ADDIE: Design

DESIGN

One of the most important accomplishments in the Design process (if not the entire model) is the creation of an instructional goal and objectives.

At the heart of every design project are value-laden questions such as “How should this material be prioritized?” “What does the audience need to know about this subject?” and “What do they want to do with the information?” – Interactivity by Design, Kirstof & Satran p. 26.

In this second step of the ADDIE model, think about design in terms of developing a lesson plan as well as the components you will use in your project. Where do we start with a lesson plan? Determining the goal and objectives as well as thinking through the steps the learner will take to reach those objectives. For those of you designing a class web page, you will have more than one audience in which to identify the goal and objective.

There are a number of considerations to identify while in this stage of the process. Examples include: what skills do users need to have in order to use your product? What is the sequence for the material that you will be covering? Is there a sequential order, or is this simply pieces of information that are separate and distinct? What is the appropriate medium for your product?

Objectives set the criteria for how a lesson or course will be evaluated. If the students can meet the objectives at the end of a course, then the course was successful as designed. Depending on what your objectives are for the user, assessment can be a part of the learning experience, or, can be in a separate product, or not deemed necessary. If you are using this as a tool for students for learning specific information, then the assessment piece needs to be included in some manner. Your identified objectives will clearly state the learning outcomes you hope to achieve.

Some of you may be familiar with the acronym SMART as a tool for writing good lesson or product objectives:

Specific
Measurable
Action oriented (or aligned with learning goals)
Reasonable
Timely (Piskurich, 2000)

The tricky part for us as product developers, educators, communicators, etc is to design the product interface to be transparent to the user. By that, I mean that the information is the central focus for the user, not the need to learn how to use or move through the product. As Krug (2000) states: your goal is to make your [product] self-evident, do that just by looking at it, the average user will know what it is and how to use it p. 18).

Designing for ease of user is a critical factor to the success of your product. Just as we attempt to eliminate distractions in live classroom instruction, so too we must keep the distractions down for the user as they interact with our product.