1.
(a) The human eye has a number of limitations. Give three examples [3]
(b) For one of the limitations identified in (a), describe how this should be
taken into account in the design of a visual interface [6]
(c) There are three types of human memory. List them. [3]
(d) Describe what is thought to happen when people ‘forget’ things
[2]
(e) What is meant by chunking? [2]
(f) How does chunking affect GUI design? [4]
2.
(a) Give two examples of how 3G system capabilities are different to 2 or 2.5G
systems [4]
(b) For one of these, discuss how it will impact the development of a mobile
application of your choice [16]
3.
(a) What is meant by user-centered design? [2]
(b) How does evaluation fit into a user-centered design lifecycle? [3]
(c) What is the aim of evaluation? Who should use evaluation? [3]
(d) Describe two techniques for evaluation, highlighting their key points and
the differences between them [12]
4.
(a) Why is web page design different to designing for printed media? [6]
(b) What are ‘design guidelines’? [2]
(c) Nielsen produced some design guidelines for web sites. What were three issues
he covered? [4]
(d) What is meant by ‘accessibility’? [2]
(e) Give three examples of how web sites can aid accessibility. [6]
5. How does extreme programming support user-centered design? [20]
6.
(a). What is an ‘affordance’? [4]
(b) Give 3 examples [6]
(c) Why are affordances important for design? [10]
7.
(a) What is ‘anthropormorphism’? [4]
(b) How can it be an advantage in the design of interactive systems? [8]
(c) How can it be a disadvantage? [8]
8 .
(a) Explain the metaphor(s) underlying common PC operating systems such as Windows
and MacOS. [10]
(b) Why is this metaphor useful, and when might it fail? [10]
9 . When people sign-up for broadband, are they looking for just faster connections?
Discuss, with reference to evidence of how & why people take up broadband
internet. [20]
10 . You have been asked to re-design a popular web page so that people can
access it using a PDA. What factors might you have to take into account in re-designing
the site? [20]
11 . What do we know about how people read on the web? [20]
Model answers and relevant readings will be available here after Easter - in the meantime have a go with the resources on the resources page.