Online AND Printed Versions:

• We are offering both an online eBook manual and a printed format. Because teachers tend to learn material for their classes outside of the classroom, whether it's at home or on the go, we offer the interactive online manual with links and multimedia. This online version can be accessed on a teacher's home computer or on their mobile. When class is in session, the teacher should refer to the printed manual because using electronics in the hydroponic classroom is a hazard. This printed manual can easily be carried around the classroom and referred to when working with the hydroponics.

Improved Organization:

• We reorganized the table of contents and following content in the manual to walk users from the beginning to end steps: from setting up the hydroponic systems to harvesting crops.

Removed Extraneous Content and Text:

• We trimmed extraneous text in step-by-step instructions so that users can absorb important points more quickly.

• We removed extraneous facts, aka "seductive details," that were distracting from the immediate task at hand.

• We removed the section on aquaponics. Since this is an optional system, this could be made into a separate supplemental guide for schools that buy this system. For learners without an aquaponic system, we felt that it might cause confusion to include this information.

Improved Clarification in Tasks & System Models:

• We removed the long text labels on the system models and replaced with an alphabetical key.

• We enlarged the system model images to alleviate eye strain, as well as allow some page room for teachers to make their own notes here.

• Instead of large paragraphs, we redesigned the learning material into easy-to-read, step-by-step tasks.

Formatted for UX Readability:

• We added more negative space to let the eyes rest, such as inserting more room between headers and text body.

• We adjusted the color combinations to support color blind users (i.e.: "Plant Maintenance Calendar") to improve readability for a wider range of users.

Quicker Access to Online Content with QR Codes:

• In the printed manual, we added QR codes that the teacher can use their mobile phone to access the online interactive content, such as videos, articles, and tutorials. When the teacher needs a quick answer while in the classroom, they simply flip to the corresponding chapter and scan the QR code. The code will immediate bring up the chosen tutorial or article to help solve their issue.

New Content - Glossary:

• In the online manual, teachers can simply click a bolded word, which tells the user that this is a vocabulary word, and a definition will pop-up on the webpage. This interactive glossary helps learners to reduce load of the working memory by preventing users from having to leave current content to find an answer and then having to return to the task at hand.

• In addition, we included an alphabetized vocabulary list with definitions at the end of the manual.

According to Dirksen, "While it’s always great if one person helps another person, that help can be useful to many more people if it happens “out loud” (e.g., on a message board) so that others can also benefit" (2012, p. 255).

Community

• This forum will serve as a peer support network by fostering a learning community & providing social proof to other teachers.

• Teachers can ask and answer questions, share tips, and provide additional resources, like lesson plans and discussion prompts.

Social Proof

• The forum can help illustrate the why for less motivated learners when teachers share stories about fun projects, increased student engagement, etc. Seeing how other teachers use their systems can influence new or hesitant learners.

• With other teachers as examples, learners can simultaneously benefit from the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) by witnessing the system's usefulness and ease of use.

New Content: FAQs

• In the forum, we also created an FAQ section for teachers to seek answers to common system issues.

• This FAQ section would be monitored and maintained by the NY Sun Works technical staff. As the technical staff receive phone calls and text messages from teachers, they add these questions to an excel sheet that is shared among their colleagues. Once the NYSW staff see 2-3 similar questions in the excel, these can be added to the FAQ section by the NYSW staff.

• By helping teachers to troubleshoot common problems by themselves, this reduces the number of calls/messages the NYSW staff need to field and frees the NYSW staff to attend to more urgent problems or new projects.

• Teachers also improve their confidence and problem-solving skills because they were able to fix the issue on their own.

Although it seemed to be simple & straightforward task at first, editing the manual turned out to be a huge project. We needed to rethink each and every task because the steps in the existing manual were often unclear and not presented in a natural order. This included relabeling models in a more coherent fashion and rewriting the text for using these systems so that the learner could grow their plants from seed to harvest. There are still major areas missing from the manual (valves, timers, and lighting) that we were unable to address because there are no text, instructions, videos, or real-life photos to give us some guidance. On the other hand, we removed whole sections to be discussed in a separate manual because these were considered supplemental systems and not every school implemented aquaponics or composting. In the redesign, we also had to resolve many UX issues that were overloading the working memory, which were inhibiting the learning process.

At the beginning of this course, we thought we were going to address the NYSW's 10 lessons guide. However, we figured out that by first revising the manual in a more organized, fully-detailed manner, the team of NYSW can now update the 10 lessons guide to follow a more natural flow of information.

Dirksen, J. (2012). Design for how people learn. Berkeley, CA: New Riders.

Laubheimer, P. (2020, October 11). Spatial memory: why it matters for UX. Nielsen Norman Group. Retrieved April 11, 2021, from https://www.nngroup.com/articles/spatial-memory/

Mayer, R.E. (2020). Multimedia Learning (3rd ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Mobile Spoon. (2018, November 24). UX writing: 40 rules for writing and designing text in products. Retrieved April 11, 2021, from https://www.mobilespoon.net/2018/11/ux-writing-comprehensive-guide-for.html

Tempel, A. (2019, January 24). An in-depth (?) look into good text layouts. UX Collective. Retrieved April 11, 2021, from https://uxdesign.cc/an-in-depth-look-into-good-text-blog-layouts-8773788c5b2c

Yalanska, M. UX design: how to make user interface readable. Tubikstudio. Retrieved April 11, 2021, from https://blog.tubikstudio.com/ux-design-readable-user-interface/