UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS: 2018/2019
EXAMINATION FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF SCIENCE
IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY/ BACHELOR OF BUSINESS IN
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
BIT 2308: HUMAN COMPUTER INTERACTION
FULLTIME/PARTTIME/DISTANCE LEARNING
DATE: DECEMBER 2018 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 meaning of the term ‘computer’ in HCI definition. (2 Marks)
(b) Explain the four factors that affect usability in HCI (4 Marks)
(c) Compare the constructivist and ecological theories of perception and give examples of
how each has influenced interface design. (6 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 metaphors used in the study of HCI and clearly show their
importance in system design. (4 Marks)
QUESTION TWO
(a) What is the meaning of User-centered design? (8 Marks)
(b) Discuss audio and visual devices that are used in input and output devices.
(2 Marks)
(c) (i)What is the aim of evaluation? (2 Marks)
(ii) Who should use evaluation? (2 Marks)
(d) 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) Differentiate between the Gulf of execution and the Gulf of evaluation. (6 Marks)
QUESTION FOUR
(a) Why is web page design different to designing for printed media? (6 Marks)
(b) What are design guidelines? (2 Marks)
(c) Nielsen produced some design guidelines for web sites. What were three issues he
covered? (4 Marks)
(d) What is meant by accessibility? (2 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 co-ordinating 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 could the new system of individual workstations be modified to make better use of
distributed cognition?
(11 Marks)
(d) Explain any four facilities included in an interactive system that allows users to
recover from their mistakes (4 Marks)
(e) How does evaluation fit into a user-centered design lifecycle? (3 Marks)
