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Couple of notes:
I spoke with prof. Pu today, and she said the exam will be 45 mins, so a relatively short one.
Second point, I made the mistake of overlooking that only Parts I, II, and III will be covered on the exam.


Hi !

This page has been created for one goal : find and gather answers to the potential questions for the HCI final exam.
Those questions were found on the HCI main site. In seeking a little bit, we found that :
http://128.178.77.26/~chen/usable/m1/pages/key_concept/questions.htm

The goal is now to propose our answers to those questions, based on the Web site content and lecture slides.

Usability Foundations
 
papers Contents: Questions and Answers
 


1. True/False questions

2. Multiple choices questions

3. Short answer questions

1. True/False questions

1) All systems in human information process model (Card et al., 1983) share the same memory. True

2) The working memory stores visual and auditory images. TRUE

3) The storage for visual and auditory information is shared. FALSE

4) The activity of the human brain can be metaphorized to the programming steps of a computer. TRUE

5) Mental models are internal representations of real or imaginary situations. TRUE

6) Mental models are representations in the mind of only imaginary situations. FALSE

7) The design model is the mental model user (not designer) develops of how her/his tasks should be accomplished. FALSE

8) The user model is always consistent with the design model. FALSE

9) A user often develops a partial model of the design model. TRUE

10) Experts and novices differ in the coarseness of granularity with which they view the constituent elements of a particular problem or task. TRUE

11) A successful software should be as much powerful as possible to work out the details for the user.    False
---- this one I think is actually false, look at Part II slide 21. -Pooya

12) Novice users have enough semantic knowledge of the system and only a little syntactic knowledge. FALSE

13) Intermittent users maintain semantic knowledge of the system but loose syntactic knowledge. TRUE

14) Frequent users have only a bit of semantic knowledge, but a lot of syntactic knowledge. FALSE

15) The problem solving cycle is setting up goals --> planning our actions --> evaluating if actions can help us achieve goals --> executing actions. FALSE

16) Articulatory feedback confirms users' cognitive skills to the choices as users go through them. FALSE

17) Semantic feedback confirms users' haptic skills to the choices as users go through them. FALSE

18) We can recognize objects far more easily than we can recall them from memory. TRUE

19) We can recall objects from memory far more easily than we can recognize them. FALSE

20) Recognition memory is easier than recall memory. TRUE

21) We can use six different font sizes on a single screen to get user's attention. FALSE

22) The speed for reading uppercase is faster than reading lowercase. FALSE

23) The speed for reading uppercase letters is more than 10% slower. TRUE

24) Blue should not be used for text since it is one of the hardest colors to read. TRUE

25) Perception can influence how we react in external environment. TRUE

26) Cognitive system helps visual processing by providing knowledge stored in memory. TRUE

27) The perceived affordance is always the same as real affordance. FALSE

28) A good design of a object is that the perceived affordance closes to the real affordance. TRUE

29) The system designer has control over perceived affordances and real affordance.   True

30) A general principle of user interface design is to use as much as possible different colors to get the user's attention. FALSE

31) Mapping is the relationship between controls and their movements, and the results in the problem solving process. TRUE

32) Natural mappings use constraints and correspondences in the physical world. TRUE

33) Natural mapping is a good design method because it leads to immediate understanding. TRUE

34) Mental models are often extracted from fragmentary evidence. TRUE

35) Motor Skills is our competence in manipulating and controlling motions. TRUE

36) If the C:D ratio is 2:1, two units of motion by the controller would result in one unit of motion by the tracking symbol on the display. TRUE

37) A low C:D ratio is useful for fine cursor positioning. FALSE

38) A high C:D ratio permits one to traverse the display with relatively little motion of the controller. FALSE

39) According to Fitts' law, the pointing time is a linear function of the distance and the width of the target. FALSE

40) Fitts' law states that the time to acquire a target with a continuous linear controller has a logarithmic relationship to the distance over the target size. TRUE

41) Social science studies how humans behave towards each other and why they react in certain ways. TRUE

42) Human and Computer Dialogs is similar to the human dialogs. TRUE

43) One principle of designing human computer dialogs is to use technical jargons. FALSE

44) A good design of the user interface is to provide as many as possible widgets to the users. FALSE (Not sure ^_^) it is false, it's under KISS principal

45) Direct Manipulation is an interface that behaves like the interaction was with a real-world object. TRUE

46) Direct Manipulation is an interface that behaves like the interaction was with an abstract system. FALSE


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2. Multiple choices questions

1) Which function(s) can the motor processor perform?
a. Control the movement of fingers; b. Control the movement of eyes; c. Perform the main reasoning; d. Control the movement of hands and limbs

2) Which one(s) can be used to derive the system image?
a. Physical interface; b. System behavior; c. Design model; d. Documentation;

3) Which one(s) would novice users likely prefer in an interface?
a. Clarity; b. A lot of meaningful functions; c. Lucid error message; d. Complexity; e. Informative feedback

4) Which one(s) intermittent users prefer in an interface?
a. Simple consistent commands; b. Meaningful sequencing of steps; c. Hard to remembered functions and tasks; d. Online assistance and help; e. Accelerator keys

5) Which one(s) frequent users likely prefer in an interface?
a. Meaningful sequencing of steps; b. Fast interaction; c. Lucid error message ; d. Informative feedback; e. Customization of their own interface.

