Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Universal Principles of Design - Learning

How can I help people learn from a design?

Principle 1 - Signal -to-Noise Ratio
My students finished off this past school year with a project that required that they complete at least one graphical representation of data.  Many students, in an attempt at creativity, created displays with a very low signal-to-noise ratio that involved styles of shading and coloring much like the 3 left-hand graphs on Pg. 183.  It was hard for the reader(s) to interpret the graph, because they tried to comprehend how the shading styles relate, and they often did not.

Principle 2 - Progressive Disclosure
This principle first reminds me of the way that a good lesson in math class doesn't normally start with all of the problems (or topics) that will be covered readily visible at the board, rather it builds them up--progressively--one at a time.  This also reminds me of a concept that is of importance in a recent assignment in this class: many resumes end with the statement "References available upon request." to avoid overwhelming a potential employer with information that they are not ready to consider.

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