Morgan Designs

Work

Skills

Education

Experience

About Me

Resume

Morgan Designs

Work

Skills

Education

Experience

About Me

Resume

Morgan Designs

Work

Skills

Education

Experience

About Me

Resume

My Product Designer Origin Story

Timeline

Timeline

12 Months

My Role

My Role

  • All the roles!

Skills Used

Skills Used

  • Product Strategy

  • UX Lead

  • UX Research

  • UX Design

  • Usability Testing

  • Front-end Dev (Livecode)

  • Back-end Dev (Livecode & SQL)

  • Product Evaluation & Validation

Goal

To develop an application to lower the extraneous cognitive load of students as they design experiments in science class.

Constraints

  • The entire project - design, development, deployment and maintenance - was completed by me.

  • All testing and interactions with students needed to pass the Institutional Review Board at the university.

Summary

The study of the effectiveness of the application are published in a peer-reviewed journal. Access to the application resulted in an increase in the frequency of teachers utilizing student designed labs in their classrooms.

Note

The UI is from 2009 and beauty and delight was not the focus of the dissertation project - it was all about the managing of cognitive load and determine that management's effectiveness - please excuse the cringy look!

18% Increase

Student Scores

Statistically significant (p=0.01) with very large effect size (0.82)

Process

Task-based User Research

Take-away

Task-based analysis is critical to understanding how a job is done in various settings by various users - novices, experts, analog, digital, etc.

I began using student-designed experiments in my classroom in year 1.


Observing hundreds of students over several years provided me with a LOT of data. Most students would either ignore the assignment for as long as possible or they'd start listing every piece of equipment they knew of for their materials list and then not know where to go.


I then realized that I designed labs backwards, but I never told the students that experiments are designed in a backwards order compared to how they're read and performed!

I began using student-designed experiments in my classroom in year 1.


Observing hundreds of students over several years provided me with a LOT of data. Most students would either ignore the assignment for as long as possible or they'd start listing every piece of equipment they knew of for their materials list and then not know where to go.


I then realized that I designed labs backwards, but I never told the students that experiments are designed in a backwards order compared to how they're read and performed!

I began using student-designed experiments in my classroom in year 1.


Observing hundreds of students over several years provided me with a LOT of data. Most students would either ignore the assignment for as long as possible or they'd start listing every piece of equipment they knew of for their materials list and then not know where to go.


I then realized that I designed labs backwards, but I never told the students that experiments are designed in a backwards order compared to how they're read and performed!

Heuristics & User Needs

Take-away

  • This was I formed my belief that the best technology is "transparent" - allowing users to focus on their goal and need with very little cognitive effort being spent on the technology itself.

  • One of the main goals of technology is to remove barriers - make things more efficient, effective, and have less extraneous cognitive load.

After teaching backwards-design to the students, I uncovered a new problem...students couldn't write the sections in the "wrong" order on their paper no matter how many times I let them know it was ok.

Students were just stuck on the idea that they had to write that dang materials list first because that's where it belonged on their paper and they didn't want it out of order!


Students needed a tool that guided them through the development process but resulted in a lab paper that was in the traditional format for them to use to perform the lab in the classroom.

After teaching backwards-design to the students, I uncovered a new problem...students couldn't write the sections in the "wrong" order on their paper no matter how many times I let them know it was ok.

Students were just stuck on the idea that they had to write that dang materials list first because that's where it belonged on their paper and they didn't want it out of order!


Students needed a tool that guided them through the development process but resulted in a lab paper that was in the traditional format for them to use to perform the lab in the classroom.

After teaching backwards-design to the students, I uncovered a new problem...students couldn't write the sections in the "wrong" order on their paper no matter how many times I let them know it was ok.

Students were just stuck on the idea that they had to write that dang materials list first because that's where it belonged on their paper and they didn't want it out of order!


Students needed a tool that guided them through the development process but resulted in a lab paper that was in the traditional format for them to use to perform the lab in the classroom.

…and Cognitive Load Theory

At this point in the story, I had begun my PhD work and was digging into cognition and learning theories - especially cognitive load theory, and how instructional design principles can be used to make learning more efficient.


We need to clear out all the extraneous information except what we want the learners to focus on.

I had a lightbulb moment...


Combine cognitive load theory with UX/UI design principles to create a solution for my students!

At this point in the story, I had begun my PhD work and was digging into cognition and learning theories - especially cognitive load theory, and how instructional design principles can be used to make learning more efficient.


We need to clear out all the extraneous information except what we want the learners to focus on.

I had a lightbulb moment...


Combine cognitive load theory with UX/UI design principles to create a solution for my students!

At this point in the story, I had begun my PhD work and was digging into cognition and learning theories - especially cognitive load theory, and how instructional design principles can be used to make learning more efficient.


We need to clear out all the extraneous information except what we want the learners to focus on.

I had a lightbulb moment...


Combine cognitive load theory with UX/UI design principles to create a solution for my students!

Design, Testing, Iteration & Development

Impact

  • The study found a statistically significant and practically significant increase in student score when using the version that was designed to minimize cognitive load and split attention effect.

  • Teachers in other schools and states that used this application in their classroom utilized "student designed labs" as a teaching technique more often when than before they used the application. They reported that it wasn't such a "hassle" or "time sink" to get students through the process, so they were doing it more often, which resulted in students getting even better at it!

I created a stand-alone computer application to scaffold students through the experiment design process using what I'd learned about cognitive load and UX/UI design.

I created a stand-alone computer application to scaffold students through the experiment design process using what I'd learned about cognitive load and UX/UI design.

I created a stand-alone computer application to scaffold students through the experiment design process using what I'd learned about cognitive load and UX/UI design.

Minimized Cognitive Load

Minimized Cognitive Load

Minimized Cognitive Load

Display only the information students needed to know at each step with prompts to use the information shown to design the next piece.

Progress indicators showed students where they were in the design process.

Students then exported a document that had all their input in the "traditional" order, performed their experiment, and came back to the application to enter their data, complete their calculations and write their conclusion.

Minimized Split Attention Effect

Minimized Split Attention Effect

Minimized Split Attention Effect

Students didn't need to scroll, reference a handout or flip the paper over to see what they'd previously written on the front.

As a student clicked in a field to enter text, the instructions specific to that field would be displayed on the right side of the screen.

Develop

Develop

Develop

Developed full-stack with LiveCode framework and MySQL database deployed on personal server

Study Efficacy

Study Efficacy

Study Efficacy

The design, development and study of this application was the topic of my PhD Dissertation and a peer-reviewed research article.

The study included approval by the Institutional Review Board, the school district, parents and students. Student work product was scored blindly by two instructors against a rubric.

Improving UX and Alleviating Pain Points

For about 6 years, I maintained the tool, releasing new features based on teacher and student user feedback:

  • backups

  • revision history

  • students being able to work on the same experiment file collaboratively from their separate accounts

  • spell-check

  • WYSWIG formatting of text

  • built in graphing capability

  • uploading of pictures

  • a teacher side that allowed sharing of labs with other teachers

  • feedback and grading of reports as well as customization of various features to fit the teacher's style and the task's needs


Unfortunately, when I transitioned to other stages of my life, the time to maintain the application dwindled and it is no longer being used.


I'm hoping to spend free time in the upcoming year to rebuild the portal (with a MUCH better UI!) utilizing LiveCode Create that allows web application and database creation.

Morgan Designs

Work

Skills

Education

Experience

About Me

Resume

Work

Skills

Education

Experience

About Me

Resume

Work

Skills

Education

Experience

About Me

Resume