6) According to Norman's action cycle, execution has three stages:
a. Start with a goal; b. Perceive the world; c. Translate a goal into a sequence of actions; d. Translate a goal into an intention; e. Interpret what was perceived.

7) What are the three evaluation stages according to Norman 's action cycle?
a. Start with a goal; b. Perceive world; c. Interpret what was perceived; d. Translate goal into an intention; e. Compare what was perceived with respect to original intentions.

8) Two types of informative feedbacks can be identified:
a. auditory; b. articulatory; c. visual; d. syntactic; e. semantic

9) Which object(s) of the following can give articulatory feedback?
a. keyboards; b. progress bar; c. position of mouse; d. surgery simulation tools; e. confirmation messages of user actions

10) Which object(s) of the following can give semantic feedback?
a. keyboards; b. progress bar; c. position of mouse; d. surgery simulation tools; e. confirmation messages of user actions

11) What is the maximum response time of feedback before a user will likely perform other tasks?
a. 0.1 seconds; b. 1 seconds; c. 5 seconds; d.10 seconds; e. 15 seconds

12) What is the maximum number “chunks” we can remember at any one time in short-term memory?
a. 4 plus or minus two; b. 5 plus or minus two; c.6 plus or minus two; d. 7 plus or minus two.

13) What is the maximal time an item can remain in short-term memory?
a. 10 seconds; b. 20 seconds; c. 30 seconds; d. 40 seconds

14) What techniques can be used to guide user's attention to important information on the interface?
a. Layouts and animations; b. Color; c. Flashing; d. Auditory warning; e. Reverse video

15) No more than how many different colors can we use on a single screen?
a. 3; b. 4; c. 5; d. 6; e. 7.

16) What is the maximum number of distinct colors we can use throughout a single application?
a. 3; b. 5; c. 7; d. 9; e. 11.

17) Which color(s) can be best used as background color?
a. white; b. black; c. green; d. yellow; e. blue

18) Mental Model can be built from
a. affordance; b. constraint; c. memory; d. mapping; e. instructions

19) Which of the following can help users build mental models
a. system feedback; b. constraints; c. memory; d. instructions; e. interactions

20) Please select the haptic devices for the computer system:
a. keyboards; b. earphone; c. mice; d. touchscreens; e. battery

21) When devices are used for both control and display, such as touch-screens and light-pens, what should the correct C:D ratio be?
a. 1; b. 2; c. 3; d. 4

22) Which type of help is especially useful for expert users?
a. working examples; b. reference manuals; c. reminders; d. tips

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3. Short answer questions

1) How many interacting systems does the human information process model consist of (according to Card et al. 1983)? Name them, and describe them briefly.

2) What is the difference between a mental model and an image?

3) What is the difference between psychological variable and physical variable? Give some examples.

4) What is the relationship between designer model, user model and system image?

5) Please give the definitions of the “gulf of execution” and “gulf of evaluation”.

6) How do people accomplish complex tasks? Please list at least two approaches.

7) How to minimize learning? Please list at least two techniques.

8) List two types of feedback a computing system can provide.

9) Describe the main two skills adults use to learn new skills.

10) What is the difference between a metaphor and an icon? Given an example of an icon which is not a metaphor.

11) How many stores can the memory be divided into, according to cognitive psychologists? Name them and describe them briefly.

12) Please explain briefly why it is hard to design affordance.
(Answer: -Devices and software are very complex. -Controls function differently depending on their states (modes)

13) Please list at least three haptic devices for the computer system.
(Answer: keyboards, mice, touchscreens, joysticks)

14) Please briefly explain the difference between mistakes and slips
(Answer: mistakes: conscious deliberations, leads to an error; slips: unconscious behavior, gets misdirected route, often arises from similar actions)

15) Please state the general design rules of avoiding slips.
(Answer: Prevent errors before they occur; Detect and correct errors when they do occur; User correction through feedback and undo)

16) Please list at least 3 positive methods of treating errors.
(Answer: try to make errors impossible; Provide reasonableness checks on input data; Provide help)

17) Please list at least three rules in order to treat human errors in positive and helpful manners.

18) Please list at least four types of help.
(Answer: Reference manuals, Reminders, context-sensitive help, wizards, Tips)

19) Please state briefly the meaning of KISS principle.
(Answer: interaction designers can make an effort to keep simple tasks easy for the user, and to make complex tasks possible)

20) Please explain the concept of “Direct Manipulation” and its central ideas.
(Answer: Direct Manipulation: An interface that behaves as though the interaction was with a real-world object rather than with an abstract system; Central ideas: 1. visibility of the objects of interest; 2. rapid, reversible, incremental actions; 3. manipulation by pointing and moving; 4.immediate and continuous display of results)

21) Please name at least two disadvantages of direct manipulation.
(Answer: ill-suited for abstract operations; Tedium; Task domain may not have adequate physical/visual metaphor; metaphor may be overly-restrictive)

22) One unity of memorable item is often called a chunk in cognitive psychology.

a. How many of them are there in a short-term memory?

b. Many people can perform several tasks at the same time, such as driving while listening to the radio. However they are likely to have trouble skiing down a steep slope while trying to spell their friend's name backward. Explain the difference between the two scenarios listed above, i.e., the driving example and the skiing example.

c. List the generic names of those tasks that humans can perform simultaneously and those they cannot.

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