Alien Rescue Environment: Aboard the International Space Station

Problem

Alien Rescue, a 3D problem based learning evironment built by graduate students at The University of Texas at Austin, needed an update. As a research tool for effective problem based learning the Learning Technologies program needed to build it on a stack that would allow for more nimble changes from year to year.

Method

Along with a team of graduate students assuming roles of developers and instructional, graphics and UX designers, I worked to propose redesigns to the Concepts and Missions database tools. Previous designs of both tools required students to tab through pages of material in order to access information critical to solving problems, where they could lose context and experience unecessary cognitive load. Based on student personas and a thorough examination of their mental models I built functional protoypes for both tools.

Result

The tools I was responsible for switched from pages--where information was difficult and tedious to recover--to accordians with relevant and descriptive labels (LEFT), and persistent sidebars to easily move from subconcept to concept (RIGHT).