Block Two

Question 1

Some people refer to the ‘iceberg’ model of culture, In what way do you think that culture resembles an iceberg?

Answer 1

The part of the iceberg above the water can be likened to visible symbols and behaviors; the part underneath to the less visible attitudes, values and beliefs.

Question 2

What characteristics would you expect to find in the heroes of countries with a high MAS index, as opposed to those in countries with a low MAS?

Answer 2

You would expect to find that heroes in countries with a high MAS index tend to be competitive, assertive and aggressive, whereas heroes in countries with a low MAS index might be more caring and nurturing.

Question 3

People from cultures with strong uncertainty avoidance might strive to make human behaviour as predictable as possible. Unpredictable behaviour might also be antisocial, such as singin in a quiet residential street at 2 a.m. How would you expect this sort of behaviour to be controlled in cultures with strong uncertainty avoidance having (a) high power distance, and (b) low power distance? What would you expect to happen in cultures with weak uncertainty avoidance?

Answer 3

In strong uncertainty avoidance cultures, such unpredictable antisocial human behaviour might be controlled by laws in cultures with a high power distance, and by strong social norms (social expectations) in countries with low power distance. For example, in cultures with a high power distance, we might expect there to be laws against singing in the street at night. In cultures with a low power distance, such behaviour might be curbed by the disapproval of other people.

Question 4

Describe briefly the characteristics of those who score high, and those which score low on the Individualism (IND) index.

Answer 4

In a culture which rates highly on the individualism index, freedom of the individual is valued over the interest of the group. In a culture which rates low, the interests of the group are paramount.

Question 5

Suppose you have designed an interactive product specifically for people who have impaired use of their hands. In what contexts of use might this facet of the design be useful for people who have unimpaired use of their hands?

Answer 5

I think the fact that the product has been designed for people with impaired use of their hands will be useful for people with unimpaired hand use, when the latter have their hands full(with, for example, shopping or a baby) or when they are simultaneously doing another task which needs hands -typing on a computer keyboard, for example.

Question 6

The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) made it unlawful to discriminate against disabled people. The needs of disabled people should be anticipated rather than waiting for a disabled person to need access. This means that a provider of a service cannot justify not making an adjustment by saying that they do not have any disabled customers.
Decide whether the following is ‘reasonable’ in the context of the DDA:

A shop has a policy of not allowing any dogs on its premises.

Answer 6

Unreasonable - surely the shop would be as happy to take the money of blind as well as of sighted customers. Exceptions should be made for guide and hearing dogs.

Question 7

Suggest four requirements that a computer application should meet in order to enable blind people to interact with it.

Answer 7

1. The application should be fully operable by means of the keyboard, as a blind user cannot see the effects of moving a mouse.
2. The application should be compatible with screen readers.
3. It should be possible to read interface objects and other content with a screen reader.

Question 8

Suggest some requirements for partially sighted people using interactive devices.

Answer 8

• large fonts (or ability to increase font size)
• high contrast (or ability to change colours)
• high-visibility controls
• alternative access to output from the product (possible implementation: speech or audio output)

Question 9

Give three different types of reasons why all interaction designers should be concerned with accessibility.

Answer 9

• ethical reasons: a disabled person, so far as is possible, should have the same opportunities an anyone else
• reasons of good practice: making an interactive product more accessible often represents a general improvement in the product.
• legal reasons: conforming to existing legislation.

Question 10

What is the difference between the medical (individual) and social models of disability?

Answer 10

The medical (individual) model locates the ‘problem’ of disability within the individual; the social model locates the ‘problem’ as everything that imposes restrictions on disabled people.

Question 11

Describe the two main aims of the requirements activity.

Answer 11

Firstly, we need to understand the users, their work and the context in which they work, in order to design a system or product which supports their goals -that is, we need to identify users needs.

Secondly, we need to establish a basic, stable set of requirements on which to base an initial design (or designs)

Question 12

In user-centered design, would you expect the initial set of requirements, once established, to remain stable?

Answer 12

In user-centred design, it is expected that the set of requirements will be modified after the initial requirements-gathering, analyzing, interpreting and representing phase. As users interact with alternative designs, it is expected that individual requirements might be added, or deleted, or modified, as in the simple lifecycle model for interaction design.

Question 13

Describe the four main activities in establishing requirements.

Answer 13

• data gathering
• analysing the data
• interpreting the data
• presenting the finding in a form that can be express as requirements

Question 14

Name the four key issues of data gathering.

Answer 14

• setting clear goals
• determining the level of formality of the relationship with participants
• triangulation of data-gathering techniques or data analysis approaches
• pilot studies.

Question 15

Identify four non-functional requirements.

