We are 5 Human Computer Interaction masters students at Carnegie Mellon University. Our program is geared toward the practice of user-centered design in industry. Earning a masters degree here means completing a substantial 8-month end-to-end project. We were given the problem space: Design a learnable and desirable graphing calculator for high school Mathematics curricula, grades 9-12. Our underlying charge was to get the busy  teacher, who fails at learning and embracing the the technology, to teach with it regulary it in his/her classroom.

In our initial research, we found that graphing calculators are robust, yet antiquated math machines. Simply applying Neilsens's heuristics that for UI revealed tremendous design challenges. Instead of designing the calculator, we decided to redesign one. This way, we could start with a high fidelity prototype (the calculator itself), as well as visibly measure our work.

We chose Texas Instrument's TI-83+ because it the calculator of choice for almost every public and private school in the United States. Discovering a better design for a highly successful product through rigorous contextual research and evaluation, combined with frequent iteration, had great appeal.

This is an overview of our work.

Educational calculators can “…facilitate concept development, reduce the demand for memorization, provide motivation, and encourage discovery, exploration, and creativity." [Tharp, M. & Merriweather, M. (1999). The Effect of Instruction with Graphing Calculators on How General Mathematics Students Naturalistically Solve Algebraic Problems. The Journal of Computers in Mathematics and Science Teaching, Vol. 18, No. 1, 7-22. ]