INF3720/102/3/2014

Tutorial letter 102/3/2014

Assignment 2 Examination Tutorial letter Solution to Self-test Assignment 3

Human Computer Interaction

INF3720
Semester 1 and 2
School of Computing

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: This tutorial letter contains important information about your module.

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EXAMINATION INFORMATION
Nota aan Afrikaanse studente: Weens die tegniese aard van die studiemateriaal is hierdie studiebrief in Engels. Moet asb. nie huiwer om ons te kontak indien iets vir u nie duidelik is nie. If you are missing any study material please download it from MyUnisa. Please refer to your tutorial letter 101 for the sections of the prescribed book that must be studied for examination purposes. Remember to include your three assignments in your examination preparation. May/June and Oct/Nov 2014 Examinations: Duration is 2 hours and the total 100 marks. The examination questions Include identify, explain, define, describe and give examples questions. We present the following extract from your tutorial letter 101 below: The syllabus for this module is covered in the chapters of the prescribed book as listed below. Not all of this material will be covered in detail. The syllabus includes the following ten chapters: Chapters 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15 (not Chapters 3, 6, 8, 11 and 13) Note: Chapter 4 - Design for Collaboration and Communication (Social Interaction). This unit must be studied in order to complete the assignments but will not be included in the examination.

Assignment 2 Semester 1 and Semester 2 ASSIGNMENT 2

Weight: 50% Semester 1: Due date: 7 April Try to submit one week early Unique number: 875047 Semester 2: Due date: 15 September Try to submit one week early Unique number: 730335 Chapters covered: 4, 5, 7, 9
Instructions: 1. Only submit the answers for questions 1 and 2. 2. Do not submit the self-assessment question 3 at the end of this assignment. 3. Note that not all questions may be marked in detail.

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Question 1

[25]

Your goal is to obtain information about what first year programming language will be used for any specific first year programming course at the Information Systems/Informatics/Computer Science Department (referred to below as the IS-COS Department), of any local or overseas University. While you were searching for this information you have noticed certain usability and/or accessibility problems with the website, which you can use to answer the questions below. 1.1 Assume that the IS-COS Department you have chosen was to involve its end-users (students) in contributing to the redesign and redevelopment of its internet home/information page(s). [20] (a) Would this then qualify as a user-centered approach? Give the reasons for your answer. (b) Suggest ways to improve user involvement in the redesign of the IS-CO webpage(s). Also suggest which students, how many students, and what well-defined tasks they could be given. (c) What aspects of the IS-COS webpage(s) could appropriately be addressed in such a venture? (d) Were you successful in your goal? What navigation path did you have to use to arrive at your answer? What programming language is used? 1.2 Apply the four basic activities of interaction design from Chapter 9 to the possible redesign of the ISCOS webpage, as mentioned above. [10] 1.3 Give and explain your opinion on how the IS-COS webpage(s) interface might frustrate users and evoke negative emotions, mentioning specific examples of situations where this may happen and taking the specific target audience into account. [10] Question 2 [25]

In HCI we consider how interactive systems can be designed to provoke or avoid emotional responses within users. Choose the following three aspects of emotional interaction or affective computing as subheadings and explain how interfaces and interaction experiences can engender emotions in the user. In each subsection, use your mobile phone to give examples of specific techniques or objects that elicit various kinds of emotional responses. The subheadings are: expressive interfaces, frustrating interfaces, and persuasive technologies. Question 3 (Do not submit) You have to conduct a study to determine how useful and usable students find the MyUnisa system. 3.1 (a) What kind of interview will you use to collect data from users? Motivate your choice. (b) Formulate five suitable interview questions (refer to the guidelines on page 234). 3.2 Critically evaluate the MyUnisa system to establish if the designers adequately focused on the users and the tasks. Use each of the five sub-principles on pages 327-328 of the prescribed book in your evaluation. Your answer should include examples of how the principles have been violated or adhered to. 3.3 Describe you would apply the four basic activities of interaction design from Chapter 9 page 329 to 330 to the possible redesign of MyUnisa.

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Self-test Assignment 3 solution

Some of these questions were open-ended and student answers will be varied in terms of the specific technologies they chose to discuss, the specific social behaviours they focussed on, and the depth in which they approached these issues. Therefore, there is no single model answer to these questions. We will, however explain how we could have evaluated the answers by presenting a few examples as shown below. Remember that we would also examine aspects such as: is the answer well structured (i.e. does it have an introduction, a main body and a logical conclusion)? We also will consider whether the student used appropriate academic language and correctly referenced all the sources consulted (where this was appropriate).

Question 1 (Chapter 10)

According to Preece, et al. a requirement is a statement about an intended product that specifies what it should do or how it should perform. Using the explanations of the different kinds of requirements in section 10.3.1, describe the following requirements for the MyUnisa system: 1.1 1.2 1.3 Functional requirements. Data requirements. Environmental requirements (context of use). User characteristics.

