HCI

Question 1

What is meant by a mental model?

Answer 1

• An explanation in someone’s thought process for how something works in the real world.
• A mental model is what the user believes about the system at hand.

Question 2

What are the different kinds of processes to describe cognition?

Answer 2

• attention
• perception
• memory
• learning
• reading

Question 3

What are the 6 Usability goals?

Answer 3

• Effectiveness
• Efficiency
• Safety
• Utility
• Learnability
• Accessibility

Question 4

What does the usability principle - visibility mean?

Answer 4

Keep users informed about current state and actions with timely feedback.

Question 5

What does the usability principle - affordance mean?

Answer 5

Give the users a clue about what to do. Use concepts familiar to the user.

Question 6

What does the usability principle - constraints mean?

Answer 6

Ways of restricting user input at a given moment.

Question 7

What does the usability principle - consistency mean?

Answer 7

Use similar sequences of actions for similar situations, identical terminology for prompts, menus and help screens.

Question 8

What does the usability principle - recognition not recall mean?

Answer 8

Minimise user memory load by making objects, actions and options visible.

Question 9

What does the usability principle - aesthetics and minimal design mean?

Answer 9

Don’t provide information that is irrelevant.

Question 10

What does the usability principle - help and documentation mean?

Answer 10

Needs to be easy to search, focuses on the user task, list concrete steps to be carried out and not too large!

Question 11

What areas should be prototyped?

Answer 11

Technical issues,
screen layouts,
difficult / controversial areas.

Question 12

Why prototype?

Answer 12

• Can be difficult for users to articulate what they want.
• Can verify requirements.
• Support choosing between alternatives.
• Encourages reflection.
• Can test ideas out.

Question 13

Explain what are wireframes, mockups and prototypes?

Answer 13

Wireframes are basic illustrations of structure and components of a web page.

Mockups often close or identical to the actual final web site design and include graphics – generally just image files.

Prototypes are semi functional and generally give the client the ability to click around and simulate the way the site will eventually work.

Question 14

What are low fidelity and high fidelity prototypes?

Answer 14

Low fidelity prototypes use a medium which is unlike the final product. They are quick, cheap and easy to change. They have limited error checking and navigation.

High fidelity prototypes look and interact more like the final product/ and take longer to build.

Question 15

What does ‘horizontal’ and ‘vertical’ compromising mean in prototyping?

Answer 15

horizontal is providing a wide range of functions but little detail.

vertical is providing a lot of detail with less functions.

Question 16

What is the ‘controlled settings’ type of evaluation?

Answer 16

Involves users completing experiments in a laboratory.

Question 17

What is the ‘natural settings involving users’ type of evaluation?

Answer 17

Involves seeing how users use the product in the real world.

Question 18

What is the ‘any setting not involving users’ type of evaluation?

Answer 18

Consultants and researchers critique and predict aspects of the interface using methods including inspection, heuristics, walkthroughs, analytics.

Question 19

What are the three levels of interface specialisation?

Answer 19

Globalisation, Internationalisation, Localisation.

Question 20

What sorts of things should be taken into consideration when adapting for different countries?

Answer 20

• Character sets
• Date formats
• Currency formats
• Telephone numbers
• Icons
• Colours
• Name formatting
• Text directionality

Question 21

What are formative evaluations and summative evaluations?

Answer 21

Formative evaluations - are undertaken during design.

Summative evaluations - are done to assess the success of a finished product.

Question 22

Any setting not involving users: describe Heuristic evaluation.

Answer 22

Evaluator assesses the system and notes violations of any heuristics that would indicate a usability problem.

Also assesses the severity of each usability problem.

Question 23

Any setting not involving users: describe Cognitive walkthrough.

Answer 23

Step through the actions in a prototype to look for potential usability problems.

Carried out by designer or expert evaluator. Who needs to know who the intended users are and the actions.

Question 24

Any setting not involving users: describe Analytics.

Answer 24

Technique for logging data either at customer site or remotely.