Design Of Virtual Experiment Based On Performance Load

Owing to advantages of low cost, full function and high efficiency, Virtualexperiment has been widely used in many academic disciplines such as medicalscience, chemistry, physics and so on. But we find that virtual experiment hasn’treached a state that satisfies learners on cognition and interactive operation throughnumerous literature research and application experience of representative cases. Theproblem lies in an apparent phenomenon that with the development of technology,designers tend to pay more attention to technological functions of virtual experimentrather than comprehensive analysis of learners’ cognition and motion. Therefore, Inorder to improve application performance of virtual experiment and ensure itssustainable instructional function, it is of great importance to consider how toproperly fits learners’ cognition and operation while designing virtual experiments inthe future.In order to enrich the design of virtual experiment and improve its quality, manydesigners brought design ideas of different fields to virtual experiment. WilliamLidwell et al. proposed the concept of " Performance Load "In their book principles ofdesign, focusing on a comprehensive consideration of people’s involvement whileusing products, at the same time they emphasize the promotion of simplicity andusability from aspects of cognition and motion. Aiming at effectively solving theexisting problems in the design of virtual experiment, this paper tries to introduce theconcept of “Performance Load” to realize its simplicity and efficiencyThe author refines the connotation of performance load design idea throughanalyzing the problems of current virtual experiment and considers the conception ofefficiency and load at the same time. Based on relative theories such as cognitive loadand behavioristic psychology, the author follows the principle of least effort and takesthe user model design which makes the customer as center to study. In the view ofsatisfying learners’ perception, memory, thinking and operation, the author hackles theprocedure of virtual experiment learners’ information processing based on performance load. The author analyses related factors that influence learners’cognitive load and movement load in the procedure of information processing. Theauthor puts forward some strategies to simplify design and designs a model of virtualexperiment based on performance load. The paper takes the idea of performance loadto actual design such as take "virtual experiment system of medical human body" asan example in order to alleviate learners’ load.The structure of this paper and contents of each chapter are listed as follows:The first chapter outlines the research background and clarifies reasons why thetitle was proposed. Through literature searching and analysis of applicationexperience of representative cases, we obtain the present research situation of virtualexperiment design based on Performance load, and summarize the existing problemsin the design of virtual experiment. We conclude that reducing the learners’ cognitiveload and movement load and improving their learning efficiency is the key content ofvirtual experiment design. We regard this as benchmark to optimize virtualexperiment design, and further elaborate the research idea, methods and meaning.The second chapter analyzes related concepts of performance and Load in detailand defines the connotation of the performance Load, then outlines the design ofvirtual experiment based on Performance load. The author elaborates relative theoryand user model of cognitive load and behavioristic psychology，and discusses effortsaving principle’s guiding effects on the design of virtual experiment based on theperformance load.Based on analysis of factors which influence learners’ perception, memory,thinking and operation, the third chapter presents procedure of learners’ informationprocessing while operating virtual experiment. We illuminates related factors thatimpact learners’ cognitive load and movement load, combining with design elementsof virtual experiment, we put forward corresponding strategies to simplify designs andconstruct a design model of virtual experiment based on performance.In the fourth chapter, we choose part of " virtual experiment system of medicalhuman body " as a case to study, following the virtual experiment design model andsimplified strategy based on the performance load,we design a virtual experiment of brain nerve and its internal structure.The fifth chapter summarizes achievements and shortcomings of the thesisresearch, then make a prospection of further research.