INLS 62 Class Notes

Day 10:  Sept. 29

 

Guest speakers:  Oct 6:  Todd Barlow

                        Oct 13: Jason Morningstar

 

We will postpone ISEE lab

 

  1. One min papers:

Usability studies are significant investments of time and effort

How much can we learn from user studies? (about an interface; about user behavior)

What happens to the data collected in user studies?

Corporate UT labs locally?

Are most studies very particular or do they relate to other published work?

How much does low level (eye movement) data reflect actual thought/planning?

 

  1. Chapter 5.  Software tools
    1. Specification methods

                                                               i.      Grammars, transition diagrams (finite state automata), statecharts

                                                             ii.      UML (see O’Reilley UML in a nutshell)

1.      9 types of diagram (class, object, use case, sequence, collaboration, statechart, activity, component, and deployment) all with nodes (concepts) and links (paths/actions).  Tools like MS Visio support creating UML specs; Visual Studio .NET generates code from them (see http://www.objectsbydesign.com/tools/umltools_byCompany.html for dozens of UML tools)

    1. Interface-building tools

                                                               i.      ‘complete solutions’ e.g., User interface management systems (UIMS)

                                                             ii.      programming environments e.g., Java, C#

1.      UI programming environments—rapid prototyping e.g., Visual Basic.NET; TCL/TK, Director

                                                            iii.      Mock up tools

1.      Powerpoint, Illustrator, Visio (demo)

    1. Evaluation tools

                                                               i.      Slowly developing area

                                                             ii.      Some specialized checkers (e.g., Bobby http://bobby.watchfire.com/bobby/html/en/index.jsp)

 

  1. One minute paper:  post to blog
    1. main point you learned today
    2. main unanswered question you left class with