We interact with instructions every day in many different ways throughout our lives. Instructional design comes in many different forms to the types of instructions on how to use a machine, product, software or service, how to make, build or customise a product or to providing directions to follow etc. Instructions are used in our everyday life to guide us in a direction to in order to achieve an end goal. Instructional design is important to make tasks easier to follow if a user doesn’t know how to achieve a certain task. It is important to take into consideration cultural differences when developing instructional design as certain things can be interpreted in a different ways so if an instructional design is to be used universally it is important for it to be understood by all different cultures.

Cognitive load theory is the way we think and how we remember and our working memory is how we manipulate information stored in short term memory. It is important when designing instructions that designers take into consideration in how people remember information for a short period of time. If instructions require the someone to read blocks of information the reader can easily forget what instructions were told at the start and get lost in the process. Keeping instructions simple and having an easy step by step process which is often assisted with or consists of visuals to ease understanding is important for the ease to follow instructions.

The use of simple graphics is important to isolate important detail and direct the reader to the most salient point to aid understanding of what is being explained. Simple graphics work well as they are minimal and allow the reader to see exactly what they need to do whereas more complex graphics can lead the reader to getting lost due to there being too many visuals to look at. It is important to visualise what is necessary and make it clear to the reader what it is that they need to do. Simple graphics usually consists of a limited colour palette where the main points are highlighted and stand out from the rest of the graphic.

Types of interactions

Instructional: Usually consists of pressing a button and tells the user exactly what and how to do something.

Conversational: Back and forth dialogue where the user or device asks questions and allows the user to provide specific details which generates a response specific to the user. There are multiple variables and different answers/outcomes.

Manipulation: Drag and drop elements can be used and there is freedom to customise and change the structure and appearance of a program and can also allow for creativity.

Exploration: The user is provided with multiple options to chose, they can have a playful game like experience, follow an objective/s and chose how they can get there without a strict guide to follow. This form of interaction allows for user freedom to choose how they get to a certain outcome.

Interactive design through a digital form provides many opportunities as well as challenges. The opportunity of digital media over print allows the ability of time to be used which allows for motion an animation to be implemented and used in design. It also allows for the ability to hide and reveal information and have multiple layers. The challenges of Digital media is there is the limitation of screen sizes and resolution eg: mobile devices provide limited possibilities where scrolling is required compared to a desktop device and what can be displayed on an A3 as such.

Interactive media should provide the availability of information and choice for the user to explore the information freely of what information they want to explore. Interactive designs should provide the option of redundancy where the user can use shortcuts and alternate options to the provided basic keys/instructions an interactive provides. Interactive media should allow the user to feel a sense of control and freedom without having to be forced down a specific path that an interactive provides.

Tutorial Activity – Ideation

Studio Activity – User Personas and Journeys