consistent so students can catch on to your
  system.

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Limit Colors

• Do not use more than three or four colors per
  screen.
• Use color to
• Attract, hold, or direct attention
• Show relationships
• Enhance data

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Standardize use of colors

• Set up a color scheme and use it consistently.
• Consider using blue as a background because the
  human retina has fewer blue-sensitive cells than
  for any other color.
• Avoid the following combinations
• Red on green, green on blue, and red on blue.

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Enhance Text with Graphics and Interactivity

• Do not produce or accept screens that are only
  text.
• Text should be accompanied by charts,
  illustrations, diagrams, and links

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Eliminate Superfluous Items

• Every object on the screen should have meaning.
• Consider removing borders that dont contribute
  information and clipart art that is only vaguely
  related to your topic.

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Upper and Lowercase

• DO NOT USE ALL CAPS!
• Research shows that for most people it is easier
  to read the traditional upper and lowercase type.
  

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Keep Text Lines Short

• Keep line lengths between eight and ten words
  when creating materials.

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Single Spacing

• Use a double space between paragraphs rather than
  using an indent.

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Simplify the Structure

• Make it as easy as possible for users to find the
  information.
• Strive for consistency within a presentation and
  with your webpages.

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Limit the Focus

• Feature one idea per screen.
• Consider a new page on your website section for
  each project, idea, etc.

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Provide Emphasis

• Use bold, italics, or underlining to emphasize
  ideas.
• Strive for consistency so viewers can follow.

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Know your audience

• Consider your purpose and your audience before
  you start.
• If it is a handout, you can use a smaller font
  than you would for a whole group presentation.

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Do Not Flash

• Do not use flashing text to get the attention of
  the viewer.
• This makes it hard to focus.
• Instead, use color and location to call attention
  to the information.

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Use Lists

• Use bullets, numbers, and checkmarks when you can
  especially on webpages.
• ? 4

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Navigate consistently

• Keep navigation buttons in the same position from
  one screen to the next.
• If you use action buttons in PowerPoint, remember
  to have them look the same and appear in the same
  place.

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Do not stack text

• Stacked text
• (vertical text)
• is hard to read.

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Include multiple graphic types

• Pictures are just one type of visual.
• Consider adding charts, maps, tables, diagrams,
  or photographs

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Organize the Screen

• Group objects for meaning and better visual
  clarity.
• Use a border or white space background to make
  groups stand out to the viewer.

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Size Matters

• Size determines importance to a viewer.
• Be sure to resize your images to reflect the
  level of importance you want to convey.

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Placement Matters

• Location also determines importance.
• Items at the top appear to have more importance
  to the viewer.
• Think of it like the newspaper-the bigger story
  has a large headline high up on the page.

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Additional resources

• www.webstyleguide.com
• www.colin.mackenzie.org/webdesign

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References

• Gagne, E.D., Yekovich, C.W., Yekovich, F.R.
  (1993). The cognitive psychology of school
  learning. Boston Little, Brown.
• Marcus, A. (1991). Graphic design for electronic
  documents and user interfaces. New York ACM
  Press.
• Horton, W. (1991). Illustrating computer
  documentation. New York Wiley.
• Mayer, R.E. (2001). Multimedia Learning.
  Cambridge Cambridge University Press.