Ergonomics is a discipline of science dealing with the effective design of workplaces, products and effective workflow we all, as humans, engage to design effective human interaction. What is meant by the kind of human interaction that it is streamlined and geared towards effort and movement being useful. This reduces the effort and movement exerted due to unwanted or useless activity that causes fatigue and impinges on productivity and ultimately, a product’s desirability. There are many reasons why ergonomics design and technology will be important for your eLearning platform. 

 

The Principle of Least Astonishment

Consistency is the key to ensure ergonomic-traces in course front-end designing:

  1. Icons need to be consistent between the screens.
  2. Selected few aspects of any interface should behave in-tune for all screens across all times.
  3. Color consistency is crucial for similarly functioning screens.
  4. For multiple screens, there should be homogeneity in the terminology.

 

Divide Content into Small Chunks (Miller’s Law)

Miller’s law is named after cognitive psychologist George Miller, who asserted that an average person could keep just five to nine pieces of information in their working memory. This principle suggests separating content into chunks. 

This law underscores the importance of proper design planning. As an application gets larger and acquires more features, it becomes harder to use. You should plan your interface with this in mind so that it can accommodate new features while remaining easy to operate.

 

Make Your Designs Both Aesthetically Pleasant and Simple

You’ll want to keep your course interface uncluttered instead of overwhelming your students with too many options. Unnecessary items compete for space and reduce the visibility of more important features. Keyboard shortcuts, which you may provide or give users the ability to create and edit, are one example of this.

 

Feedback

Individuals now seek actionable feedback, one potent with relevant information. Apart from this, for the ergonomics factor to work optimally, you can also opt for 

  1. Offering apt semantic feedback that assures the action-intention.
  2. Offering articulatory feedback that confirms the physical operation conducted.
  3. Providing appropriate status indicators that reflect the progress of users via lengthy operations.