SLS: innovation which caters to fight Illiteracy

clipped from www.worldchanging.com

After our recent post on the use of Bollywood style film for instructional videos, we got a note about a kindred educational tool, applying same language subtitles (SLS) to films as a way to improve literacy -- not a brand new method, but a brilliantly simple and effective one. According to PlanetRead, one of the pioneering organizations in this field, SLS was first introduced on Indian television in 1999, broadcast with Bollywood songs. The visual association of written words with familiar song lyrics proved incredibly successful, making the process automatic and subconscious, as well as cost-effective. They found that "every US dollar spent on subtitling a nationally telecast program of Hindi film songs, gives 30 minutes of weekly reading practice to 10,000 people, for a year."

5 Second Test : Quick Technique for Evaluating Content Pages

How can design teams be confident their content pages are understandable to users? How does a team ensure they've designed content pages that communicate the essential information effectively?

5 second test provides valuable insight into which features are the most eye-catching, which features cause confusion and which ones are ignored altogether. Specifically, this technique can be used to assess search efficiency, branding, online advertisements, navigation usability, overall design and many other site components.

One of the 5-Second Test's biggest advantages is how quick it is. Because this technique is quick and easy to implement, it is perfect to run in locations where we can gather many users at one time, such as trade shows, conferences, and the company cafeteria. We can gather large amounts of user data in a short time.

Read the Article: 5 Second Test