THE GOAL
Design a Learning Environment for Novice Photographers
The goal of this project was to design a learning environment that allows novices to gain the necessary competences of a specific job. Since my colleague and I were passionate photographers ourselves, we decided to create a project around this topic. The result of this project was a photography simulation combined with just in time tutorials.
TIMEFRAME
1 month
CONTEXT
Class Project at University Pierre-Mendes-France in Grenoble
TEAM
1 User Researcher/UX Designer (me)
1 Visual Designer
RESEARCH
Work Analysis
Contextual Inquiry
The goal was to understand the job context, the range of activities and situations a professional is usually engaged in, and the knowledge, education and competences needed to do the job of a photographer. The contextual inquiry helped to define learning objectives and suitable tasks for teaching a novice how to use a DSLR camera.
Observation
We observed an expert in her job and monitored her behavior in a given task.
Since photography is a non-verbal and non-collaborative activity, we asked the photographer to express what she was doing and thinking during the activity and why.
Interview
After the observation phase we conducted a short interview to ask remaining questions.
MODELISATION
The Process of Taking a Picture with a DSLR
Based on the insights we gained during observation and interview we developed a working model that depicts the process of taking a picture with a DSLR camera.
CONCEPT
An Online Simulation
Photography is a discipline that needs procedural AND semantic knowledge. While simulations allow for acquiring procedural knowledge in form of a trial-and-error approach, tutorials provide the necessary background information users will store in form of semantic knowledge.
This is why we designed a simulation environment, where users can change individual settings and receive immediate feedback about the impact. This way users can learn by doing without having to own a DSLR themselves. In this process the user will build his/her own conceptual model of how the DSLR works. Just in time tutorials allow to dig deeper and if needed correct a false conceptual models.
Learning Scenarios
- ISO
- White balance
- Aperture
- Shutter Speed
- Set aperture + shutter speed
- Set aperture + shutter speed + ISO
- Set all together