Graphic Organizer

“Design is inherently a messy process.  It’s ironic that the end result is about creating order.”

Tom Mecklen

For my next assignment in my EDTECH 506 class, we were challenged to make a graphic that would “help your learners synthesize the content of your final project.”  I chose to make a note-taking page that would be used over the course of 3 lessons and would ultimately be a reference for students whenever they come across a graphing problem.

Here is the blank note page:

And here is what it would look like when it is filled in:

The following is the justification of my project.  Concepts and corresponding page numbers are from Creating Graphics for Learning and Performance by Linda L. Lohr.

Users

The users are high school students ages 14-15.  Most will have a basic reading level.  All of the students who took PreAlgebra in the school district have previous experience plotting points on the coordinate plane and know what slope-intercept form is.  The first lesson in this unit will review the coordinate plane and how to plot points on the coordinate plane.

Why I think my solution will work

In my experience teaching students how to graph, it seems that students interpret these 3 methods of graphing as 3 different concepts.  I chose the Choose Your Own Adventure concept as a way to connect all three.  3 different people could each choose a different method and all would end up with the same graph.  This is a synectic strategy (page 77) which makes the strange (graphing) seem more familiar (choose your own adventure).

I used the organization principle (page 80) to group information by dividing it into 3 sections.  The content is arranged vertically in each section, ending at the graph for each method.

I also used color to distinguish among the 3 methods.  Color is considered a tool in design (page 85).  In this case I used color to differentiate the 3 methods and to highlight some of the important features within each method.

What I learned from a user-test

My husband was kind enough to be my user-test again.  He did not like that the titles for each of the methods were not aligned.  He also did not like that the graphs were not aligned.  It made it feel like they were not connected.  He suggested that the steps for each method should be listed at the top as opposed to the bottom of the instruction.  He said that the ending choose your own adventure graphic (3 ways to graph, Which one will YOU choose) should be one long graphic above the graphs.  He did like the different colors and the choose your own adventure concept.

Changes I made based on the user-test

I moved the instructions to just under the heading for each method.  I also aligned the headings and the graphs.  This allowed me to incorporate Action into my design.  Actions describe the changes or placement of text or graphics (page 80).  I did change the ending graphic so that it was long, but I placed it below the graphs instead of above.  This is what I came up with:

And the note page that the students will start with: