UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS: 2018/2019
EXAMINATION FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF SCIENCE
IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
BIT2308 HUMAN COMPUTER INTERACTION
APRIL 2019 TIME: 2 HOURS
Instructions
o Answer question ONE and any other TWO.
o Question One carry 30 marks, others 20 marks each.
QUESTION ONE. (COMPULSORY)
(a) Discuss ANY two goals of studying HCI. (2 Marks)
(b) Explain any three factors that affect usability in HCI (6 Marks)
(c) Compare the constructivist and ecological theories of perception and give examples of
how each has influenced interface design. (4 Marks)
(d) Describe, with the aid of a diagram, the Extended Human Information Processing
model. (6 Marks)
(e) Explain between knowledge in the world and knowledge in the head. (2 Marks)
(f) (i) Differentiate “recognition rather than recall” as used in HCI (2 Marks)
(ii) Discuss areas in system design where ‘recognition’ is encouraged (2 Marks)
(iii) Discuss areas in system design where ‘recall’ is encouraged (2 Marks)
(g) Discuss any two factors that describes User-Centered Design. (4 Marks)
QUESTION TWO
(a) (i)What are metaphors? (2 Marks)
(ii) Discuss any three metaphors and show their applications in systems design.
(6 Marks)
(b) Discuss any three Jakob Nielsen Heuristics and show their relevance. (6 Marks)
(c) Describe two techniques for evaluation, highlighting their key points and the
differences between them (6 Marks)
QUESTION THREE
(a) Discuss any four interaction styles that are applicable in computing giving its
advantages and disadvantages. (8 Marks)
(b) Discuss KCA University website using Cognitive Task Analysis, GOMS
(6 Marks)
(c) Visibility and Affordance are two main HCI principles. Discuss these principles and
show their application in interface design of usable systems. (6 Marks)
QUESTION FOUR
(a) Why is web page design different to designing for printed media? (6 Marks)
(b) What are design guidelines? Give an example of design guideline. (2 Marks)
(d) What is meant by accessibility and discuss any three navigation styles?(8 Marks)
(e) Give three examples of how web sites can aid accessibility. (6 Marks)
QUESTION FIVE
(a)(i) What is distributed cognition? (2 Marks)
(ii) An electricity power plant was redesigned so that the old system consisting of a single
large display screen which could be seen by all of a team of three operators was replaced
by individual workstation screens for operators. This worked well until there was a
problem which resulted in dangerous gases being released. The team of operators had
great difficulty in finding the source of the problem and deciding what to do.
Because they no longer have access to all the information, they have to spend time
explicitly coordinating their understanding of the situation by talking to each other.
Under the old system, the knowledge would be shared – one operator would know what
was happening with another’s area of the plant without explicit communication. Although
the team’s individual responsibilities would still have been clearly divided, the
knowledge of the system would be shared.
How the new system of individual workstations could be modified to make better use of
distributed cognition?
(6 Marks)
(d) Explain any facilities included in an interactive system that allows users to recover
from their mistakes (6 Marks)
(e) Discuss cognitive processes that you know. (6 Marks)
