CS3205, Spring 2017
Exam 1 Information and Review Sheet
Updated Feb. 21, 12:55pm. Exam
1 will not cover what's labeled "Unit 3" below. Also, there will
be no questions on HTA from Unit 2.
Details:
- Exam 1 will be given in class on Thursday,
Feb. 23.
- It will be designed to be a 75 minute exam, closed book and no
notes.
- Students who have registered with SDAC to take the exam under
different circumstances should contact me to make arrangements by noon
on Thursday, Sep. 29.
- Important: If an emergency causes you to unexpectedly miss the
exam or
to be late, contact the instructor by phone or email immediately or
as soon as possible! Do not delay!
Format:
The exam will be closed-book and no notes. It will be a mix of short
answer and "writing questions",
but it is likely that many of the questions will be concept or writing
questions.
Important: As noted early in the class, part of your score
will be based on how well you express your
answers using the vocabulary and terminology as defined in HCI. For
example, you may identify and describe a usability
problem but not in the way that someone trained in HCI would
talk about it -- you will not get full credit
in this case.
What's covered: The exam will cover Units 1, 2 and (maybe) 3
listed below.
The slides are available on the course website.
Below you'll find the readings from the ID book and the on-line TCUID
"book", along with an outline of topics (not guaranteed to be complete,
but
I've tried).
Web readings: here are short readings on the Web that may help you
understand
concepts we have covered. There may be direct questions from the first
of these
readings,
but there will not be questions directly about topics in the others
unless we've mentioned
those topics in lecture, slides, or textbook. In other words, all but
the first of these
can supplement what you've read, or present info in another way.
Topics:
Here's a list of readings and topics. The list of topics is not
guaranteed
to be complete, but it's a good start to help you study
and assess what you know.
Unit 1: Usability and HCI Fundamentals
- Readings: ID Book, Chap. 1
- Slide sets: cs3205-1-intro-s17.pdf,
cs3205-2-intro2-s17.pdf
- What is HCI? User-centered Design? Interaction Design?
- Usability goals. User experience goals.
- Usability design principles: visibility, feedback, etc.
- Guidance, guidelines, heuristic evaluation (the basics), etc.
Unit 2: Process, User and Task Analysis
- Readings: ID Book, "The Process of Interaction Design", Chap.
- Readings: ID Book, "Establishing Requirements", Chap. 10 in
published book (Chap. 9 in our eBook version). Also, Chap. 2 of TCUID web
"book".
- Slide sets: cs3205-3-process-s17.pdf,
cs3205-4-user-req-analysis1-s17.pdf,
cs3205-5-user-req-analysis2-s17.pdf
- Concepts related to a user-centered or interaction design
development process.
- User analysis: characteristics of users. Personas.
- Requirements: types of requirements. Context of system
use. How you might gather or find requirements.
- Task analysis: definitions, ideas. Goals, tasks,
actions. Etc.
- Techniques for describing and organizing task descriptions:
scenarios, stories, use cases, essential use cases, HTA. (You won't
have create an HTA representation, but might be asked questions about
the method.)
Unit 3: Conceptual Models
and Metaphors
- Readings: ID Book, Chap.
2.
- Slide sets: cs3205-3-conc-mental-models.pdf
- Conceptual models: how
users understand all or part of a system. What one might be based on.
Mental models.
- The four types of
conceptual models based on activities.
- Examples covered in the
slides and class.
- Why some conceptual models
or metaphors support certain usability goals, why they might fail or
not fit certain users as well.
- Metaphors as more specific
(or fine-grained) components in a user interface. Examples discussed in
class. Why some fail.
- Interaction mode or
style.
Example Case Study:
A number of questions will be based
on a case study. You maybe asked to apply an HCI concept to the case
study, or
discuss such an idea in the context of the case study. An example of
such
a case-study follows. In class, we'll talk about the kinds of
questions that might be asked on the case-study.
A number of questions will be based
on a case study. An example of such
a case-study follows. In class, we'll talk about the kinds of
questions that might be asked on the case-study.
Your development team has been asked to develop an information
system with a Web-based interface for a summer
camp program at Camp Affordance. Children 8-12 years old go to camp for
a month, where they engage in fun and rewarding
activities like sports, crafts, and writing software viruses. (Shhh!
Don't tell the parents!) Users of this system
include the parents, the campers and the camp staff. We will focus only
on what the software can do while the children
are at camp. Some of the initial ideas for the system are:
- Parents and campers can view images etc. of camp projects,
activities, and events that have taken place at Camp Affordance that
have been uploaded by the camp staff.
- Users can see information about what a particular child has
achieved at camp, including certificates, merit badges, first-kiss,
etc. This info can be viewed by both parents and camp staff. A staff
member might need this information to evaluate campers (e.g. for
deciding if a child is ready to be put into advanced rock-climbing
class). Information about what each child has done is entered by
various camp staff at the end of each day.
- Parents can exchange information (email, chat, bulletin boards,
etc.) with other parents of children at Camp Affordance.
- Campers can use the system to access discussion rooms or games
that build on lessons learned at camp They can also email messages to
their parents.