Academic Research
Workspace | Virtual Learning Environment
Exploring the effect of emotional design features in technology-enhanced learning environments on learner performance
Duration
May 2021 - May 2022
Contributors:
Michaela
My Contribution
Research
User Experience Design
Interface Design
Test Facilitator
Project Type
Academic
User Experience Design
Emotional Design
Affective Design
Exploring the effect of emotional design features in technology-enhanced learning environments on learner performance
There has been an influx of students working remotely as a precursor to the outbreak of COVID-19. This has encouraged educational bodies to rely heavily on Virtual Learning Environments (VLE) such as Moodle and Blackboard to support learning with access to course material. However, studies show a high level of anxiety and disengagement with low motivation levels among online students, exacerbated by COVID-19. Part of the problem is that these environments can be cumbersome to use and cause unnecessary stress to the student.
As part of my MSc in User Experience Design, I explored if positive emotionally designed elements would create a positive affect in participants when applied to a Technology Enhanced Learning Environment (TEL).
Emotional design framework developed for study
Through literary research, I discovered how emotions and moods influence how we interact with products and brands and how our affective states influence our intentions and our plans. I discovered a disparity in emotional design principles implemented in students’ current VLEs. When speaking with and emphasizing with current students I discovered the pain points they faced and themes in their expectations, analysing their preferred apps used on a daily basis and best practice research.
Sample of design system created
Through extensive research of principles, patterns and interactions, I created an emotional design framework and applied it to a prototype emulating the content and functionality held by Blackboard with the implementation of emotional designed features. In comparison I made a duplication of this prototype and stripped it to its neutral form, removing the emotional elements. I tested these two prototypes with students in the online tool Maze with over 70 participants, tasking them with the common use cases in which these platforms are being used, such as downloading a brief and uploading an assignment.
Final positive wireframes for emotionally designed Learning environment
The general hypothesis was that a positive affect would be evoked in participants interacting with the positive prototype, moreover that participants using the positive affect would report a higher usability score, recall score and a faster time on task score compared to participants interacting with the neutral prototype.
Results were analysed to validate the suggested hypothesis where the statistical findings suggested that the interface's implementation of emotionally designed elements had no statistical significance on the participant's positive affect. There were no significant differences within or between groups for time on task and in the case of a recall, the neutral group's results were higher.
Limitations and implications could have led to this result such as subjective design, cognitive load theory and duration of the study. The emotional design framework I created could contribute to future work for other students and researchers when approaching similar work.
