At the current point, we are finished
with our initial information gathering phase. After talking with everyone and
narrowing down a topic, we have decided to study the design of educational user
interfaces. The research focuses on how to effectively design powerful interfaces
for children, so that learning can be maximized. We are interested in looking
for properties of systems that help children learn. Each member of our team first explored
our topic through current articles and books to familiarize ourselves with the current
principles and trends in the field. We then gathered together to share and collaborate
our newly found knowledge. The following paper summarizes the progress we have made
thus far in our group's Indpendent Research. It also includes any modifications that
had been made to the original plan as well as our plan for delegating more research
and any things remaining to be done. There is also a short list of references.

Progress thus far:

There is a fair amount of research
currently being done on designing educational interfaces. We have read papers
dealing with:

- Multimedia principles for design
(1)

- 10 principles of good design (2)

- Meeting user needs (dealing with
failure and poor performance) (3)

- Using child input for designing
educational interfaces (4)

- Graphic and interface design principles
(5)

We have taken all these resources
and are reviewing them to find interesting conclusions about designing user
interfaces for children. Probably the most interesting thing we have come across
thus far is that all the principles and suggestions made in these papers come
down to six basic necessities for design. Those are:

1) Simplicity

2) Consistency

3) Usefulness

4) Usability

5) Accessibility

6) Coherence

We are going to use these six basic
design principles as guides for conducting our more in-depth research.

Modifications and Future
work

There have been no real modifications
made to our previous plan. Initially we were under the wrong impression about
what the independent research project was supposed to entail. Once we realized
what exactly we needed to do, we were able to find information relatively quickly.
Our future work will be to comb through the papers looking for different views
and opinions on how to make the best interface according to the principles above.

References

(1) Multimedia Learning - Richard
Mayer

(2) 10 Principles on Good Design
- Roger Schank

(3) Design of Everyday Things - Dan
Norman

(4) The Role of Children in the Design
of New Technology - Allison Druin

(5) Techtactics - Carolyn Thorsen