Wayne Carter

Systems Analysis and Design

Chapter 14

1. Define HCI. The aspect of a computer that enables communications and interactions between humans and the computer; the layer of the computer between humans and the computer.

2. Explain how fit among the HCI elements of the human, the computer, and the tasks to be performed leads to performance and well-being. Analysts want the best fit in their design. They want to make the best possible use of people in designing a computerized task that is intended to meet an organizational objective. The better fit means to result in better performance and greater overall well-being for the human involved in the system.

3. What are the components of the term performance in the HCI context? The term performance refers to a combination of the efficiency involved in performing a task and the quality of the work that is produced by the task. 4. What is meant by the word well-being when used in an HCI approach? This refers to how humans attitudes color the way they feel about technology and their task, and whether their attitudes hinders or enhance their experience. 5. What are the two variables of the Technology Acceptance Model? The two keys to the TAM are Perceived usefulness and Perceived ease of use.

6. List five of the eleven usability heuristics for judging the usability of computer systems and ecommerce Web sites provided by Nielsen and others. Visibility of system status, match between the system and the real word, user control and freedom, consistency and standards, Error prevention.

7. Describe some of the ways that a pivot table allows a user to arrange data. In Microsoft Excel the user can take an item form the Pivot Table Field List and drag it to the table template, and drop it in one of the blank areas. You can drop Sales into the largest area that says Drop Data Items Here And you can drop Quarter to the leftmost colum and the Product to the area that says Drop Colum Field Here

Wayne Carter

Systems Analysis and Design

Chapter 14

8. List three physical considerations that HCI design addresses. The three physical considerations that HCI Design addresses are: Vision Hearing Touch

9. List three ways that analysts can improve task or interface design to help, respectively, a person who is visually impaired, hearing impaired or mobility impaired. For vision impaired there are braille keyboards as well as special speech software that we read documents loudly and there are also screen magnifiers For Hearing impaired make sure there is a written version of any audio material or use headphones For the mobility impaired try to implement speech input instead of using keyboard and mouse.

10. What are the five objectives for designing user interface? Matching the u interface to the task. Making the user interface efficient. Providing appropriate feedback to users. Generating usable queries. Improving the productivity of computer users. 11. Define natural-language interfaces. What is their major drawback? An interface that permits the user to speak or write in human language to interact with the computer. This is hard to implementation problems and extraordinary demand on computing resources has so far kept natural-language interfaces to a minimum.

12. Explain what is meant by question-and-answers interfaces. To what kind of users are they best suited? Question and answer interfaces, the computer displays a question to the user on the display and to interact with the screen the user has to enter an answer. Then the computer acts as an input for the information in a preprogramed manner. This in my opinion is best used by users that require multiple applications to interact with each other.

Wayne Carter

Systems Analysis and Design

Chapter 14

13. Describe how users use onscreen menus. A user is limited to the options that are being displayed. The user does not have to know the system well but does need to know what task should be accomplished. Example: In Office 2007 is a user is asked to insert a header. They will only need to look for the Insert Tab and they will likely find a header. 14. What is a nested menu? What are its advantages? Nested menus are menus that have other menus hidden within a single tab. The advantages are it keeps the display clean and keeps unneeded items clear from the screen. 15. Define onscreen input/output forms. What is their chief advantage? Interfaces that consist of forms or web-based forms displaying fields containing data items or parameters that needs to be communicated to the user. Chief advantage is: the printed version of the filled in form provides excellent documentation.

16. What are the advantages of web-filled in forms? They can be sent directly to billing if a transaction is involved. They can go directly to a real-time database if a survey is being submitted. 17. What are the drawbacks of Web-based form-fill interfaces? Users experienced with the system or application might become impatient with input/output forms and might want more efficient ways to enter data. 18. Explain what command-language interfaces are. To what types of users are they best suited A command- language interface allows the user to control the applications with a series of key strokes, commands, phrases, or some sequence of these three methods. They are best suited for more experienced users. 19. Define graphical user interfaces. What is the key difficulty they present for programmers? Graphic user interfaces are interfaces that require its users to interact with onscreen graphic. They must be appropriate models that are acceptable representations that must be invented. 20. For what type of user is a GUI particularly effective? Users that like graphical interfaces over command line.

Wayne Carter

Systems Analysis and Design

Chapter 14

21. What are the three guidelines for designing good screen dialog? A: Meaningful communication, so that the computer understands what people are entering and people understand what the computer is presenting. B: Minimal user action. C: Standard operation and consistency.

22. What are the roles of icons graphics, and color in providing feedback? Icon graphics act as executable that when clicked they will execute the command thats attached to the icon. It helps users provide feedback more easily.