UX In The Classroom
What is User Experience Design?
User experience design involves considering the overall experience of the website or application from the user's perspective. In the field of education, it must align with the User Experience Design for Learning honeycomb, created by Peter Morville. This honeycomb illustrates the various areas that designers need to focus on when developing their applications or websites. It also serves as a valuable framework for educators to consider when selecting applications or websites for use in their classrooms.
Why should educators care?
User experience design is instrumental in ensuring that students can focus on learning without the distraction of figuring out how to use a piece of technology or navigate a website or application. When students encounter a website that is difficult to use or visually unappealing, they often become disengaged, which hinders learning. Therefore, technology must have a clear purpose and align with specific goals and needs (Troop et al., 2020, p.3). If teachers select tools that do not fit within the User Experience Design for Learning honeycomb, it can complicate the learning process. From a scientific perspective, this increases unnecessary cognitive processing and cognitive load, thereby preventing students from engaging in deeper learning (Mayer, 2006, 2009).