Sample questions from the "theory" book (Shneiderman) for CS 5551 Exams

The questions from Shneiderman's web page have a period after the question
number; I made up new questions that have an asterisk (*) after the question
number.

Chapter 1:

1. Describe the four goals for requirements analysis.
Answer: Section 1.2

2. Describe the five usability measures that should be taken into account
  during user interface design that are central to evaluation of an
  interface.
Answer: Section 1.3

3. What are the five primary sources of motivation (application areas) for
  human factors in design?  Give an example of each.
Answer: the 5 subsections of Section 1.4

4. How does the design of a life-critical system differ from that of other
   systems?
Answer: Section 1.4.1

5. Compare and contrast motivating factors between life-critical systems and
   those for home, office, or entertainment.
Answer: Section 1.4

6. Briefly identify some areas of human diversity that challenge the
   developers of interactive systems.
Answer: the "headers" for the subsections of Section 1.5

7. What are some design concerns pertaining to cultural and international
  diversity?
Answer: Section 1.5.4


Chapter 2:
         
1. Which among Guidlines, Principles, and Theories is at the highest
  level of abstraction?  Answer: Theories   Which is at the lowest
  level?  Answer: Guidlines
         
2. Discuss devices (techniques) for getting the user's attention. 
  How and why are they implemented?
Answer: Section 2.2.3

3* List (some of) Shneiderman's 8 Golden Rules of Interface Design.
Answer: Section 2.3.4
         
4. Give an example and discuss the implementation of one of Shneiderman's
  Golden Rules of Interface Design.
Answer: Section 2.3.4
         
5. Describe the Foley and van Dam cognitive model.
Answer: Section 2.4.1
 
6. Define "gulf of execution" and "gulf of evaluation."
Answer: Section 2.4.2
         
7. List and explain Norman's four principles of good design.
Answer: Section 2.4.2
         

Chapter 5:

1* Natural-language specification of an interface tends to be ___, ___, and
  ___, which makes them difficult to prove ___, ___, and ___.
Answer: Section 5.2

2* List some (non-natural-language) specification methods.
Answer: Headings of subsections of Section 5.2

3. Why are transition diagrams useful? 
   What problems can occur when they are used?
Answer: Section 5.2.3
         
4* What are the 4 benefits of using interface-building tools?
Answer: Section 5.3 Box 5.1
         
5* List software-engineering tools (not visual editing tools) to aid in
  interface programming?
Answer: Section 5.3.2 (Tcl/Tk, Java, JavaScript)
         
6. Pick two different user-interface-building tools, then compare and
   contrast them.
Answer: Section 5.3 (won't ask this)
        

 ------------ End of material for the midterm exam Fall 2008 ----------
    i.e ignore the questions below until studying for the final exam


Chapter 6:

1* List some of the positive feelings associated with good user interfaces.
Answer: Section 6.1

2* List some direct manipulation or virtual systems.
Answer: Section 6.2 (full-page "display" editors, WYSIWYG word processors,
spreadsheets, video games, HyperCard, Quicken).

3. Give four benefits and four problems of direct manipulation.
Answer: Section 6.3 - skip "benefits"; Section 6.3.1 lists problems

4* List some guidelines for creating icons.
Answer: Section 6.3.3

5* List (some of) the five challenges of programming the user interface by
using direct manipulation. 
Answer: Section 6.3.4

6* List three complicating factors in operating in a remote environment.
Answer: Section 6.5

7* List some features of successful virtual environments.
Answer: Section 6.x - skip (not in 4th Ed. of text)


Chapter 7:

1* List five menu techniques to handle long lists.
Answer: Section 7.3.2

2* List the four menu task-related grouping guidelines in tree structured
menus.
Answer: Section 7.5.1

3* List the four possibilities for item sequences when there is no task-
related ordering.
Answer: Section 7.5.2 (page 287, second list)

4* List five form-fillin design guidelines.
Answer: Section 7.7.1 (Box 7.2 page 297)

5* List three dialog-box design guidelines for internal layout.
Answer: Section 7.7.3 (Box 7.3 top, page 302)

6* List three dialog-box design guidelines for external relationships.
Answer: Section 7.7.3 (Box 7.3 bottom, page 302)


Chapter 8:

1* List four basic goals of language design (thinking in terms of a
command-line language).
Answer: Section 8.1

2* When using an editor, which technique works better: using symbols or
using keywords?
Answer: Section 8.4.2 (Table 8.1)

3* Based on a study for commands for controlling a robot, what are four
sources of command structure that have proved advantageous?
Answer: Section 8.4.3 (page 327 bottom)

4* List five guidelines for constructing command languages.
Answer: Section 8.5.1 (Box 8.1 page 331)


Chapter 9:

1. Give three benefits and three problems of touch screens.
Answer: Section 9.3.2 (won't ask this one)

2* List 3 direct and 3 indirect control pointing devices.
Answer: Box 9.1

3. Give three benefits and three problems of voice recognition input.
Answer: Box 9.2 (Opportunities = benefits; Obstacles = problems)

4* Which is more difficult: discrete-word recognition or continuous
speach recognition?  Why?
Answer: Sections 9.4.1, 9.4.2

5* List 3 display technologies.
Answer: Section 9.5.1


Chapter 10:

1. Describe the time-space matrix traditionally used to decompose collaborative
interfaces.  Include an example for each "cell" in your answer.
Note that "different time, different place" is the most common (e.g. email).
Answer: Section 10.2 page 414


Chapter 14:

1. What is the five-phase framework that describes what users typically go
through in a textual search?
Answer: Section 14.2 page 566 (or Box 14.1, p. 567).