University of Glasgow

June 2002

CS1Q Exam.

Time allowed: 2 hours and 15 minutes

Answer ALL questions.




  1. a) Please provide BRIEF answers to the following questions:

    1. What is a logical input device?
    2. Name two differences between formative and summative evaluation.
    3. Briefly describe two situations when you might use a tracker ball rather than a mouse.
    4. Name two differences between long and short term memory.
    5. What is internal consistency?

    [2 marks per answer, 10 marks in total]

    b) Why can it be particularly difficult for designers to obtain an impression of an expert user?s mental model of an interactive computer system?

    [3 marks]

    c) User interface design often centres on identifying an appropriate abstraction for an underlying computer system. For example, the waste-paper basket on the desktop of most operating systems provides an abstraction of the delete function. Files are deleted by placing them in the waste-paper basket.

    What are the dangers associated with hiding the underlying complexity of computer systems in this way?

    [5 marks]

    d) The Johnson Corporation have won a contract to develop a web-based system that is intended to help elderly users find friends and relations that they have known in their childhood. Write a brief technical report for the manager of the project describing how you would go about conducting requirements elicitation for the design of an interface to this application.

    [7 marks]

  2. Information Management question

  3. Systems question

  4. A joint question looking at systems material and HCI.
[End]