http://www.cs.tufts.edu/comp/171 COMP171: Human Computer Interaction Assignments RSS Feed (Spring 2008) http://www.cs.tufts.edu/comp/171/a1.html Choose a software product - from the desktop, web or embedded platforms - that you think is well designed and analyze it. First, briefly describe the product. Submit a brief report 1-2 pages max, beginning with a description of your product, then briefly answering each of the questions below: 1) User analysis: Whom do you see the target users for this product? What are their demographic and ethnographic characteristics (age, attitude towards technology, skills)? 2) Task analysis: What are the important tasks for this product? What are the user's overall tasks or goals are when using this product? What parts of the overall task does the system (the software) perform? What parts does the user perform? 3) Describe the context, situations, or environments in which users use the product. 4) Conceptual design: Describe the conceptual model in this product (key objects, attributes, relationships, actions). 5) Design metaphors: If applicable, describe any metaphors used in the design. For example, the desktop metaphor for file management treats computer files like paper documents. 6) Describe how you feel the product is well or poorly suited for its users' goals. 7) Describe how you might improve on the product. 8) If you were going to develop a test procedure for testing the usability of this product, describe how you would go about doing this after you improved it, to see if your improvements were helpful? Tuesday, 29 January 2008 17:15:00 http://www.cs.tufts.edu/comp/171/a2.html Your second assignment is to just read about Google Gadgets . by reviewing the information at the sites below. There is nothing to hand in, just try to get comfortable with the concepts and how to start. After we do a review in class, we.ll be ready to design, build and test some simple Google Gadgets in class. Please bring your laptop to class as this is a hands-on workshop. If you feel like you can.t wait until next week to start designing a Gadget and want to experiment, go for it! Let me know if you have any questions, with a cc to our TAs Michael and Larissa (cc'd above). Google Gadgets: What are Google Gadgets? http://www.google.com/webmasters/gadgets/ How do I start to think about designing a Google Gadget? http://www.google.com/webmasters/gadgets/guidelines.html I can.t wait for class, I have to start NOW! http://code.google.com/apis/gadgets/ Tuesday, 5 February 2008 22:21:00