Designing interfaces in a mobile environment: An implementation on a programming language

Abstract

Mobile technology offers new opportunities for engaging learners in non-classroom settings, promotes student motivation and encourages learners to personalize their learning experience. However, the major setback with learning in a mobile device is the limited screen space. The nature of interaction is also different between large and small display, in which text input is found not suitable to be employed on small screen due to the slower text input mechanism. The navigation technique was investigated as a potential technique that could be applied to display information on a mobile device. Navigation technique is based on point-and-click interaction on hierarchical structure of links. In order to determine how well this navigation technique solves the above problems, a prototype for learning Programming C++ was developed and a usability testing was conducted. Due to the existing problems in student understanding in the subject of Programming in C++, this domain was chosen with the hope that students would benefit from the development of this prototype. The result of usability testing indicated positive response from learners and they were satisfied with all aspects of the interface design.