Review for Midterm Spring 2015 Jeff Offutt SWE 205 Software Usability and Design

205 - Midterm Review2 Parameters & Logistics 10:30 – 11:45 (the usual class time) Same room Closed book / closed notes / closed neighbor Covers readings, slides, and homeworks We will rearrange the tables so they are not in circles © Offutt

205 - Midterm Review3 Concepts User friendly doesn’t make sense Usability is more than software rule Criteria : –Time to learn –Speed of performance –Rate of user errors Know the users Nine golden screen design principles Visibility, mapping and affordance Knowledge in the head, knowledge in the world Knowledge must be stored in the UI © Offutt

Concepts (2) A good UI must be simple People are not good at being precise We must design for mistakes –Anticipate, self-correct, help users Correlation and causality The scientific method People blame themselves when they make mistakes Mental models Nielsen’s top 10 mistakes on the web Nielsen’s 10 website design tips Midterm Review© Offutt4

Concepts (2) People do not read pages, they scan them at 70 mph Minimize noise Edit ruthlessly Overhead and excise tasks Memory and considerate software Midterm Review© Offutt5

205 - Midterm Review6 Preparing & Format Re-read the text and handouts Study the homework assignments Review the in-class assignments Get a good night’s sleep Expect different kinds of questions –Short answer –T / F –M / C –Single word answer questions –Problem solving © Offutt