The interaction ladder

Five choices, easiest first

Each step up adds more that can go wrong, and more a learner has to know in order to spot it. Pick one rung.

What the visitor doesWhat you now need to know
01 Reveal
Hidden becomes visible. Tabs, expanding cards, a hover. The visitor controls the pacing.
What is on the page before anything is clicked?
02 Navigate
The visitor chooses a path. A menu, a scrolling story, rooms in a house.
Where can a visitor get lost, and how do they get back?
03 Respond
It reacts to input. A quiz, a filter, a which-of-these-are-you.
Where does the answer go, and what happens when nothing is chosen?
04 Remix
The visitor changes something and it stays changed. Reorder a top five, build a playlist, leave a note.
What is being remembered, for how long, and who else can see it?
05 Generate
Something new comes out. What we have in common, a random fact, a mashup of their answers and yours.
What could this produce that I would not want on my page?

One interaction a learner fully understands is worth more than four they cannot check.

Computational Collaboration Curriculum · curriculum.jamelna.com · CC BY-SA 4.0