Section 1 is a series of pages that provide an overview of some of
the web site usability design factors that might apply to web-based
educational activities. Each design factor starts with a description of
the usability concept; some also have examples of the concept where it
is deemed appropriate and useful- one that
is a "less desirable" example, and then one that is a "more desirable"
example. The quotations are meant to reinforce the fact that there are
no hard-and-fast rules that apply to web usability, although there are
some that are more important than others (like the overall file size of
a page, which if too big will cause a page to download onto a
user's computer verrryyyy slowly). Each web site designer should know
the rules-of-thumb, and decide in each case whether some of them can be
bent or broken for a particular purpose.
Section 2 provides users of this site the opportunity to conduct some
simple web site usability evaluations of their own. The author of this
web site has chosen a handful of other web sites (3 educational sites
and 3 non-educational sites) and has picked a task to be completed on each one,
such as finding a certain bit of information. A printable PDF usability
evaluation document is included here to jot down notes and comments on
the sites and the user's experience.
Section 3
contains 3 PDF documents that present the results of a simple
usability study the author of this web site conducted with his
10-year-old (5th grade) son on a "random" educational web site
appropriate for his age. The primary goal of the study was not to come to any
definitive conclusions regarding the usability of a particular web site,
but rather to provide an example/model of a usability study that a
teacher might use with one or more students (over a period of 15 to 20
minutes at most) to see if web usability problems exist in a site they
are developing themselves, or a site that already exists on the web
that's being considered for use in the classroom. This study was done in
the spirit of "Teacher As A Researcher", in the belief that teachers are
best suited to understand what works and doesn't work in their own
classrooms. There are also Word format documents of the study for
download, and a page that explains the author's decision to use frames
for this section.
There is also a page with suggestions for
further reading, both on
the web and in print; plus a brief bio of the author of this site.
It is suggested, but by no means required, that the reader begin with
Section 1.
