Evaluation Plan

We narrowed down our methods from all of our above options and decided on the Email Survey. We wanted an option that would be quick, and concise for NYSW teachers, who had minimal time and did not want to burden them with more work. Because our revised guide design does not require teachers to recall information in order to use it, we wanted to have an attitudinal check-in that measured their comfort levels when they refer to our guide (Rohrer, 2014). We wanted to see how our text and formatting revisions, as well as the addition of graphics, compared in terms of readability and comprehension to the old guide. Therefore, We chose an A/B style test by comparing sections from the existing NYSW to our new guide.

One of the issues of designing an email survey was that our target users we not available. We would have liked to distribute a survey to current NYSW teachers to see if our designs clearly-explained the technical systems and step-by-step instructions. Did we capture every step without overdoing the text, which could overload the working memory? Also, if we had access to new NYSW teachers who have never seen the hydroponic systems, we would have liked to ask questions about our designs, to see if we reduced cognitive load by removing bulky (unnecessary) text and extraneous facts (Solomon, 2021). Because our target users were not NYSW teachers, we had to adjust our questions for our Design Process classmates. They were not aware or versed in the NYSW hydroponic systems. So, we needed to write questions that asked our survey takers if we had followed best practices in learning design. We asked if our graphics and formatting overall were easier to understand and to read? What could we change to improve the readability?

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

Rohrer, C. (2014, October 12). When to use which user-experience research methods. Nielsen Norman Group. Retrieved from https://www.nngroup.com/articles/which-ux-research-methods/

Solomon, H. (2021). Cognitive Load Theory (John Sweller). Instructional Design. Retrieved from http://www.instructionaldesign.org/theories/cognitive-load/