Answer 15

• data requirements
• environmental requirements / context of use: the physical, social organisational and technical context of use.
• user characteristics
• usability goals and user experience goals.

Question 16

Name the four most common forms of data recording.

Answer 16

• taking notes
• taking photos
• audio recording
• video recording

Question 17

What is the difference between open and closed questions?

Answer 17

In closed questions, the respondent has to choose between a number of predetermined answers. An example of a closed question is: ‘In which month were you born?’ IN an open question, the answer is not predetermined. And example of an open question is: ‘Which aspects of this interactive product do you particularly like?’

Question 18

Describe briefly the four different main types of interviews.

Answer 18

• Unstructured, where the interviewer has an agenda (known what his/her goals are) but does not stick to predetermined questions.
• Structured, were the interviewer asks the same questions of each interviewee, as if using a script.
• Semi-structured, in which the interviewer has some predetermined questions but is prepared to follow leads offered by the interviewee
• Group, which may also be unstructured, semi-structured or, possibly, structured.

Question 19

What is the difference between a Likert scale and a semantic differential scale?

Answer 19

A Likert scale uses gradations of values(for example, from ‘totally disagree’ through to ‘totally agree’). A semantic differential scale uses pairs of semantic opposites to label opposite ends of the scale, for example, ‘clear’ at one end and ‘confusing’ at the other.

Question 20

Why might observations be used during the requirements activity?

Answer 20

Observations are useful during the requirements activity in order to identify the nature of the users, the tasks that the proposed system/ product is intended to support, and the context. They might also be used to investigate the use of similar systems/ products, or the user of an existing system/ product which is to be redesigned.

Question 21

Identify a type of direct observation which is probably more useful for evaluation than for requirements activities.

Answer 21

A controlled direct observation is probably more useful as an evaluation than as a requirements activity.

Question 22

Why might it be useful to have more than one observer doing an observation?

Answer 22

It is useful to have more than one observer conducting an observation so that more ground can be covered; the data is more reliable; and different perspectives on the data enable deeper reflection.

Question 23

What are the four factors which have the most impact on the choice of data-gathering techniques?

Answer 23

• the focus of the study, which determines the nature of the data to be collected
• the characteristics of the participants involved
• the nature of the technique
• the available resources

Question 24

What problems might you encounter if you only use direct observation to gather data?

Answer 24

What you observe is behaviour, but you don’t know the reason for the behaviour. The behaviour you are observing might be very unusual.

Question 25

Name seven techniques for gathering data as part of the requirements activity.

Answer 25

• interviews
• focus groups and workshops,
• questionnaires
• direct observation
• indirect observations such as those suing interaction logs or diaries
• studying documentation
• researching similar products.

Question 26

Which of the seven techniques of gather data would you use if:

you wanted to foster communication between disparate groups of stakeholders

Answer 26

I suggest that you would use focus groups or workshops in order to bring disparate groups of stakeholders together.

Question 27

Which of the seven techniques of gather data would you use if:

you wanted to foster communication between stakeholders and developers.

Answer 27

I suggest that you would use any technique which fosters a dialogue between stakeholders and developers, for example focus groups and workshops, or unstructured or semi-structured interviews.

Question 28

Which of the seven techniques of gather data would you use if:

your stakeholders were widely distributed.

Answer 28

Questionnaires are probably the most useful data-gathering tools in this case. Depending on the number of stakeholders involved, telephone interviews might also be feasible.

Question 29

Give four guidelines for gathering data specifically for requirements.

Answer 29

• focus on identifying stakeholders needs
• involve all the stakeholder groups
• involve more than one representative from each stakeholder group
• support the data-gathering session with suitable props such as task descriptions or prototypes.

Question 30

Describe one advantage and one disadvantage that contextual inquiry has over more traditional interviews.

Answer 30

An advantage that contextual inquiry has over traditional interviews is that it takes cognisance of the whole context in which the product is to be used (though this is not such an advantage if the product is going to be used in a great variety on contexts). A disadvantage is that it is costly and time-consuming.

Question 31

In your opinion, when is it best to use contextual inquiry?

Answer 31

I think that contextual inquiry might be best used when it is vital to understand the context in which a product is going to be used.

Question 32

Give brief descriptions to illustrate the essential differences between scenarios, use cases and essential use cases.

Answer 32

A scenario is an informal narrative description. IN this context, it is usually a reasonably rich description of how a particular individual achieves hi/her goals.

Use cases describe the interaction between a user role (‘actor’) and a system/product as a sequence of high-level actions.

Essential use cases are more abstract than use cases, and just allocate sub-tasks to users an system (or interactive product) in terms of the users intention and system responsibility, with no indication as to how these might be achieved. they contain no assumptions of the technology used, and can thus be implemented in a number of ways. They must have a name which expresses the users intention.