CS 4393 Topics in User Interfaces
Week 15: Review

Class schedule:

• Monday:
  • Discuss lab 2 and Assignment 4.
  • Critique tutorials with partner.
• Wednesday:
• Friday:

Exam Covers:

• Main textbook: Designing the User Interface Chapters 1-3 and 5-7, 12,13 (Sections given below)
• Design patterns:
  • Model View Controller design pattern
  • Observer pattern
  • Decorator pattern
• LUCID design process
• UML design using Iconix process (Entire Rosenberg and Scott book):
• Use cases
• Domain models
• Robustness diagrams
• Sequence Diagrams
• Class diagrams
• User documentation
• Implementation:
• Event-handling
• Identification of common widgets
• Identify all visual components in a view (including separators, panels and other grouping devices)
• Design metrics:
• Layout uniformity
• Visual coherence
• Web interfaces:
• Basic understanding of client-side vs server side technology
• What is JSP? What is a servlet? What is JSF?

You should bring to the exam:

• Applying Use Case Driven Object Modeling with UML by Rosenberg and Scott
• The Designing the User Interface textbook
• The Core Java books
• Design Patterns: From Analysis to Implementation by Net Objectives
• LUCID overview

Sample questions from textbook material:

• Chapter 1: Usability of Interactive Systems:
• Give 5 different measures of usability. For each measure give an example of a situation where this is important
• Discuss the implications of usability for interface design
• Give 5 ways that users are different. For each way, give an implication for user interface design.
• Chapter 2: Guidelines and Principles (Sections 2.1-2.3):
• Give examples of how an application supports the 8 golden rules of interface design:
• Strive for consistency
• Cater to universal usability
• Offer informative feedback
• Design dialogs to yield closure
• Prevent errors
• Permit easy reversal of actions
• Support internal locus of control
• Reduce short term memory
• Give 3 strategies for preventing errors
• Give examples of how applications support or violate the 5 rules and 6 principles of interface design. (See Examples of rules and principles.)
• Evaluate an interface with respect to the guidelines and principles (e.g., www.calculator.com standard calculator)
• Point out at least 5 things wrong with the following dialog:


Also point out at least 2 violations of the 8 golden rules of interface design
• Chapter 3: Managing the Design Process (Sections 3.1-3.4):
• Explain the steps in the LUCID design process
• For the LUCID design process given in Table 3, briefly give an example of what would be done at each step for the Photo Organizer
• Chapter 5: Software Tools (Sections 5.1 and 5.3 only):
• Describe the features of Visual Studio Designer. Evaluate your experiences in using this tool to design an interface.
• Discuss the positive and negative usability aspects of using VISIO in producing key-screen prototypes.
• Describe the notion of user-interface independence. Briefly describe how the designers, user manual writers, and software engineers have benefits that stem from this notion. Be sure you have an explicit description for each of these three populations.
• Discuss ways that an IDE such as Eclipse enhances user productivity.
• Chapter 6: Direct Manipulation (Sections 6.1, 6.2, 6.3.1, 6.3.3 and 6.3.4):
• Describe the four principles of direct manipulation.
• Give four benefits of direct manipulation over command line interfaces. Also list four problems of direct manipulation.
• Compare command language interfaces to direct manipulation interfaces with respect to compactness, speed of performance and learnability.
• Chapter 7: Menus (Sections 7.1-7.7.3):
• Provide three examples of an application where menu selection and form fillin are more appropriate than a direct-manipulation strategy.
• Design a touchscreen music jukebox, which allows the user to select from a menu of the five most popular songs of the week. Draw a sketch of this interface for each of the following menu types: Binary Menu, Multiple-Item menu, Check boxes, Pull-down Menus. Argue which design serves the user best.
• Chapter 12: Balancing function and form: (Sections 12.1, 12.2, 12.4, and 12.6)
  • Color displays are attractive to users and can often improve task performance, but the danger of misuse is high. List five guidelines for using color and give an example of each.
  • Calculate the visual complexity of an interface.
  • Give an intuitive explanation of what the visual complexity metric captures.
• Chapter 13: User Manuals, Online Help and Tutorials
  • Describe the difference between reading on paper and reading on a computer display. Be sure to list at least three disadvantages for each method.
  • Describe how you can apply the OAI model to designing user manuals.
  • Draw an 8-frame storyboard depicting an on-line tutorial you could construct for an application of your choice. The storyboard should focus on teaching the user just one function of the interface. Each frame should represent an interaction the user can have with the tutorial.
  • Discuss the use of on-line communities for user assistance. Point out both weaknesses and strengths.
  • Describe the role user manuals, online help, and tutorials play in the lifecycle of a piece of software.

Example design and implementation problems (not inclusive):

• Draw a mockup of a user interface from a problem statement.
• List 6 use cases for an application based on a mockup or a problem statement.
• Write a use case for X based on a mockup of a GUI.
• Create a robustness diagram and/or a sequence diagram for a use case.
• Draw an 8-frame storyboard depicting an on-line tutorial.
• Criticize the organization and content of a set of user documentation.
• Implement a simple model-view controller program for a user interface.
• Evaluate the structure and design of a web page.

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