1.4

Functional requirements this describes what the product should do. For myUnisa these requirements could include facilities for uploading of assignments, downloading of tutorial letters and other study material, enabling asynchronous communication between student(s) and student(s), and student(s) and lecturer(s) via discussion forums, providing for a calendar-scheduling function, and providing a student account facility, etc. Data requirements this is the type, volatility, lifetime, size/volume, persistence, accuracy and value of data used. For myUnisa the persistence of data should include the lifetime of study material i.e. tutorial letters are removed at the beginning of a new academic semester, whilst students account data must be held for many years. Environmental requirements this is the context of use. Technical aspects: a new addition to myUnisa is the facility to submit MCQ data via a cell phone and the context of use is then the typical mobile phone characteristics such as small display size. Physical aspects: Mobile phones may be used under noisy circumstances, and under intermittent communications. Social aspects: Mobile phones may be used in an environment that is not private. Organizational aspects: Should myUnisa users be trained or is it sufficient to provide them with a manual (such as a quick-start guide)? User characteristics - MyUnisa users could have very diverse characteristics. They could be computer literate or illiterate. They could be English first language speakers or users that can barely understand English. They could be handicapped in some aspect such as visually or aurally challenged.

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Question 2 (Chapters 12 and 15)

Assume the role of an expert evaluator and do a heuristic evaluation of a single typical student task that you have identified as a possible problem on myUnisa. Use all ten heuristics that appear on page 506 (2011) of the prescribed book. The answer is dependent on the task chosen and we will provide a few general guidelines. Firstly, the evaluator should consider whether the ten Nielsen heuristics as presented on page 506 are all equally suitable for the evaluation of a task on the myUnisa system. You may want to modify some of the heuristics to cater for unique aspects of the task that you have chosen or specific aspects of the myUnisa system. Secondly you should consider what format you will use for the evaluation. The easiest is to construct a fill-in questionnaire listing your heuristics and then giving it to a few other myUnisa users or students (including yourself) to complete. See figure 15.1 for a short discussion on the number of evaluators that should be used. After the evaluation you could compile a list of all the usability problems that have been identified and then sort them according to their impact or severity. You can also sort the list according to how easy (or costly) it will be to fix the usability problems. You will then be able to present the myUnisa development team a list of usability problems that are rated as severe and easy to fix at the top (i.e. high priority problems) to not severe and difficult to fix at the bottom (or low priority or costly-to-fix problems). Listed below are some examples of the most frustrating aspects of the myUnisa interface that previous students encountered - Why are these aspects frustrating? is it because of usability or task-support concerns? 1. The page where students can provide their credit card information for payment does not inspire trust. This may cause students to choose another payment option which may be more timeconsuming and require more effort. Students find it difficult to access the correct information about compiling a curriculum. They expect to find the information on myUnisa but then have to revert back to Google or the general Unisa Web site. Students find the split between myUnisa and myLife frustrating. They now have to manage an additional email account and resetting of passwords requires a number of steps. When moving between tabs the complete page is reloaded instead of just the parts that change. For students with slow Internet connections, this will cause frustration. Because of the option to submit assignments through myUnisa, students often leave the submission to the last minute. It is then extremely frustrating if the system is not available.

2.

3. 4.

5.

Question 3 (Chapter 14)

Compare usability testing (UT) and field studies (FS) under the following headings: 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 The environment in which the evaluation is conducted. The participants. Data collection. Advantages and disadvantages.

3.1 The environment in which the evaluation is conducted. FS are conducted in the natural environment where the system or product is used and is very different from the controlled conditions
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that is evident during formal UT. It is interesting to note that during UT the focus is mainly on the product being tested and its usability problems, whilst during FT the focus is also on the user and his/her use environment (as well as on the product). 3.2 The participants. For UT 5-12 users are an acceptable number, whereas FS may include thousands or even just one participant. Also note the comparison in table 14.2 (2011) between different participant designs. 3.3 Data collection. Compare UT data collection that typically includes the user test, interviews and the user satisfaction questionnaire, with FS data collection methods. Typically UT includes performance, efficiency and effectiveness data collected under controlled conditions, whereas for FS the same type of data is collected within the real context of use. The instruments used for data collection may then be different (for FS the primary aim should be its unobtrusivess), but generally both use interviews, observations, questionnaires, and video/audio recordings. 3.4 Advantages and disadvantages. See page 501 for a summarised comparison of evaluation studies and approaches. Usability testing is most suitable for testing software upgrades, prototypes, and working systems, and more specific questions are usually addressed. Field studies are used when discovering how products and prototypes will be used within their intended socio-physical context of use. UNISA 2014