Assignment
8: Color Analysis and Usability |
CSCI-588: Specification
and Design of User Interface Software |
Fall 2004 |
| 8A:
Color Analysis ( Due: 6.30 pm. PST, November 16, 2004) |
Prepare
one to two (1-2) PowerPoint charts summarizing your analysis
of the colors you are using in your projects. This exercise
will cause each team to view their project more "artistically" and
to review the selection of colors that make sense from
a user interface design perspective.
|
V+:
You reviewed the reference material on color in user interface
design and clearly described your color combinations and
choices. Your presentation is concise and to the point.
You point out that the colors you have chosen are acceptable
based on the referenced research OR you point out that
you have made some design changes based on performing this
homework. You included an example screen with commentary
on the colors as an example. You kept the homework submittal
to 1-2 PowerPoint slides.
V: You briefly state that the colors selected meet your user
needs without any justification or analysis. You reviewed
only the course notes as reference material. Your homework
was less than 1 (e.g. 1/2 page) or more than 2 PowerPoint
slides.
V-: Your analysis is personal opinions not based on any of
the above reference material. You have no examples or justification
of the colors selected. You did not submit the material in
PowerPoint slide format.
|
| Remember
to write your names and team number, plus your location (Campus
or off-campus-location-name) on the submittal! Professor
Jacobs is sensitive to the fact that you may not have easy
(or inexpensive) access to a high quality color printer for
this assignment. He will accept a black & white homework
submittal. Just use color pens, handwrite, etc. to make your
points. |
| COURSE
NOTES referral: Use the information described in class (see
class notes Pages 3-46 to 3-51), the course text (Page 510-515),
and/or the article scanned into the class (DEN) web site
entitled "Techniques and Tools for Using Color in Computer
Interface Design". |
| 8B:
Usability Analysis ( Due: 6.30 pm. PST, November 16, 2004) |
| This
is a TEAM, not individual assignment. Please review an existing
system (must not be your own project and not a web page)
and perform the usability study. That system can be a device
(e.g. VCR, cell phone, microwave, DVD player, PDA, etc.)
or a system (e.g. ATM machine, postage device, gas station
pump, etc.) that has some user interface to analyze. If you
are developing a user interface for a device for your class
project, it may prove beneficial to pick a similar device
for this homework. |
| This
is a shorter version of the previous week’s homework where
you may have developed and conducted a survey (like the QUIS
developed by Ben Shneiderman) or use a Usability Specification
(like from the paper by Whiteside, Bennett and Holtzblatt).
Since you were not the developer of this system, you may
need to estimate the requirements of the system you picked
to completely evaluate it. State all assumptions. Format
for this homework is 1-2 single-spaced typed pages. |
V
- means your team reviewed a web page or reviewed your own
project and not a device or system as described above. You
did not approach the problem with any of the techniques you
learned the previous week. You did not state any assumptions
about the requirements for the system. You only handed in
about less than 1/2 typed page or more than 2 pages of text
that did not cover the requested analysis in a coherent fashion.
V means your team made assumptions about system usability
requirements, applied some of the things you learned in performing
a detailed usability study on your project the previous week
(e.g. you developed a Usability Specification) for this system.
Your analysis was not too coherent and did not refer to the
things you learned from the class lectures.
V+ means your team completely stated assumptions about usability
requirements for the chosen system. You developed a Usability
Specification or similar mechanism (e.g. a sample QUIS Survey)
to capture how this system should perform. You included a
highlighted photo or diagram of your system to make your
discussion easy to follow. You discussed your results with
a neutral party as a test (user) case to see if they had
any observations on your analysis. You discussed the usability
of that device or system in a clear, coherent fashion. This
team made observations from this second usability homework
and compared it briefly with what was performed last week.
You noted any changes to your project as a result of this
weeks assignment of an evaluation of an existing system or
device. |
| COURSE
NOTES referral (same class notes referral as Assignment 7B):
Course textbook (Shneiderman) reference is Pages 140-171.
Course notes references are Pages 5-3 to 5-58. Plus T.A.
presentation on usability including links to usability web
sites. |
