Team Pyxis

• About
  • Project Description
  • About the Team
  • About the HCII
• Research
  • Domain Knowledge
  • Field Research
  • Insights
  • Personas
• Design
  • Ideation
  • Evaluation Methods
  • Refinement
• Solution
  • Final Prototype
  • Future Directions
  • Downloads & Files

Captivate students’ attention.

The concept of a hook illustrates the first phase of our educational model, which discusses different methods educators use to catch students' attention and obtain their initial interest for a given topic. According to our findings, there are several components that contribute to an effective hook. First, it is based on ideas that are familiar and understandable to students, but presented in a unique context. This allows them to recognize it, but adds the unfamiliar or mysterious aspect adds a “cool” appeal. Second, it caters to the diverse interests and knowledge levels of the audience. Using visual content and presenting information in layers are two techniques educators use to pique interest in new information.

1. Curiosity arises from familiar topics with a new twist.
2. Students have diverse interests.
3. Visuals universally attract attention.
4. Hierarchy of information facilitates browsing.

Relate it to their world.

Students enjoy learning about areas that relate to their lives and serve a clear purpose. High school students, college freshmen, teachers, and flight controllers also expressed that they enjoy learning about areas that build on their prior knowledge, unveiling new insights that are interesting and beneficial to know. Through literature, we've learned that a good way to cement the information that the student is learning is to simply connect it to the students and provide purpose and relevance to why they are learning about these topics. The student will find more enjoyment when they can draw parallels to their past classes and what they have learned before. By drawing connections to students and building off of their prior knowledge, students will find value in what they learn.

1. Familiarity facilitates interest.
2. Students want to see value in what they learn.
3. Different perspectives enrich the story.
4. Camaraderie resonates with students and flight controllers.

Create a visceral experience.

We identified two driving qualities of the interesting activities mentioned by flight controllers and students: emotional and technical. Some stories about the ISS are extremely visceral, while other information is dry and technical (e.g., general details of how things work). Some students are interested in highly technical information, while others are intrigued by the more emotional aspects of the ISS.

Interviews with educators also revealed that certain educational techniques are extremely powerful despite the diversity of students and content types. Namely, hands-on and interactive teaching methods provided almost universal success and popularity amongst the students that we observed. This focus on interactivity could provide the backbone of our educational methodology.

1. Hands-on presentation of information stands out as an educational tool.
2. Science experiments onboard the ISS intrigue students and flight controllers.
3. Students want to know about both technical details and experiential elements of life in space.
4. Emotion adds excitement and increases memorability.
5. High risk and critical activities are most interesting.

Manage interruptions.

The concept of disruption occurs throughout the context of user interaction with digital content. Through observations conducted on students, we identified two main types of disruption. First, the situations where participants lose attention on the current content and exit. Second, the disruption of users' attention flow caused by the imbalance of user's expectation and system response. These disruptions are important aspects to consider in order to empower users to overcome these barriers that will hinder the interaction. From our literature reviews and field research, we consolidated insights on how modern interfaces addresses to the problem of disruptions.

1. Adapting to the environment reduces impact of disruption.
2. Immediate engagement with minimal disruptions keeps users interested.
3. People in control of their experiences are more likely to stay engaged.