Good and Bad Design

In this week's assignment, we were asked to find two websites. One website serves as an example of good design, with respect to how graphics and images are integrated into its layout, and the other website as an example of bad design.

Good Design - Brain Pop Jr.

Brain Pop Jr. is the website for younger children like Brain Pop is the website geared towards higher elementary students. As you can see from the screenshot, there are distinct sections for each academic subject as well as links for educators [located on the lower left]. The coloring changes when you hover over each section so that you know which link you are selecting. The homepage does a good job of incorporating both images and flash into the navigation. The dual coding (Paivio, 1990), or pairing a visual with text, makes it easy for even the very young to identify. The brief flash video showcases the video of the week which is "spatially and timely coordinated with text to minimize cognitive load" (Moreno and Mayer, 1999; Mayer et al., 1996). An added bonus is how an auditory narration is provided when you hover over each link. All of these features are presented in different modalities, which are processed by different cognitive systems, and do not overload working memory (Moreno and Mayer, 1999).

Bad Design - Kids Know It

Navigating this site and filtering through all the text requires more usage of our working memory. There are some images but not enough to aid in searching for where you wish to go (Larkin and Simon, 1987). The graphics that are included on this site seem to be randomly thrown together and get lost in the sea of text.