INF4820/103/0/2020

Tutorial letter 103/0/2020

Human Computer Interaction

INF4820

Year Module

School of Computing

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
Please activate your myUnisa and myLife email addresses and ensure you have
regular access to the myUnisa module site INF4820-2020-Y1 as well as your
group site.

Note: This is an online module, and therefore your module is available on myUnisa. However, in
order to support you in your learning process, you will also receive some study materials in
printed format.
 CONTENTS

1 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 3
2 ASSIGNMENT 2 ........................................................................................................................... 3

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1 INTRODUCTION

Dear Student
This tutorial letter contains assignment 2. It covers some of the topics presented in chapters 5 -
8. Make sure you have read the solutions to assignment 1 before attempting the current
assignment.

The extended due date is 30 October 2020.

Regards
The Lecturer (vdmertm@unisa.ac.za)

2 ASSIGNMENT 2
Note that all assignments must be submitted in electronic .pdf format. No mark can be awarded
if an assignment was not uploaded via myUnisa. You are advised to submit the assignment before
the due date to allow time for access or technical difficulties. Note: The admission system closes
1 day after the due date and no assignments can be accepted once the system has closed.

Assignment 2
Due date: 30 October 2020 Total: 100 marks
Unique number: 797334 Year mark contribution: 50%
Study material: Chapters 5 to 8 in prescribed book.

Please note: Plagiarism is a serious crime and can result in a disciplinary hearing and a possibility
of expulsion from the University. You should never copy and paste text directly from the handbook
except when directed to do so.
Question 1
Which of the following examples presents an "unmistakable usability issue"? Answer either Yes,
or No, or Not necessarily .
a) A study participant selected a wrong navigation link on a website 2 out of 20 times.
b) A study participant took a long time to find the right product on an e-ecommerce site and
expressed their pleasure when they eventually do.
c) A study participant sighing when navigating to and finding a product that does not meet
their expectations or is out of stock.
d) Against expectations, a study participant finds a different route to reach a registration
page on Unisa.
e) Loadshedding starts and the battery of a laptop used in a usability study runs flat.
(5)

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Question 2
a) Provide two reasons why severity ratings may not always be a good idea when two or
more usability experts are involved in a usability study. (2)

b) If two study participants experience the same number of issues (say 10) with a new web
browser version, how many unique issues exists? (1)

c) Which types of analyses will you employ to report all usability issues experienced by
users from one version of a web-based user registration process to the next? Motivate
your answers. (5)
Question 3
Duplicate and complete the following table that lists issues found during a usability study.
Complete the proportion column and row and provide the average proportion. Then, calculate the
proportion of issues that would be identified by a sample of 3, 4 and 5 users respectively. Show
all calculations below the table. (12)

Participant T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6 T7 T8 T9 T10 Proportion

1 x x x x x x x
2 x x x x x
3 x x x x x x
4 x x x x
5 x x x x x x x
6 x x x x x x x
7 x x x x
8 x x x x x x x x x
9 x
10 x x x x x x x
Proportion

Question 4
Consider the following conditions and then state if you would use 5-10 or more than 10 users in
a usability test.
a) A new version of myUnisa needs to be tested, and you make use of participants that
have never made use of any version of myUnisa.
b) A new version of myUnisa needs to be tested, and you make use of students that have
used a previous version of myUnisa.
c) The development team are still working on the final product and are only interested in
testing for usability issues on a new and specific function. (3)
Question 5
A new version of a mobile phone app is completed but has not been yet been released. The
developers are interested in user reviews of the whole app. What level of self-reported data would
you collect? Also provide an example of a type of task you will provide the participants with.
(4)

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Question 6
Standard questionnaires are very useful for assessing subjective reactions to a system. Here the
System Usability Scale is one of the most widely used tools.

• Choose a computer desktop application of your choice. Name the application.

• Provide your questionnaire with modified questions that will suit your study of the
application.
• Provide dummy ratings of your own for each of the questions.
• Calculate and interpret the overall SUS score. (15)
Question 7
a) Provide two important guidelines to follow that will prevent self-reported bias in usability
testing data collection. (4)

b) Why would one use the number 0 (zero) in a rating scale? (2)
Question 8
a) Below is an image sourced from the top of the homepage of Kaizer Chiefs, the well-known
football club. Use this image to define suitable areas of interest (AOIs) to use in an eye-
tracking study.
Tip: Use the Insert -> Shapes option in MS Word to draw a rectangle around the AOIs.
Clear the Fill option and use a thin border so that the background of the image is visible
inside the rectangle. (6)

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 b) In one sentence each, briefly explain the different types of measures associated with
eye-tracking data. Then, in a further paragraph, and by referring to the image provided in
question (a), indicate and motivate where you think these metrics will provide useful data.
(11)
Question 9
Using Chapter 8 and section 8.1 (single usability scores) as a guide, make up your own data (do
not copy table data from the handbook), and present at least three ways in which you will derive
new usability metrics from your data for a product of your choice. Present your answer in an
explanatory way i.e. as if you are explaining to someone else the exact way in which you
approached the answer to this question i.e. the decisions and steps you took. Your presentation
must be clear and logical (especially in its layout) so that it will serve as a guide to a usability
novice. It is imperative that you first work through the whole section before you attempt your
answer. (30)

--- END OF ASSIGNMENT 2 ---

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