COSC 4441/5351 Human-Computer Interaction

Fall 2004

Assignment 2

Due: Saturday October 30, 2004 @ 10:00 a.m.

Changes in red.

Your goal in this assignment is to critique a commercially available software application or other computing apparatus on its "learnability", "flexibility", and "robustness".  These three terms are used in the Dix et al.'s textbook as "principles to support usability".  Your critique should begin with a summary of the principles, crafted in your own words but with reference to Dix et al.'s ideas.  Following this, provide six (6) detailed examples from the chosen application or apparatus.  Three examples should demonstrate how a principle is correctly applied, and three should demonstrate how a principle is incorrectly applied.  Use screen snaps or other visual aides to support your examples. Note: Your examples may be taken from different applications.

Format.  Format your submission according to the "CHI Conference Publications Format".  Click here to download a template in MS Word format.

Submission.  Submit your review as a PDF or DOC file in Prism using the command 'submit 4441 a2 a2.xxx', where xxx is either pdf or doc.