Listening to the Learner: Strategies, Examples, and Implications from Research on a Medical Information Website

Public lecture for UW students and faculty
by Jennifer Turns
March 28, 2001

View: Web-based PowerPoint presentation

"User-centered design" and "know thy user" are important ways to approach effective informational website design. Often, user-centered design work has focused on users who are engaged in completing common tasks. When the user is a learner, interesting issues arise concerning what it means to "know thy user." Specific issues include the type of information to collect about users and the strategies for collecting the information.

In recent work, I have been collaborating with an interdisciplinary team to explore the issue of knowing thy user when the user is a learner. In the broad context, we have been working to enhance and expand a medical information website, the Arthritis Source. The intent of the Arthritis Source is to help users learn about arthritis by providing them with learner-centered, high quality information about arthritis-related issues. A large portion of our effort has been devoted to knowing more about the user. To do this, we have been using a number of strategies we have come to describe as strategies for "listening to the learner." Furthermore, these listening strategies seem well suited for the challenges of knowing a learner. In my talk, I will focus on these issues. Specifically, I will (a) point out some unique features of learners that may impact what it means to "know thy user," (b) discuss the importance of and strategies for "listening to the learner," and (c) provide examples of these ideas in our work on the Arthritis Source.