Like this:

Visual Design Critique

We learn using all our five senses, 83% through the sense of sight, 10% through the sense of hearing and the remainder via the senses of smell, touch and taste (Wong, A. F. L., & Cheung, W. S. (1999)).

I shall base my critique on the fact that most learning are done through the sense of sight and hearing and teachers should try to achieve effective and optimal learning mainly (though not only) through these 2 senses.  

Slide 1

Strengths

1)      This slide makes use of audio to capture the attention and arouse the interest of students to want to find out more about which frog can make that kind of sound as they might not get a chance to hear these sounds in their everyday life (from the content of the slide, I assume that the target audience is primary school students)

2)      Icons are provided for students to click on to activate the different sounds that the frog can produce. Playback function is also available for repeated hearing.

3)      The choice of colour of the background and text is appropriate as they are harmonious and soothing to the eyes, at the same time, provided good contrast hence the text can be read easily

4)      The text size of is ideal and ease reading

5)      The audio instruction to the students is clear and concise.

Areas of Improvement 

1)    There are no accompanying titles to indicate what frog made which sound. It would be ideal if there could be a short descriptive text to introduce more about the frog, coupled with a picture of that frog. Since the audio is meant to arouse the interest of the students and to introduce them to a variety of frogs, it would be more effective and would be a good reinforcement of learning if the descriptions and pictures are added

2)    The “Click on the icons to hear some frog sounds!” should be place below the main text to avoid confusion ad distraction

3)    The “Click on the buttons learn more!” instruction should be placed above the main text to better guide the students.

4)    Font style for the main text seems to be too fanciful

Slide 2

Strengths

1)      The font size and style and spacing between lines for this slide are very ideal as they are clear and easy to read

2)      The title is in block to emphasize the topic they are learning and to capture the attention of the students

3)       The 2 pictures inserted adds on the visual learning effects

 Areas of Improvement 

1)    The transition of the slide is not seamless and too slow and distracting

2)    The sound effect is too loud, distracting, creates annoyance, unnecessary and does not aid learning in any ways. In fact, misuse of the features will confuse the audience, distract them from the main message (Wong, A. F. L., & Cheung, W. S. (1999))3)    The 2 pictures inserted would better enhance learning if some short descriptive text is added to introduce the frog eg. its place of original  

Slide 3

Strengths

1)    Relevant graphics are insert to illustrate each cycle, this helps students visualise and understand better

2)    The graphics and text are arranged in a way that is very familiar to the students, who can immediately identify and understand the cycle easily

3)    This slide allows students to explore more about each cycle just by clicking on each slide, this allows easy navigation.

 Areas of Improvement

1)    The text for “CLICK ON THE STAGE THAT YOU WANT TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT” should not be all in caps as it is too distracting and slows down reading

2)    There are 3 stages mentioned but 8 arrows for the cycles and 3 different pictures for the tadpole stage, this should be simplified as it will cause confusion. Using 1 arrow to show the flow from 1 stage to another provides more clarity. 

Slide 4

Strengths

1)      This slide illustrates the context well with appropriate graphic of eggs and clear(in size) and concise(in length) text

2)      Useful and clearly labelled icons (complete with the appropriate graphic) for hyperlink to the next 2 stages are also available for easy access.  

Areas of Improvement

1)    Transition of the text are too slow and distracting, coupled with the interesting animated graphic of the frog, students might be paying more attention to the frog catching the fly than to the text

2)    Although clearly labelled and completed with graphics on the 2 hyperlink icons, there are no clear instructions as to what the icons are for eg. ‘to know more about the other 2 cycles, click here’, students might be confused whether those are part of the egg cycle

3)    It would be better if the hyperlinks to the other 2 stages be presented in a simple graphics cycle form similar to slide 3, but a much smaller and simpler version so that at any stage, students can access to the other stages and can see clearly how the stages are related

4)    The graphic on the hyperlink icons should be made smaller to avoid distraction from the main content.

Slide 5

Strengths

1)      This slide provides clear and consistent graphic to illustrate the accompanying text

2)      Text are aligned to the graphic to enhance clarity

3)      Text transition is done at stages so that students con concentrate on one stage of the tadpole at a time 

Areas of Improvement

1)    The hyperlink icons to the other 2 stage are not available as oppose to the previous slide, the next and previous slide icons are on the top portion of the slide. This inconsistency may cause confusion and slows down navigation to the next or previous slide

2)    Graphics at each phase should appear together with the text to avoid confusion and distraction.

Slide 6

Strengths

1)      This slide illustrates the context well with appropriate graphic of the young frog and concise text

2)      Useful and clearly labelled icons (complete with the appropriate graphic) for hyperlink to the next 2 stages are also available for easy access.  

Areas of Improvement

1)    Transition of the text are too slow and distracting

2)    Relevant graphics of the different stages of the young frog as described in the text should be inserted and aligned to the text just like in slide 5 for better understanding

3)    Although clearly labelled and completed with graphics on the 2 hyperlink icons, there are no clear instructions as to what the icons are for eg. ‘to know more about the other 2 cycles, click here’, students might be confused whether those are part of the young frog cycle

4)    It would be better if the hyperlinks to the other 2 stages be presented in a simple graphics cycle form similar to slide 3, but a much smaller and simpler version so that at any stage, students can access to the other stages and can see clearly how the stages are related

5)    The graphics on the hyperlink icons should be made smaller to avoid distraction from the main content.

Overall, I feel that these slides are ideal for students’ self exploration and learning, not only as a presentation tool used in the classroom because of the self explanatory text, graphics, sound effects and the navigation and exploration tools available. The slides are also meaningfully linked via the hyperlinks for better understanding and visualisation.

Reference:

(Wong, A. F. L., & Cheung, W. S. (1999). Using IT for Lesson Presentations. In S. L. Tan & A. F. L. Wong (Eds.), Teaching and Learning with Technology-An Asia-Pacific Perspective (pp. 118-132). Singapore: Prentice Hall.)

Advertisement