Visual Design As a Holistic Experience: How Students Engage with Instructional Materials of Various Visual Designs

Abstract

This study explored factors thought to affect college students’ selection and experience of instructional materials by utilizing general procedures of Giorgi’s (2012) descriptive phenomenological psychological method and Spradley’s (1979) approach to interpretation. Twenty-five undergraduate students were asked to study finite mathematics materials after selecting from four sets of options, with the same content but different visual designs and formats. The entire process was observed, and students were interviewed about their experience. As a result of the analyses, students were found to select instructional materials that met their expectations, and such expectations had been defined or impacted by their various previous experiences. For example, students who believed that instructional materials should effectively deliver content selected materials based on the ease of navigation. Meanwhile, students who believed that instructional materials should attract them and engage them into learning selected materials based on the attractiveness of the materials. Students made decisions regarding which materials met their expectations almost immediately after looking at the materials. In addition, opinions regarding which materials allowed easier navigation or which materials appeared to be attractive were diverse. Furthermore, many students felt that the number of words was different in the materials although every word on the four materials was the same. One student even thought that the tone of the language was different in different materials. Students’ difference in perception regarding the content of the materials across different visual designs suggests that the affective perception of the visual design was powerful enough to influence students’ cognitive perception of the content. Overall, students’ difference in visual perceptions suggests that instructional content should be displayed in multiple different forms to comply with students’ diverse visual needs.