As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, web-based education services seem to have been infected by a virus of ugly design work.

Blackboard LMS (Learning Management Software) has such a complicated and confusing interface that people see business opportunity in designing a better, simpler LMS. There is a startup in New York that is doing exactly that.  For some reason, however, when the open source community decided to design Moodle LMS, they effectively created Blackboard’s ugly stepsister. These “designers” should first read up on interface design and put the potential user at the core of their design thinking!

Jef Raskin’s classic book “The Humane Interface” is a good start for any start up. In addition, a nice foundation covering a broader topic of media design is Bill Moggridge’s “Designing Media” volume.