Designing animated pictorial instructions: A methodology proposed for the Open University of the Unified Health System in Brazil (UNA-SUS/UFMA)

Animated pictorial instructions are effective resources for learning medical content (e.g., surgical procedures). Considering this, the Open University of the Unified Health System of the Federal University of Maranhão (UNA-SUS/UFMA) in Brazil employs animation in their distance learning courses. From 2009 to the present the UNA-SUS/UFMA has offered 48 e-courses to health professionals, reaching around 470,000 enrolments. The development of animated instructions at UNA-SUS/UFMA considers medical and pedagogical knowledge only, lacking information design expertise to reach communication effectiveness. Thus, a design methodology was proposed based on: (a) the results of an analytical study of 100 medical animations; (b) the outcomes of a context analysis of the UNA-SUS/UFMA design process through interviews with the heads of the educational production departments; and (c) the results of an online questionnaire with 1,735 health professionals. The methodology consists of three phases: (1) Structuring: identification and arrangement of different contents (introductory content, inventory information, steps, warnings), resulting in an animation script; (2) Representation: definition of the animation graphic appearance and technological resources (e.g., pictorial style, camera framing, interaction cues), resulting in a visual storyboard or mock-up/prototype that can be tested with users (e.g., comprehension, usability tests); and (3) Finalization: programming and production of the animation. For each phase, instruments/protocols were developed to aid decision-making (form, guidelines and checklist). To evaluate the methodology, a focus group was conducted with the animation stakeholders/developers of the UNA-SUS/UFMA. The results were positive, but suggestions were made to improve the decision-making instruments, which were considered in the methodology final design.

Domestic Care in the Sixteenth Century

This essay combines a gendered approach with a perspective on the spatial, material, and performative dimensions of care practices within sixteenth-century German domestic environments. Terminological and semantic challenges of premodern and modern vocabularies are discussed first. The essay questions dichotomies between public, communal, and institutional care versus private, domestic care in light of the collaboration between internal and external experts and the collective nature of infirmity and caregiving. Using a case study of written and pictorial instructions in an illustrated surgeon’s manual, the essay suggests the value of interdisciplinary approaches to the field of premodern care.

The Importance of Self-Efficacy to Usability: Grounded Theory Analysis of a Child's Toy Assembly Task

Traditional usability measures such as effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction may not fully describe usability across domains and user groups. Qualitative Grounded Theory analysis was employed to study children assembling toys from pictorial instructions. The resulting model showed that usability problems can have a striking impact beyond just performance, affecting the user's self-efficacy, particularly among girls who tend to use internal attributions and equate difficulty with low ability. Without sufficient self-efficacy, the child will likely choose not to engage with assembly tasks and may regard him or herself as inadequately skilled in that area. Usability professionals should consider adding self-efficacy measures to provide more complete assessments.

Misconceptions surrounding videoconferencing

We carried out a study to assess the level of training required by hospital staff to operate a videoconferencing system. Fifty members of hospital staff, who had no previous videoconferencing experience, were studied. When using simple pictorial instructions, they took on average just under 6 min to connect successfully to a remote site. Male subjects connected faster (average 309 s) than female subjects (385 s; P<0.01). Subjects of 40 years or younger connected faster (average 311 s) than those over 40 years (average 398 s; P<0.02). Only three individuals (6%) required supplementary help via the telephone. Dedicated training may not be necessary when simple pictorial instructions are available to the operator.

Processing text and pictures in procedural instructions

Background. Following procedural instructions normally requires the learner to interpret written information before carrying out any action.This interpretation entails transforming pictorial and/or linguistic information into a series of actions. Current psychological models propose that these two kinds of information are not processed in the same way,and that pictures lead more directly to the construction of a mental representation than does text. If this is so, then giving pictorial instructions to carry out an action seems more appropriate than giving text.However, processing instructions sometimes fails, even with picture formats. One approach to studying why this kind of communication fails is to investigate how textual and pictorial information is processed.