CONTIGUITY PRINCIPLE #1

Sunday, September 4, 201


What is the Continguity Principle #1?

When choosing to add graphics to a set of text,  one should ensure that the graphic is within close proximity to the text in which it is referring.  This can be demonstrated in several ways.  When looking at a chart or table, numbers can have a mouse over or rollover effect.  This is when the text will appear when the cursor glides over each number providing the information necessary.  The text appears within the same screen as the image being displayed.


Example of the Contiguity Principle #1 (or not)

Missouri Botanical Garden (MBGnet.net) offers a website that provides information on the different biomes of the world.  Their newest feature offers information about the parts of a plant.  The presentation begins well.  The first screen labels the parts of a plant and provides a description for the roots and stem.  Unfortunately, in order to see the remaining descriptions you have to scroll down to another screen in order to read the descriptions for the final parts.  This could have been adjusted by having the descriptions linked to the text indicating the parts of the plants.

REFERENCES

Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2011). E-learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines for consumers and designmers of multimedia learning. San Francisco: Pfeiffer