CS 338: Graphical User Interfaces
Final Exam Study Guide
Summary
The final exam will be 1 hour long and will cover the latter half of the course
(i.e., after the midterm). Like the midterm, the questions will be a mixture of
short answer and long answer.
Covered Material
The final exam will focus on the lectures/activities from the second half of the course.
This includes the following topics:
- Evaluation & Modeling
- empirical testing, usability walkthrough, heuristic evaluation: basic
idea, pros/cons
- heuristics: be able to name and explain at least 3 heuristics for evaluation
- GOMS, KLM-GOMS modeling
- Interfaces on the Web
- hypertext history and basics
- is web site design different from GUI design? -- your opinion and reasons
- understand concepts of screen layout (only the little we covered)
- the application <--> web site continuum
- UI Programming on the Web
- how browsers and web servers interact
- how HTML, CSS, Javascript are used
- JavaScript basics
- AJAX: what it is and why it's used
- Model, View, Controller on the web
- Document Object Model (DOM)
- event handling with Javascript
- Input
- mouse, keyboard, speech, handwriting, touch, eyes, other future input modalities
- benefits, drawbacks, challenges of various input modalities
- Fitts's Law
- difficulties with recognition
- off-line vs. on-line recognition
- tradeoff between easy/flexibility of input and difficulty in recognition
- HMM basics
- Accessibility
- who has impairments? everyone! why?
- don't need to know definitions of "impairment", "disability", & "handicap"
- computers for access vs. as prostheses
- general familiarity with different types of impairments (don't worry
about specifics)
- examples of solutions for different impairments: e.g., keyboard modifications
(motor), magnification and Braille output (visual), TDD (hearing)
- design of an interface for impaired users
- Design for User Empowerment
Intelligent Interfaces
- what are characteristics of an intelligent interface?
- how could a menu adapt intelligently? advantages & disadvantages?
- intelligent help pages
- two-sigma effect of human tutoring
- what is a cognitive architecture
- crowd-powered systems: examples, challenges, benefits
Interfaces off the Desktop
- handhelds: design guidelines and a couple examples
- kiosks: design guidelines and an example
- in-car and on-road interfaces: driver distraction, driver workload
- ubiquitous computing: basics of tabs, pads, and boards
- what is tangible interaction?
- examples of tangible interaction: URP, Shape Changing interfaces
Future Interactive Systems
- what is WIMP
- what is reality-based interaction?
- four themes in reality-based interaction
- physiological computing and brain-computer interfaces
- brain-computer interfaces for disabled users vs. broader use