ICS 104: Assignment 1 (Including Grading Rubric)

The assignment is worth 15% and is due February 2.

Assignments are prepared with your favorite word processor (e.g. MS Word).

Part 1 – 10 points

• Pick an example out of your design notebook (discussed first day of class) – ½ pt

• Student chose example (1/2 pt)

• Include a picture or sketch of the design example. ½ pt

• Student included picture or sketch (1/2 pt)

• Pick a set of guidelines from the text and pick 3 principles that are applicable to your example. – 4 pts

• Student listed the principles and guidelines (.25 pts each, 1 pt)

• Student included citations for principles and guidelines (.25 pts each, 1 pt)

• Was the set of guidelines applicable to the example? (1/2 pt)

• Were the 3 principles applicable to the example (1/2 pt each – 1.5 pts)

• For each guideline and each principle – 4 pts

• Explain how it applies to the example. Applicable? (1/2 pt each, 2 pts)

• What it reveals (positive or negative) about the design (.25 each, 1 pt)

• Suggest an improvement (if analysis was negative) (1 pt, 1 pt)

• Provide a summary judgment of the example (positive or negative) – 1 pt

• Summary Judgment (1 pt)

Part 2 – 5 points

• Pick a web site that you use frequently. Provide 1 screen snapshot. – ½ pt

• Analyze it as above using these heuristics: - 2.5 pts http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/heuristic_list.html

• 10 heuristics, .25 pts per, 2.5 pts

• Your analysis should address who the intended users of the site are, what the users want to achieve by using the site, how the site failed to serve these users and their goals (including, if applicable, characteristics of the users and their backgrounds that the site designers didn't understand or accommodate well), and what makes your suggested improvements better. – 1 pt

• Student met requirements above (1 pt)

• Your analysis should focus on usability issues rather than pure functionality; while the line is sometimes hard to draw (adding a search feature, for example, is increased functionality that also affects the usability of a site), don't try to solve the problems by making the system into something that it wasn't intended to be. – 1 pt

• Student met requirements above (1 pt)