Learner Centred Design for a Hybrid Interaction Application

Learner centred design methods highlight the importance of involving the stakeholders of the learning process (learners, teachers, educational researchers) at all stages of the design of educational applications and of refining the design through an iterative prototyping process. These methods have been used successfully when designing systems employing innovative concepts or technologies. In this paper we describe the design process of Move Grapher, a GPS-enabled, mobile learning application to support the teaching and learning of kinematic graphs in in schools and colleges to children aged 15 – 17. Move Grapher implements a hybrid mode of interaction; besides implementing a graphical user interface, it enables learners to employ an embodied type of interaction as a way of supporting them in generating learning insights. Involving stakeholders and iterative prototyping were important methods in the design process, however, the innovative nature of the technologies employed and the embodied element of the interface had a decisive influence in determining the roles the stakeholders played as well as the nature of the deployed prototypes.