Simple animations for organizing diagrams

Despite a general belief among multimedia designers, there is little evidence that animation improves users' cognitive processing. One reason why animation has not met designers' expectations is that animations are usually complex and difficult to process. In this research we used a simple animation device to guide users in their processing of complex diagrams. The device, called sequential display, consisted of successively displaying portions of the diagrams where the portions were either meaningfully clustered or random. In two experiments, learning from sequentially organized displays was faster from sequentially random displays. However, learning sequential displays was not significantly better than the static display. In all three experiments, order in recall in the sequential conditions followed the presentation order. In the third experiment, processing was faster and more accurate using the organization of the sequential displays. Thus, the way in which spatial information is temporally clustered and arrayed affects the organization of elements in the mental representation. The simple animation device of meaningful sequential presentation of components of a complex graphic display can guide construction of a mental model of the graphic as well as facilitate memory for it.