Computers & Education 59 (2012) 722-731

Main problem:

The design of educational software interface has a multidisciplinary nature. It takes at least two different experts to create a high quality interface: a designer and a teacher.

The Case:

Authors observe four experts designing an interface. The experts worked in pairs: An experienced designer together with a chemistry teacher and a design student with chemistry professor. Each pair was asked to design two interfaces about chemistry. They had 2 h sessions for both designs after which they briefed the outcome to the experimenter.

Results:

Designers used different approaches: (“integrate as fast as you can” and “structure then design”). Both designers were unfamiliar with the domain and thus the effect of interaction in pair could be causing the differences (partly). Educators played different roles in pairs: one pair shared all tasks, the other divided them. The lack of knowledge of learning theories on the experienced designer’s side was the major source of debates. The structure of all designs was the same: web-page-like. The graphs presenting the quantitative data shows how the experts used their time.