User Interface Design for E-Learning Software

User interface (UI) is point of interaction between user and computer software. The success and failure of a software application depends on User Interface Design (UID). Possibility of using a software, easily using and learning are issues influenced by UID. The UI is significant in designing of educational software (e-Learning). Principles and concepts of learning should be considered in addition to UID principles in UID for e-learning. In this regard, to specify the logical relationship between education, learning, UID and multimedia at first we readdress the issues raised in previous studies. It is followed by examining the principle concepts of e-learning and UID. Then, we will see how UID contributes to e-learning through the educational software built by authors. Also we show the way of using UI to improve learning and motivating the learners and to improve the time efficiency of using e-learning software.


B. UI Design Issues
Four common design issues almost always surface: System response time, help facilities available to user, error information handling, and command labeling. It is far better to establish each as a design issue to be considered at the beginning of software design, when changes are easy and costs are low [13].

V. UI DESIGN ISSUES FOR E-LEARNING SOFTWARE
Knowledge about the factors that affect teaching and learning will enable teacher (e-learning designer)to make informed decisions in the teaching activities. This section analyses some important factors affecting teaching and learning, which are related to the UI. Also it presents a way to apply these factors in UI.

A. Stimulus
Learners need to be diligent and active since the main goal

1) Using speech interface
Voice interface can help one overcome situations that are even highly stressful; it enables people to be more relaxed and creative. Moreover, Matching gender, personality, or accent fosters feelings of trust and interest [14].
A particular voice type can affect how much students like the speaker and how hard they try to understand the presented material [15].

2) Using informal communication style instead of formal
In order to stop computer looking like a piece of iron, Speech and text should be presented in an informal style to comfort the learner . Researches [16] show that under appropriate circumstances, people behave like a real person towardsa computer. Thus, to reach our purpose an informal style is more suitable. Nonetheless, the method must be approached carefully so as not to leave learners under the impression that the context is of no importance.Wordusage should not appear to be unreal. It is suggested to use the first person and second person pronouns instead of third-person pronouns.
Researches show that when people feel they are engaged in interactive conversation with the others, they try to understand more than when they just receive information [17].
Researches [18] demonstrate that students, who learn in an informal style, act better than the contrary.
It should be noted that conversation must be polite.
Politeness of speech and behavior acts as a positive impact on learning [19].Furthermore, using polite words rather than imperative phrases increases learning [20].
Learners also gave more positive ratings to the on-screen agent who spoke with a human voice rather than a machine voice on an instrument designed to capture the social characteristics of a speaker [15].

3) Using Animated Pedagogical Agent (APA)
Educational agents are the shapes which appear in educational materials to suggest tips. These shapes can be a cartoon character, a video of a speaking head or specific virtual images (Avatars). Texts, speeches, illustrations, and animations can be used to form an agent [7].
The APA interface face-to-face creates an affective link with user/student [21].
One of the important concerns for an APA presentation is how to achieve the best speech and gesture cooperation [1].
Designers of multimedia learning environments should create life-like on-screen agents that speak in human voice rather than a machine-synthesized voice [15].
Researchers have proven that there is no difference between real and cartoon characters in training. Furthermore,a picture of the agent is not required to be shown while being used; only the voice would be sufficient [22].

4) Using variety of colors in educational Medias
Color variety, causes motivation and attention in students and makes educational materials seem more realistic [23].
Colors can also be used to group related information together. However, it should be noted that if more than 10 colors are involved, distortion of relation between information will be inevitable. Proper use of colors also accelerates reviewing and makes it easier. In addition, enough white space should be used on the interface screen. These spaces can bring order to pages to prevent clutter of information on screen. The last thing to be acknowledged about colors is to use dark text on a light background which expedites the reading [8].

5) Learners having control over learning environment
The learner control strategy has become more appreciated than tutor control or program control. In order to achieve this purpose,the following should be noted: Currently, the commonly used learner control strategies concentrate on the selection of topics, sequencing and pacing of contents,

B. Role of working and long-time memory in learning
Working memory is the mental activity center, where all active thoughts take place. Although this is a powerful processor, its capacity is limited. In fact new information must be processed in working memory, then merge with information into long-term memory, and at the end, when needed; it transfers from long-term memory to working memory to be used [7].
Teaching styles in electronic courses should help learners by using words and images in the course so that it combines with knowledge in long-term memory. To accomplish this, the following should be considered:

1) Highlighting important contents in the lesson
Techniques such as flash, changing colors, and big or/and bold text etc. should be used to highlight important texts and visual information. Another way to attract learner's attention to important contents is to write a list of learning objectives [7].

2) Desaturation of working memory with unnecessary materials
Working memory should be free to process new information. When a limited capacity of working memory is saturated, the process doesn't work properly and learning process becomes slow. Even keeping a limited amount of However, this recommendation does not mean that adding interesting images under all circumstances is wrong, but they are problematic when they interfere with the efforts of the students trying to understand the course.

3) Integration of auditory and visual information in working memory with existing knowledge in long-term memory
Working memory integrates words with images to provide a unified structure, and then these ideas are combined with the existing knowledge in the long-term memory. This issue needs to be processed in the working memory. The textual and visual information being presented together, and not separately, makes it easier to integrate words with images [7] [28].
Texts can be fragmented and placed in different parts of the image. When the text describes an operation or mode on the picture, it can be used as a pop-up message [7].

4) Using elements of the real world
Merely adding new knowledge into the long-term memory is not enough. New knowledge must be encrypted in their longterm memory so that when needed it is simple and quick to recover. Electronic lessons should offer objective and practical activities in the examples and exercises; that way long-term memory is a good position for new knowledge to be retrieved.
The shape and appearance of the educational environment should be based upon the actual environment where the learners at the end of the course should present their acquired information [15].

C. Using multimedia to present lessons
It is recommended to use instructional materials through a combination of visual (such as texts, graphics, etc.) and auditory elements (such as speech, music, etc.). This suggestion is based on two principles [7]: a) Learning theory of mind; this is based on these assumptions: a) Humans have separate channels for processing verbal and visual materials, b) Each of these channels can process a limited amount of information at any given time c) Students seriously try to build visual and verbal models by the presented materials and the relation between them.
b) People understand the materials better, when they are fully engaged in the process. Presenting a content using words and images make learners' mind more active, learners try to establish a relationship between the words and the images.
Using the words solely can encourage students (especially learners who are less experienced) to learn superficially and This is due to the reason that there are two separate channels of information (visual and auditory) going to the brain which helps reduce the compression of information (Figure 2).
It should be indicated that in the presence of a complex material such as a mathematical formula, the text might be required to be displayed on the page.  There is no picture to present.
 Learner has enough time to process the images and words.
 Learner may have difficulty to process spoken words.
 When the learners need to see materials frequently (such as a guide for problem solving).

D. Availability
Availability means that users can easily access intended As it was mentioned before, to provide stimulus, speech interface, informal style, agents, learner control environment, colors and background music must be used in presentation. The working memory also has a crucial role in learning and it should not be saturated with unnecessary information. When using multimedia information, it's better to use both hearing and vision channels if possible.
The UID should not only be seen as an artistic phenomenon, but artistic tools such as, graphics, music, animation, etc., must be compatible with the educational psychological issues.
Statistics and reports indicate that there are many dropouts in e-learning inclusive control [7]. It seems that one of the most important challenges is the UI of software. It is required to examine the relation between the UI and dropouts.