Cycles of Iteration

Design Process

Pilot Study

Development of the Cycles of Iteration interface was assisted using the process of a situated design inquiry, or what might be called “design through use.”

This study used situated evaluation as a way to examine the interaction between a newly developed mediated pedagogical design and the specific, contextual and experiential circumstances of a group of users.

The Cycles of Iteration interface was pilot tested using a group of 24 undergraduate students enrolled in a Communication course entitled “Introduction to Digital Video.” The course was offered at a second year level with no production experience required.

The following table gives the time requirements needed to present each cycle and complete the related module during the pilot study.

Cycle	Presentation of Material	Completion of Module	Dates
Cycle 1	Pre Ð 10 min Pro Ð 20min Post Ð 5min Review Ð 5min Total = 40min	Production Ð 60min Screening Ð 60min	January 6, 2003   Total time = one day
Cycle 2	Pre Ð 60min + discussion (20min) Pro Ð 15min	Pre-Production With some Production Ð 1Week	January 13, 2003
	Pro Ð 40min Post Ð 30min	Production and Post-Production Ð 1Week	January 20, 2003
	Review Ð 20min Total = 3hours	Screening Ð 2hours	January 27, 2003 Total time = 2Weeks
Cycle 3	Pre Ð 20min part 1	Pre-Production Ð 1Week	January 27, 2003
	Pre Ð 2hours part 2 Pro Ð 40min	Production Ð 1Week	February 3, 2003
	Post Ð 2hours + 30min for questions	Post-Production Ð 1Week	February 10, 2003
	Review Ð 20min Total = 5.8hours	Screening with critique Ð 4hours	February 17, 2003 Total time = 3Weeks

Table 1 Dates and Times for completion of each practical module

 

Users (in this case students) participate in the design development by their contributions of content suggestions and evaluations of the design’s usefulness.