SWE 632 Final Review

SWE 632 - Final Review - Fall 2012

The final will cover all the material presented in class, homework and readings. This includes material from the beginning of class as well (the final is comprehensive). Generally the focus will be on the second half of the semester, however concepts build upon each other so you can't just ignore the first half! The concepts below are guidelines, but the exam will cover everything. The key is to UNDERSTAND concepts.. not just memorize answers to each of these questions.

This may be updated frequently. Please hit refresh. Last updated: Dec 7, 2012.

Everything from the Midterm

Designing Good Behavior
- How can we "take an interest" in our user's needs. Give specific examples.
- Explain the meaning and give examples from a Browser, Word Processor and WebMail about
    - Being deferential, taking an interest in the user, being forthcoming, anticipating needs, begin conscientious.
    (These can be features that exist, features you would add, or negative examples where they don't do this).
- How can product be more self-confident? What do they need to do? Why?
- Explain how adding better memory to software can make them more considerate/smart.

Data Entry
- Compare and contrast data integrity versus data immunity. Give specific examples.
- Why do we prefer immunity? What are the costs associated with integrity?
- Explain and give examples of the four types of immunization we discussed.

Direct Manipulation
- What are the three requirements for good direct manipulation interfaces? Give an example of each.
- Direct manipulation uses object-verb ordering. What is that?
- Define perceived affordances and provide examples from computer user interfaces. Explain how the interfaces made something afford an action (clicking, dragging or turning, etc...)
- Define and give examples of discrete and contiguous selection
- Define and give examples of mutually exclusive selection and additive selection.

Concepts from UI Design
- Why design in Photoshop instead of HTML/CSS? (Hint: Same reason applies to why we mockup in PowerPoint or Balsamiq instead of Java/.Net, etc...)
- Educate clients about your reasons for decisions: browser compatibility, cross-platform compatibility, usability and SEO best practices

- Tips for website design
    - Keep important content at the top
    - Typography: Easy to read fonts (san-serif... unlike the page you're reading now! Oops! ;-)
    - Colors: use screen-friendly colors that aren't too overwhelming
    - Branding : match company style (conservative, modern, playful) to website style.
    - Composition: Think about how the reader's eye flow through the page. (Exactly the same issues we discussed within the UI development context)
    - White space: use it, love it! avoid clutter!

- For developers and designers to work together requires education. Teach developers about design and designers about development basics.
    - What are examples of things you can teach a designer to help?

- Define responsive design for websites.

Usability Engineering
- What is done during the pre-design phase?
    Explain each (Knowing the User, User's Tasks, Evolution, Competitive Analysis, Setting Goals)
- Why is iterative design so powerful?
- How does participatory design impact iterative design?
- During design you setup guidelines. Provide some example guidelines and what shouldn't be in the guidelines.
- Explain empirical testing. Why use it? What are some approaches to do it?
- After release, what are some types of information gathered? How is the information used?
- How should we measure quality of software?

Visual Information Design (from Visual UI Design slides)
- Explain the seven principles of information design.
- Given a scenario (or example) explain how it uses or violates these principles

The information below was not covered in Fall 2012, and will not be on the final.
However, school is about learning, not grades -- so I urge you to make sure you understand the concepts anyway!

Visual Interface Design
- What is a visual hierarchy? Give a specific example.
- What is the hierarchy based on?
- What is the meaning (and difference) of spatial and visual grouping
- How do you provide visual structure and flow?
- Is flow different for different cultures? How?
- Explain the concept of leverage and how it can be applied to reduce clutter.