Task-centered user interface design of an algorithm animation program
Yolanda Jacobs Reimer · The Mathematics Enthusiast · 1996
Numerous algorithm animation systems designed and implemented in the last decade have been predicated on the belief that graphical animation tools will help students learn algorithms better than traditional methods alone.Many studies have been conducted to date, both informally and empirically, to test whether or not this initial belief is true.The results of these studies have been somewhat mixed.In general, existing algorithm animation systems have not proved as significantly effective in helping students to learn as was initially hypothesized.The question of how to make algorithm animation systems more effective as instructional tools continues to be studied today.This research attempts to find more effective ways to create algorithm animation systems by using a task-centered user interface design approach to design and implement a prototypical algorithm animation program.Also incorporated into this prototype system are the results and conclusions derived from previous studies.Upon completion of the implementation of the algorithm animation program, user testing is conducted to see which elements of the design were most successful.Although this research is informal and exploratory in nature, it nonetheless reaches important conclusions in the area of effectiveness of algorithm animation programs as instructional tools.Certain conclusions reached in this study are found to coincide with those of prior studies --for example, all the users of the algorithm animation system in this study reported feeling excited and interested in using the program, a result that also occurred in previous studies.However, this study also reaches some new and important conclusions in its own right, such that algorithm animation systems are greatly enhanced when they are designed from the user's perspective and when they include visual and textual semantic redundancy.v