Gaming for science

Supporting cancer research is undoubtedly important, but playing computer puzzle games is undoubtedly more fun.  The makers of Foldit have literally managed to combine the two by building a game around the problem of deciphering protein structures, and then letting this scientific challenge loose on the world.

Fold-It takes crowdsourcing and educational gaming up a serious notch. Not only do

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Elegant activism - Infographics at Bashir Watch

BashirWatch.org is an impeccably crafted site that succeeds in allowing users to explore difficult but important information in ways that add clarity and interest.  Bashir Watch is an organization promoting the prompt arrest of Omar Bashir, the Sudanese leader behind the genocide in Darfur.  There is a warrant for his arrest issued by the International Criminal Court for multiple counts of human

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Extreme Accessibility - How to save lives with eLearning

Far from the typical audience of corporate or university eLearning, Thare Machi Education designs lessons on topics like human trafficking and cholera for learners who are extremely poor, mostly illiterate, totally unfamiliar with technology and speak hundreds of different languages.  How's that for a brief?



Thare Machi Education makes very simple life-changing and life-saving messages  

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On Memory and the Life of Maps

There are so many childhood objects that leave indelible marks as one grows up, from the microscope that gives you a secret window into invisible worlds, to the medical kit which made you a superhero with the power to fix people.  In his articles, The gears from my childhood, renowned MIT professor and educational technologist, Seymour Papert, explains how playing with and loving gears gave him a

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ELearning for Healthy Minds

A growing number of learning programs dedicated to psychological wellbeing are finding their way into schools and workplaces across the globe.  This is probably due, in part, to the concern over technology-induced stress and mounting scientific support for the value of practices like mindfulness and meditation.

This new type of education has begun to manifest digitally in the form of mobile

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Caution: Color, culture and convention

As designers of learning experiences, we know that color can have a powerful impact on learning. It can improve recall, understanding and appeal when used well. But it's easy to forget how culturally embedded color meanings are.  Americans, for example, can forget green is only the color of money in the US. While red indicates debt and downturns in the financial world, it's prosperity in

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TocaDoctor - An Irresistible Ed App Interface

Toca Doctor is so gorgeous I had to blog it.  With its retro chic style, adults are transported while kids have the bright aquas, pinks and yellows to guide them through a collection of quirky doctor puzzles.  Move the germ through the brain maze and out of the nose, pull the thorns from a sore foot, or mop up and bandage an abrasion.  Instructions are clear, and function without words.  this app

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UX and UI for eLearning - Presentations online

The eLearning Guild recently hosted an online forum on Graphic design and UX/UI design for eLearning.  One of the highlights for me was the talk by Erin Sappington Kreb and John-Carlos Lozano of SweetRush.  Their slides were impeccable and their advice well communicated.

In a later session I presented a series of research-based guidelines for eLearning interfaces to a dynamic audience of

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Connie Malamed - Visual Design and eLearning

If you don't know her work already, Connie Malamed, author of Visual Language for Designers combines expertise in both eLearning and Visual Design and as such, is a great source of knowledge for the eLearning Interface Designer.

Check out her high quality articles at E-learning Coach, some of which relate specifically to eLearning Interface Design.  For example...

Using graphics to improve

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Design for a wiser world

Rich learning experiences can help us grow in wisdom as well as in knowledge and capacity. While many are wringing their hands at the perceived negative effects of technology, Positive Computing opens the door to a future in which human-centred design evolves to a kind of humanity-centred design.  The Interactions feature article "Positive Computing: Technology for a wiser world" explores both a

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Seminar on Visualization for Science Education

Heads up on the following seminar on how visualizations can be leveraged for science learning...

Making Sense of Science through Visualization will be presented by Roy Tasker  on  20 April 2012, 11-12pm  at The University of Sydney.
 A deep understanding of chemistry requires the ability to imagine the invisible molecular world to explain the observable world. Only then do abstract chemical

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Francotoile - language learning with video

FrancoToile is a showcase in presentation simplicity. It's a resource for French language learners, created  in Canada that leverages what web video has to offer to expose learners to the various sounds, dialects and slang of native French speakers from diverse communities across the globe.


The video library is a work in progress with new videos being addedand a great resource for language

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Turn to the sherpa

Check out this highly informative, expertly crafted (and so pretty it's like dessert) new web publication: The Web Standards Sherpa.  "Journeying towards best web practices."  Everything here can be applied to the design of web-based learning environments.

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Time management principle for design

Design is about details.  But then it's also about deadlines.  As such, I have developed this tenet to keep me focused...

"I vow to cultivate the discipline to not spend time on the details that don't matter, the patience to spend time on the details that do, and the professionalism to know the difference."
Thus today I will not double proofread my chats, or spend hours crafting email witticisms

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Design inspiration: Naughtyfish

For utterly standout and inspired design, check out the work of Naughtyfish.
Including...


The greed poster and the Africa poster for something immediately different, captivating, raw and effective.
The Ordinary Day booklet for an inspiring approach to the use of photography that privliges mood and sophisticated emotion over the usual canned and oversaturated stock landscapes.
And Sweet Little

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7 ideas for designing your own Prezi template

Powerpoint going stale in the cupboard? Boss banging on your door for a Prezi template?  I hear ya.  But how can you create a consistent look and feel to represent your organisation that isn't too restrictive, and in a program that breaks all the rules?!

Prezi has a growing bank of reusable prezis but these are pretty content specific.  So how to make a compelling and generic

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When to use animations for learning

picture credit: Yamaggio

You get one of those sudden urges to learn how to poach an egg or make an origami jedi master and what’s the first thing you do? I’m guessing, being the modern nerd that you are, you google for a video demo.  We’ve taken to using resources like YouTube to teach us things. Why are we drawn to learning by watching and when does it actually work?

The research into using

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Interactive graphics and HTML5

The promise of graphics that can change on the fly as users adjust them or enter data is delightfully web-appropriate.  People do it, but it's not excessively common-place for the same age-old reasons of browser incompatibility and scripting required.  The famous HTML5 "canvas" tag aims to allow browsers to handle interactive graphics natively.  Nice!  But what about Scaleable Vector Graphics?

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Space for learning

According to psychological studies, even small differences in distance and spacing can have a strong impact on a person's sense of security and their attitude towards what they are doing. The studies triggered different emotions by asking subjects to do something as subtle as drawing dots on paper closer or farther apart.  The difference in the distance between a person's dots statistically

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Don't just make it easy, make it look easy.

It's not enough to make your design easy to use, you have to make sure it looks easy to use too.

Information foraging theory helps explain how good visual design can increase the users who stay on your site.

According to the theory, on the web, we are all "informavores" who act like animals hunting for food in the wild.  This theory stacks up to the user research and supports usability

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