CSE 171: USER INTERFACE DESIGN: SOCIAL AND TECHNICAL ISSUES
Final Exam, 7 June 2005
It is highly preferable to use a blue book for your answers, but you may also write answers on this sheet, and some extra paper will be available. Be sure to write your name on every page you hand in!
  1. [12 pts] Give the phrase 2 letter that most closely matches the meaning of each phrase 1 term.

    phrase 1 answer phrase 2
    1. ergonomics   a. creation of meaning
    2. actant     b. style of using a medium
    3. noticable absence   c. use of distance to create groups
    4. direct manipulation   d. similar geometry to its object
    5. genre     e. phrasing with audience in mind
    6. manifestation   f. computation plus communication  
    7. representamen   g. interface is not noticed
    8. diagrammatic icon   h. describes an action or event
    9. semiosis   i. what users know but cannot say
    10. recipient design   j. no second member of pair
    11. gestalt   k. perceptual representation of phase space 
    12. proximity principle    l. possible action seen as such
        m. speaker appealing to shared values
        n. human or object or concept
        o. what is represented
        p. use human body properties for design
        q. illusion of physical control
        r. perceived as a whole
        s. physical properties of interface

  2. [10 pts] Define icon in the sense of Peirce, give two examples, give one non-icon example, and justify your examples.
     
  3. [5 pts] Say what each of the following is an acronym for, giving two answers for one of them: CMYK, HCI, F/C, HSB.
     
  4. [6 pts] Define low fidelity prototype, and discuss its advantages for interface development.
     
  5. [10 pts] Give an example of an oxymoron, and say what are its input spaces and its two blend spaces. Explain why humor is dangerous in interface design.
     
  6. [12 pts] Explain the polish prefix and standard infix term representations of simple parse trees for arithmatic expressions (such as X + (2 * Y) + 3), and explain which representation is better, by using the subterm ordering.
     
  7. [10 pts] Explain why it is important to know user values for interface design, and describe two effective ways to discover such values.
     
  8. [20 pts] A semiotic source space for a clothing store has the following sorts: Nat (for natural numbers), NatList (for lists of Nats), String (for strings of characters), and Path (for paths). The constructors for NatList are null (the empty list) and _._ (for append). Let Nat and Path be subsorts of NatList (i.e., every natural number and every path is a NatList), and let t: Path -> String assign titles to the nodes at the end of paths. Now declare that null, 1, 2, 3 are paths, as well as n.m for n,m = 1,2,3, and n.m.r for n,m,r = 1,2, and let t(null) = Dan's Clothing Store, t(1) = Departments, t(2) = Specials, t(3) = Contact Information, and similarly for reasonable labels for t(n.m) and t(n.m.r).
    1. Draw a tree for the organization of this website.
    2. Say how to define levels and priorities for the nodes at the end of paths.
    3. Explain how nested navigation bars preserve levels and priotities.
    4. Explain how nested navigation bars preserve the structure of paths.
     
  9. [5 pts] Explain the Principle of Transparency and give an example.
     
  10. [10 pts] Explain principle F/C, give two examples where it holds, one where it does not, and justify your examples.
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