Glamming up research

The folks at web and print media at the University of Sydney have just done a fantastic job with a brilliant little interactive that makes the importance of research and research funding accessible, appealing and audience driven.  It's a lovely example of infographics, crowd sourcing, and live stats in action.  It's a model in web seduction that seeks to educate the public while shaping their

Read More

Interaction Design in Ed Environments - Workshop

I was delighted to hear of the 1st International Workshop on Interaction Design in Educational Environments - IDEE 2012 which will be held on the 28 June, 2012 in Poland.  Note, this is an academic conference style workshop in which papers are presented (as opposed to a training workshop).  Paper submission deadline is April 10.
I look forward to the resulting insights and publications!

Read More

The Multimedia Principle - A quick guide

infographic by: Indi Samarajiva

The Multimedia Principle: When designing for learning, use words and graphics rather than words alone.

This little starlet of learning research is both well-established and deceptively simple.  Introduced by multimedia learning guru, Richard E. Mayer, it's at the core of what we do, but it has some important caveats.  it's a staple concept in instructional

Read More

4 principles for the design of game interfaces

The latest issue of User Experience Magazine features a gem of an article for those looking for a very brief intro into basic heuristics for game design.  "Designing Game-Based Tools for Youth" By Sarah Chu and Constance Steinkuehler reveals findings from their research into the UX of the massively popular and massively multiplayer game, World of War Craft.   Their conclusions...



Keep the

Read More

Online games for behavioural intervention

Jennifer Wilson, Director of The Project Factory gave a riveting presentation about the use of games for learning, behavioural intervention, and health at the University of Sydney last week.  Melinda Lewis kindly published the juicy menu of interactive examples that Wilson cited during her speech.

For example, Luminosity is a popular game-based brain trainer that promises to improve your

Read More

Study HCI at Stanford - free and online

Would you believe me if I said you could study HCI at Stanford this semester?
For free?
From home.
No really.

http://www.hci-class.org/

I'll be there - sitting up in front.

Oh, and there's also the Open Classroom Material from last year.

Thanks, Stan.

Read More

2011 bests

by nejron 

You don't need to tell anyone who works in learning the value of reflection, and the coming of a new year is the best possible excuse to start looking back.  And who can resist the superlative? Best lists are simply the bestest fun.

There's so much to learn from the ground breakers, game changers, success and failures in design, from incredible new approaches to user interfaces to

Read More