Cognitive Dimensions of Notation

Question 1

1.

Answer 1

Viscosity
• Resistance to change
• Environments containing suitable abstractions can reduce viscosity

Question 2

2.

Answer 2

Visibility
• Ability to view components easily
• Avoid encapsulation and burying information

Question 3

3.

Answer 3

Premature commitment
• Constraints to the order of doing things
• Don’t force an order that could be variable

Question 4

4.

Answer 4

Hidden dependencies

• Important links between entities are not visible

Question 5

5.

Answer 5

Role-expresiveness
• The purpose of an entity is readily inferred
• It is easy to discover why information has been structured in a certain way

Question 6

6.

Answer 6

Error-proneness
• The notation invites mistakes and the system gives little protection
• Prevention can redeem the problem

Question 7

7.

Answer 7

Abstraction
• Types & availability of abstraction mechanisms
• Abstractions can be important to make the systems efficient but can allowing many abstractions can also make the system difficult to learn

Question 8

8.

Answer 8

Secondary notation
• Extra information in means other than formal syntax
• Enable the recording of information unanticipated by the notation designer

Question 9

9.

Answer 9

Closeness of mapping
• Closeness of representation to domain
• How closely is the notation to the result it is describing?

Question 10

10.

Answer 10

Consistency

• Similar semantics are expressed in similar systematic forms

Question 11

11.

Answer 11

Diffuseness

• Verbosity of language

Question 12

12.

Answer 12

Hard mental operations

• High demand on cognitive resources

Question 13

13.

Answer 13

Provisionality

• Degree of commitment to actions or marks

Question 14

14.

Answer 14

Progressive evaluation

• Work-to-date can be checked at any time