Toolkit

This Toolkit is a collection of tools, books, videos, courses and resources from various disciplines for those involved in design for learning experiences.



Latest research

      News & Blogs

      • The ELearning Coach - An eLearning Interface Designer's hero, Connie Malamed specializes in both visual design and elearning.
      • Hack Education - Audry Waters is an Education writer with an expert and down-to-earth grasp of the trends and issues in educational technology.
      • Usable Learning - Author and Instructional Designer Julie Dirksen shares insights on learning design and usability for learning.

      Articles

      Magazines

      • UX Magazine is an enjoyable, well designed, quality read on all issues relevant to designers of the User Experience
      • UX Matters is a reliable source of insights and trends in user experience.
      • Elearn Magazine is a highly accessible publication of the ACM, rich in views on online learning research and practice in higher education and beyond.
      • Learning Solutions is a window into eLearning in practice with special focus on industry.
      • Interactions Magazine is a top notch fresh and scholarly look at the cutting edge in ideas and innovation in HCI.  It is a publication of the ACM and their Special Interest Group SIGCHI.

      Talks

      Online Courses

      Learn by example as well as by expert by taking these excellent and free courses online.

      Web goodies

      • The Web Style Guide is a book on the fundamentals of web design.  Authors Sarah Horton and Patrick Lynch have generously made a version of the book available for free online.
      • Konigi "Tools for ideation" makes a host of wonderful resources available from superb Wireframe stencils to design inspiration.
      •  Visual Vocabulary by Jessie James Garrett's is a standardized set of shapes and connectors you can use for creating professional design artefacts and deliverables.
      • Design Thinking for Educators Toolkit is Stanford's d.school's initiative to apply Design Thinking to Education.

      Handy Tools

      • Mental Notes, created by Stephen Anderson, is a beautiful set of cards, each describing and depicting a basic principle of web-relevant human psychology. 
      • IDEO Method cards is a 51 card deck of Design Thinking methods and a great way to stimulate and organize ideas in a workshop, in a group, or or on your own.  Note: the Design Thinking Bootcamp Bootleg has a lot of this content in a free (if less fun and versatile) format.
      • Instructional Design Guru is your cheat sheet, quick look-up app, for all those learning terms that get bandied about with abandon.


      Books

      Faux book ipad cases at TwelveSouth.
      As designers of digital learning environments we must be well versed in everything web design in addition to the aspects of learning theory that relate to the user experience.

      I wouldn't claim to have a definitive book list here, but these are at least, a few of the books I have found incredibly useful on my journey towards best practice in Interface Design for Learning.

      A good place to start...
      Interface Design for Learning - Dorian Peters

      Education, Multimedia Learning & eLearning design
        Design, psychology & foundational prnciples
        Visualizations, infographics  other Educational Graphics
          Interaction Design, Interface Design & User Experience
          Focuses: Usability, Information Architecture, Content Strategy, Games, etc.


            Know another great resource?

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