Also this page location is: http://goo.gl/HYuBk
This is a topic of study for people with alphabetical languages going back centuries. But since the arrival of the "personal computer", learning tools and the use of graphics, animation, sound and other sensory and semantic models (hyperlinks, stories, task based learning, etc) all contributing to differing approaches.
Special credit is given her to the pioneering work of James W. Heisig, originally focused on the Japanese writing system, and with help from Timothy W. Richardson, more recently specifically tied to Hanzi (Chinese writing). I am excited by the potential of their joint book and expect to incorporate the general approach, if not collaborate with them on the complete system, for my HSK Trainer software. See the paper by Timothy W. Richardson on the list below.
I discovered their work during my own academic work at Teachers College, and instantly recognized the method from the one I first discovered in the amazing "Learning Chinese Characters" by Alison Matthews and Laurence Matthews. This later work is more ambitious and combines writing, meaning, sound, tone and usage into a single unified framework; The initial work by Heisig and Richardson was focused more firmly on character recognition and meaning, and in my sixth year of learning Chinese I am moving toward thinking that this is perhaps the best starting point for focus on the written language.
Check back here as we learn more, and of course, as our product takes shape to leverage this excellent work.