OPTIMISING CHILDREN’S OUTCOMES

(OCO)Technical Presentation

Erika Fisher, Camilla Mahon, Hannah Rogers & Gabriella Kavanagh

THE APPLICATION

Apple iPad Application

Aim of the application is to monitor and manage

classroom behaviour

Monitors

Students’ eye-contact with the blackboard

Noise levels of the classroom

Complies data into easy to read graphs

Allows teachers to examine class performance

throughout the day

Each child will have a profile

Data from the App can be emailed to parents

THE TECHNOLOGY

Axure and Adobe Illustrator

Axure

A wireframing, rapid prototyping and specification

software tool aimed at web and desktop

applications

Why we chose Axure

Previous knowledge using the system

Creates detailed, realistic prototypes

Acts out user requests (buttons, type, etc.)

Adobe Illustrator

A vector based graphics editor developed by Adobe

We will be using Illustrator to create graphics for

our app

Why we chose Adobe Illustrator

Creates good quality graphics

Strong knowledge with using the system

Less restricting than other programmes, such as

Photoshop

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH

Eye-Tracking

A study examined student’s attention in class and gaze and focus patterns

Results showed students’ focused more on the blackboard than the instructor [1]

Noise Levels

Studies have shown that high levels of ‘classroom acoustics’ can have an adverse effect on students’ academic performance [2]

Research illustrates that children’s performance at school including cognitive abilities such as memory and reading ability as well as motivation can be negatively affected by noise [3]

THE DESIGN PRINCIPLES

(INTERFACE DESIGN)

Nielsen’s Heuristics and Pressman’s Principles

How we plan to apply interface design rules to our prototype

Nielsen’s Heuristics

They are called "heuristics" because they are more in the nature of rules of thumb than specific usability guidelines [4]

Pressman’s Principles

An agile yet disciplined framework for building web applications [5]

NIELSEN’S HEURISTICS

(EXAMPLES)

Help users

recognize, diagnose

and recover from errors

Error messages should

be expressed in plain

language, precisely

indicate the

problem, and

constructively suggest

a solution

NIELSEN’S HEURISTICS

(EXAMPLES)

User control and

freedom

Users often choose

system functions by

mistake and will need

a clearly marked

"emergency exit" to

leave the unwanted

state without having to

go through an

extended dialogue

PRESSMAN’S PRINCIPLES

(EXAMPLES)

Navigability

The user should be

able to understand

how to move about the

WebApp without

having to search for

navigational links

THE USER GROUP & THE USABILITY TESTING

Primary school teachers

Paper Interface Testing

Participants completed tasks

Participants gave us feedback about our

concept, the design and the ease of usability

After each round of usability testing we received

feedback from participants and amended out

prototype accordingly

From this process we made significant

adjustments, such as changing graphing of

behaviour to present data in a clearer way

USER GROUP

Persona Example

Sarah Smith, 28 year old primary school teacher.

She is organised and always keeps on top of tasks.

Owns many computer gadgets so is computer

literate. Motivated by innovation and using a

modern and technical approach to learning, she

believes it’s the way forward and is excited to learn

more about Optimising Children’s Outcomes (OCO)

using a monitoring system.

PAPER USABILITY TESTING

Test Stage 1

Homescreen

Feedback

Change search bar to

class list (as nothing

under it – too much

white space)

Include profile picture

of child?

Changes

Convert to List

PAPER USABILITY TESTING

Test Stage 2

Homescreen

Feedback

Divide List to allow it to

look more obviously

like a button

Changes

Change list layout

Include button arrows

PAPER USABILITY TESTING

Additional Feedback

iPad not widely accessible, as opposed to a

smartphone

Changes

Switch from iPad app to iPhone app

REFERENCES

[1] Rosengrant, D., Hearrington, D., Alvarado, K., & Keeble, D. (2012). Following student gaze patterns in physical science lectures. AIP Conference Proceedings, 1413(1), 323-326. doi:10.1063/1.3680060

[2] Ching Yee, C., & McPherson, B. (2005). Noise Levels in Hong Kong Primary Schools: Implications for classroom listening. International Journal Of Disability, Development & Education, 52(4), 345-360.

doi:10.1080/10349120500348714

[3] Shield, B. M., & Dockrell, J. E. (2008). The effects of environmental and classroom noise on the academic attainments of primary school children. Journal Of The Acoustical Society Of America, 123(1), 133-144. doi:10.1121/1.2812596

[4] Nielsen, J., and Molich, R. (1990). Heuristic evaluation of user interfaces, Proc. ACM CHI'90 Conf. (Seattle, WA, 1-5 April), 249-256.

[5] Pressman, R. (2000). Software engineering principles. (5th ed.). Mcgraw Hill Higher Education.