Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Information and Instructional Design

Instructional Design




Instructional Design is a means of finding effective ways in which best to portray media based in the learning needs of the learner and aid the instructor to convey information in an efficient way. Instructional designers are required to verify many different aspects about the learner they are designing for, to cater the right portrayal of instructions, as different learning objectives demand different methods of instruction. Instructional Designers utilize the ADDIE model to develop instructional materials. This model has five phases which are Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation. Instructions can be portrayed in different forms which are text, pictures and verbal.




Example:
Instructions portrayed visually using pictures

Instructions portrayed by text




Information Design


The organisation of data into comprehensive and logical information for users is known as Information Design. It has come to surface as a reaction to people’s essential need to understand and utilize information such as using a computer interface and completing forms. Its principal focus is about how we humans interpret what we hear and see into coherent information. Is a growing field that branches into graphic design, typography, ergonomics, computing studies, literature etc. Designers primarily consider the skill, purpose, age and preferences of the intended user so that they are able to present information in various forms into structured data in a clear and comprehensible manner. Data is usually structured into hierarchy or instinctive groups that enable users to easily navigate through it, for example in alphabetical order, in categories, location and time. Successful information design allows users to access information with ease and caters towards diverse need of each of these users.


Examples:
·
Phone books ( in alphabetical order)


· Street Directories (Alphabetical and Categorised in location)


· http://www.ebay.com/ (Categorised into location, time, types etc)


·
http://www.whereis.com/ (Categorised into location)



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