Game Design Course Dashboard

Despite having different goals, these groups had some needs and fears that were quite similar. Thus, I created a Venn Diagram between the three groups. Though our diagram doesn’t have everything they share, the image below reflects a significant amount of their commonalities/similarities.

Here is some feedback I have received after the first round of critiques:

• The entire dashboard should not be presentation-focused since it takes away attention from what speakers are actually saying
• My dashboards placed a heavy emphasis on simplicity which is good, since it eliminates distractions, but also lacks core functionalities and might cause listeners to fall asleep and not be engaged.

Knowing that I should work on these points, the main concern at the moment was balancing functionality and aesthetic. This will be a topic my black and white dashboard will aim to address.

This time, my design had a really clear point of entry. The contrast between the black sidebar and the white background allowed for both sections to be emphasized. The gray text box welcomed users to add in their own thoughts, opinions on the presentation as a whole. The black sidebar encouraged users to add category-specific feedback to those sections, as well as answers to the presenters questions. The design had core functionalities and allowed listeners to give feedback and listen to what the presenters are saying.

In addition, I shifted the focus of the dashboard from it being presentation-focused to topic-focused. Having additional pages where users can either give topic-specific feedback or help answer greatly improves the functionality of the dashboard, as listeners are motivated to give targeted feedback to the presenters.

Instructor Version

The design rationale for the instructor view was pretty much the same as that for the student view. There are several key differences:

• Instructors can give general comments and see each student’s general comments. Based on that feedback, the instructor can tell whether students have mastered the material or not.
• To allow instructors to facilitate the flow of discussion, instructors can add topics to the bar of the conversation.
• Instructors have the power to endorse comments and give general feedback. However, they cannot give topic-specific feedback since it allows for instructors to observe how conversations are going naturally, showing knowledge of concepts learned in class.

Feedback Received

Here’s what I learned from direct student feedback and inspirations from other presenters during critiques:

• Many features/tabs on website = high chance of distraction. Putting all the information in one spot or place will get the point across and make dashboard easier to use, as functionalities are located all in one spot.
• The incorporation of analytics and gauge to see which students were active/inactive is really beneficial for the instructor. This included graphs, statistics, percentages.
• Things I should continue to do that day: grayed out text box asking for general feedback, endorse/likes, black-white layout.

In all, what I learned from critiques was that simplicity was a good choice to make, but it is now time to bring all the functionalities together to make an accessible and non-distracting dashboard.

In terms of color, I decided to go with lighter, duller, shades of blue since it emphasizes text without becoming too distracting and powerful. I chose shades of light blue for instructor-endorsed comments since it popped out out of the shades of white and black, allowing it to be emphasized just the right amount. Darker shades went well with text embellishments, as it paired well with the black text and white background.

In terms of the black side bar, I added two features: livestream of comments and questions to consider. Comments from all students will appear on this bar, and students can search through them using the search bar or, they can swipe right to like the comments. The questions are also on the side bar so students can think about the questions throughout the presentation, and answer them as the presentation progresses.

Instructor Version

Inspired by the insights incorporating analytics can bring, I decided to incorporate some here as well. On the black side bar, I added users that have not yet engaged as much. This gives the instructor a chance to check in with those that may be distracted, not engaged, or lost. The second section I added was the common keywords: it allows the instructor to peruse through topics that students are frequently mentioning in their responses. The size of the word correlates to how frequently the word was mentioned.

In terms of the content in the white box, it is split evenly between seeing what comments should be endorsed and a place where general feedback can be given. I figured that as an instructor, they do both conversation moderation and feedback-giving as well, explaining the need to split the section evenly.

These designs allowed for most core functionalities to exist in one spot while keeping the dashboard simple and usable, which is an improvement from the last one which had many tabs and features.

Feedback Received

At this stage of the process, I received the following tips to improve the aesthetics and functionality of the dashboards:

• The placement of the black side bar was not consistent and did not make sense. The viewer’s attention is first directed to the white box on one version and in another version, it is directed to the black box first.
• Adding category tabs to each comment will allow grouping of comments to happen more easily/accessibly
• A lot of the text is too thin, not readable

Instructor Version

Caption: Final design of the instructor dashboard

Animated Versions

Listener version to the left, instructor to the right.