DYSLEXIA FRIENDLY APP
People who suffer from dyslexia can experience difficulties in reading when using certain apps (Leon et al., 2017). To make their experience and education easier, the team decided to incorporate some rules in our design, such as:
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1. USING SANS SERIF FONTS
2. AVOIDING UNDERLYING AND ITALICS
3. USING SUFFICIENT CONTRAST LEVELS BETWEEN BACKGROUND AND TEXT
Sans serif fonts are easier to read & dyslexic-friendly
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We used a strong contrast between text & background
Empirical Data
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Rello and Baeza-Yates (2013) conducted an experimental study on 48 participants with dyslexia and reported that font types impact readability for people with dyslexia. Sans serif, roman and mono spaced font types increased reading performance of participants, whilst italic fonts decreased readability.
GESTALT THEORY EXPLAINED
Gestalt is German for “unified whole”
GESTALT THEORY argues that the task of perception is to recognize objects in the environment according to the organisation of the elements (Connolly et al., 2016).
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GESTALT PRINCIPLES are principles of perception that illustrate how humans organize similar elements, recognize patterns and clarify complex images when perceiving objects (Martin & Carlson, 2019).
Gestalt principles are often used in UX design.
GESTALT PRINCIPLES
SIMILARITY
The principle of similarity states that when items have similar visual characteristic (e.g., colour, shape) they are considered to be a part of the same group (Maltby et al., 2017).
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An example of it in Organize ME can can be seen in the very similar design of buttons.
CONTINUATION
Continuity occurs when the eye is guided to move from one object to another (Joo et al., 2017).
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This principle can be noticed in the creation of our home page, where the menu is located.
CLOSURE
Individuals visualize certain objects and letters as whole even if the part is missing.
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We applied that perspective principle to or our logo - instead of writing "organize me!" the team decided to write
org. me!
GOAL SETTING THEORY
goals
achieved
with our help
THE IMPORTANCE OF GAMIFICATION EFFECT
Gamification predominantly focuses at improving users' positive motivations regarding offered actions and in that way, improves the user engagement on the activity and the quality of the content produced.
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The team decided to gamify the app to make the user engage more.
INCENTIVES INCORPORATED INTO ORGANIZE ME
THOUGHT
Create well thought out incentives to give to the users.
PRACTICE
Incorporated ‘positive’ emojis when a task has been done appropriately (e.g., enough time spent on one module in a week progress)
CONCLUSION
Rewards and incentives can increase performance and create a sense of progress.
The Importance of Incentives
Incentives are an exterior motivating component that supports the motive which constructively leads the person into accomplishing more, attaining the needed accomplishment in the organization/institution,
as to achieve the incentive (Alfandi & Alkahsawneh, 2014).
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An experimental study conducted by Alfandi and Alkahsawneh (2014) reported
strong association with increased performance when given incentives.
OPERANT CONDITIONING
It can be elaborated that Organize ME Goals page (which includes positive praise after the goal is achieved) can be rationalized through Skinner’s (1948) theory of operant conditioning (as cited in Martin & Carlson, 2019). The theory proposed that positive reinforcement after a given behaviour makes it more probable that the behaviour will happen in the future.
The Effects of Digital Achievements on
Motivation
Groening and Binnewies (2019) conducted a study which investigated the effects of digital achievements on motivation and performance in three experiments. Results show that achievements are effective in promoting motivation measured by persistence. A high quantity of achievements appears to be non-effective or at least less effective compared to a low quantity of achievements.
Applications to the app:
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1) Include Achievement Rewards, but only a few of them
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Do you know that writing about goals can improve academic achievements?
Schippers et al. (2020) conducted an experimental study on 2928 participants and stated that the individuals who wrote about their goals reported an increase in their academic performance.
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Considering the literature elaborated, the team in Organize ME decided to create a goal section in the design of their app. The goals section was also highly requested from the user testing, therefore there was no doubt in what to do next.