Process
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This is an ongoing project that will continuously evolve its process depending on; the curators and associates involved, the needs of Gaia University, its networks and the evolution of the Mahara e-portfolio platform. To meet the goals of the Activity Hub clients I used the Kolb’s iterative learning cycle➚, seen below. I found this to be a very natural cycle of design for creating this user interface. I would recommend all UI designers try this model. Its iterative format gives you quick feedback to make adjustments. To initially build the base structure of the group, my cycle started at Conceptualize running through the cycle. Once the base of the group was built, my design cycle started at Experience. Following my experience of using the group I would Reflect, then I would decide if I needed to change or add something. I would then Conceptualize an addition or improvement to address the issue I had identified, and finally Test it.
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Critical Evaluation
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Below are actions which made this project successful:
Regular meetings with the the team and my peers was essential for me, see a short video of one of these meetings in the left hand column of the Supporting evidence page. These meetings; informed me, helped me to stay on track, inspired me to keep up what I was doing, encouraged me to try new things, and above all gave me a sense of being a member of a team. Mapping is a great tool for UI, see my document Four components of systems and my mind maps in the right column of the Supporting evidence page. The main shortcoming: Not getting the level of activity that I was aiming for. I see three ways to address this:
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Interventions
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The primary intervention in this project was when I reengaged the project. Once I agreed to the Hub becoming the main group there was a cut in communication. I tried to email Andrew many times and thought he was too busy to respond. It turns out he had changed his email because of spam. Eight months passed, I stayed busy with my Gaia U projects and learning pathway. When I returned from my winter travels through Central America my advisor encouraged me to keep trying to connect with Andrew. I sent him a message over Mahara and learned about the change of email. The project was reinitiated. Next intervention, I sought out allies to contribute to the Hub and found Charlie Durrant. I could see he was online and quite active on the Gaia U sites. In our first Skype meeting I introduced him to the Hub, as he was a new associate and had not found it yet. We discovered a key setting within the group that needed to be fixed and came up with some ideas to increase the visibility and functionality of the group. Having found a peer who was interested and willing to pursue the creation of this group made this intervention successful. We became a team, building the Hub cooperatively. This was the type of group work I had been craving. The Hub was transformed! It now had a dynamic homepage with organized forums. Over the months of September and October we continued working together; curating, posting, and organizing. I see every post and contribution in the Hub as an intervention that can change and inspire others to grow it into its potential, and this is the case with any UI. |
User Interface principles
I have identified three main components of good UI design through my own exploration of it:
- Searchability - first you need to be able to find your task,
- Navigability - second you need to be able to get to it,
- Usability - lastly you need to be able to complete the task.
Below is a mind map of the UI principles I have identified. I gleaned these principles and best practices from several webpages and videos which can be found in the Annotated resources in the right column of the Supporting evidence page. For some side by side comparison of good UI design vs. bad, see this blog post here➚.
Though it is not the topic of this OP I created a PDF giving examples as to how these principles can be used to design and set-up a workshop. You can read it here or find it at the bottom of the right column of the Supporting evidence page (not included in the word count).