Usability

Our research identified the surge of interest in electronic portfolios and we believed that it was possible to develop a system which was uniquely user-centric and which allowed users to record, reflect, review, discuss and share their thoughts, feelings, achievements and plans related to any aspect of their learning: formal or informal; structured or serendipitous; institutional or social.

It doesn't matter how technically clever a system is, if it is dull, uninspiring or just difficult to use then users won't be motivated to engage or to maintain engagement once any compunction is removed. This notion has underpinned the design approach to the project and led to us using Flash for the user interface - though this has not been without its critics.

The critics tend to be much more comfortable with standard web pages which they're familiar with. But the users? They love it.

Importantly the design is not just concerned with form, it's also incredibly functional. The design lends itself to use from a PDA or smart phone. Currently we have WAP enabled forms which allow students to upload materials into PebblePad directly from a mobile phone. Future plans include a much greater level of support for mobile devices.

People who have tried PebblePad have found that after a brief introduction they are confident to experiment and can easily create assets, share resources and even create their own websites via the system.

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