Daily Bookmarks 08/06/2007

First 35 Claims of Blackboard’s Patent Ruled Invalid at e-Literate

• Out of Blackboard’s original 44 patent claims, 35 have now been invalidated by the patent office.
   – post by christyinsdesign

Blasting the Myth of the Fold – Boxes and Arrows: The design behind the design  Annotated

• Debunking the myth that users won’t scroll at all and that all information must be presented “above the fold.” Some general guidelines are given, including keeping information to 3 screens or less in height.
   – post by christyinsdesign

Screen performance data and new research indicate that users will scroll to find information and items below the fold.

The most basic rule of thumb is that for every site the user should be able to understand what your site is about by the information presented to them above the fold. If they have to scroll to even discover what the site is, its success is unlikely.

Functionality that is essential to business strategy should remain (or at least begin) above the fold.

MindMeister – think together

• Collaborative mind mapping tool. The basic level is free, but more features are available for paid accounts.
   – post by christyinsdesign

ScienceDaily: Monkeys Learn In The Same Way As Humans, Psychologists Report  Annotated

• Study of monkeys showing that when they actively learned on their own, they retained knowledge better. Getting hints helped in the short term (like cramming for a test), but for knowledge retention, their performance was better if they were allowed to try and work out the solution on their own.
   – post by christyinsdesign

“Many people,” Kornell noted, “have had the experience of listening to a computer instructor open a menu and go through a series of steps. Then you try to do it, and you don’t even know which menu or what the first step is. If you are passively following along, you won’t remember it as well as if you’re forced to do it yourself. Active learning is much harder, but if you can do it successfully, you will remember it much better in the long run.