Betsy, What you're looking for is the field of "usability studies" (See The Usable Web http://www.usableweb.com) Jakob Nielsen (Designing Web Usability) is just on of many folks out there advocating for simple clear design that is based on people's responses and ability to accomplish tasks. Nielsen recommends testing designs with groups of users to work out problems in the design. Many of Nielsen's writings are also available online at http://www.alertbox.com Nielsen also addresses the need to write differently for the web as reading on-screen is very different than on paper. There are also a number of other web sites that offer "writing for the web" tutorials as well. Our colleagues in the library sciences are also working on the issue, see http://www.lita.org/litapubs/lg7.html Richard Urban Web-site Coordinator The Historical Society of Pennsylvania 1300 Locust St. Philadelphia, PA 19107 [log in to unmask] www.hsp.org > -----Original Message----- > From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On > Behalf Of Betsy Price > Sent: Monday, September 17, 2001 3:41 PM > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: A ? about exhibits and web interactives > > > Hi All: > > I am working on a team of evaluators for a web-based textbook. It is > an entire curriculum package of a greatly reduced textbook, wet labs, > and a huge website with interactives. > > My question comes from my observations of students and teachers using > the interactive pages on the website. Students and teachers are > reacting to the website activities like a visitor to an exhibit. For > example students will click until they can get something to move > before reading about the activity. If nothing moves, they will assume > it is “broken” and move on. Another example is that the most > successful text is designed similar to exhibit labeling. > > Does anyone have any ideas who may have written a paper or noticed > anything similar? Any suggestions? > > Betsy > > > Betsy Price 801-596-2619 > SciEd Consultants 801-230-3031 cell > 853 Northcliffe [log in to unmask] > Salt Lake City, UT 84103 [log in to unmask] > > ========================================================= > Important Subscriber Information: > > The Museum-L FAQ file is located at > http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain > detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a > one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The > body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). > > If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line > e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of > the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes). > > ========================================================Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).