Thursday, July 10, 2008

Universal Principles of Design - Decisions

How can I make better design decisions?

Principle 1 - Accessibility
As a middle school teacher this is something that I have to constantly consider in my design of visuals, instruction and other materials.  How can I assure that my design is perceivable to my colorblind students or my hearing impaired students?  How can I assure that my design in operable by physically handicapped students?  How can I assure that my design is simple enough--especially in wording--for my learning disabled students?  As the end of the page in Lidwell discusses, my best design to account for this not only considers the questions above but utilizes Affordance and Forgiveness.

Principle 2 - Weakest Link
This Principle reminds me of two things.  The first is that game show that had its 15 minutes of fame a few years ago in which the rude British woman would say "I'm sorry Beatrice, but you are the Weakest Link."  Ouch.  The secod thing that it reminds me of are my numerous car accidents as a teenager.  Fortunately the crumple zones of the numerous crumpled cars that I drove when I was younger kept me safe from impact (impact which I normally caused).

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