(a):

All of these information artifacts have used the common approach of visualizing a specific slice

of time as a table on a page. In a personal pocket-sized calendar this time slice is shorter,

allowing the user to keep track of time in a daily basis and also to write down the important

occurrences in a diary-like fashion; in here, the concept of time is one page of calendar for each

week. The wall calendar is the best for getting the current month of the year by just one look at

the picture (the picture is something specifically germane to the month). The wall planner has the

most generalized concept of time because it shows whole of the year to the user with just one

look and is intended to be used for planning all the major happenings of a year. The concept of

time-pass in a wall planner is less noticeable than the other variants. On the other hand, a

personal calendar with one week to a page, shows the time pass most vividly.

(b):

* Both an electronic personal calendar and online shared calendar found on the web, use high-

level metaphors and analogies to convey to the users how they could be understood and

manipulated in a practical manner. For example, they both are represented to the user with a

visual appearance which is mostly like an equivalent physical calendar with tables and squares

for showing days and weeks.

* An electronic personal calendar is intended for the use of a single person to record/revisit their

private events. For example, it can be used to save the date of user's wedding anniversary. An

online shared calendar on the other hand, is designed to be viewed and edited by a majority of

users; making it an ideal choice for offices/corporations. The main benefits of these calendars
compared to the traditional/physical ones are things such as relative simplicity of use, portability

and also the ability to use and share them over a long period of time.

* Among the most important new functionalities that are added to the electronic calendars are the

ability to search through all the events by entering a certain search query, organizing the events

according to time or level of importance, and also the ability to share an event with others or

asking them to cooperate on a future planning.

* Electronic calendars usually use card metaphor and other material properties to represent their

underlying conceptual model to the user. By working with these electronic calendars, you will

feel the appearance and physical behavior of real-world objects, for example, an electronic

personal calendar used on phone devices is designed to look like a physical one.

* The example electronic calendar that I worked with (Google Calendar), allows the user to view

the calendar on day, 3 days, week, and month based views; as a result, the interface of the

calendar might seem a little bit complex and hard to understand for the new users.

* The fact that in the traditional calendars the view is not changeable (it's either week-based or

month-based) but in the electronic calendars the view is usually changeable and also the

unexperienced user might change it unknowingly, might be confusing at the beginning for some

users especially novices.

“Hojat Ghasemi _ 0392859”