Copyright Chris Johnson, 2002.
Xday, XX May 2002.

00:00 am - 00:00am



University of Glasgow





DEGREES OF BEng, BSc, MA, MA (SOCIAL SCIENCES).





COMPUTING SCIENCE - 3W:
Interactive Systems 3

(Answer one question from Section A and one question from Section B).




Section A (Chris' Questions)

1.

a) Briefly explain why web designers must understand the demographics of Internet usage.

[3 marks]

b) A recent Ipsos-Reid survey found that over 70 percent of the US population had used the Internet at least once within the previous 30 days. In the UK the figure was 50 percent, in Urban China 30 percent, Urban India 19 percent and Urban Russia 8 percent.

Briefly comment on the reliability of such statistics and their implications for the future development of e-commerce.

[10 marks]

c) By 2008, it is estimated that there will be more people in the UK above the state retirement age than there are of school age. With this in mind, you have been asked to write a strategy document for a major international bank. The document is intended to provide senior management with guidance on how to develop their web services so that they are easily accessible to an aging user group. You should pay particular attention to the elicitation and testing strategies that must be used to support these potential customers on the web.

[12 marks]

 

2.

a) Explain how you would measure two different forms of workload.

[4 marks]

b) Briefly explain the importance of using a recognised tool, such as the Questionnaire for User Interface Satisfaction, when attempting to assess users' subjective responses to interactive systems.

[6 marks]

c) Affective computing looks beyond task performance characteristics to examine users' subjective responses in more detail. For example, MIT's Media Lab's AffQuake project uses signals that relate to a player's emotional state in ID Software's Quake II game. The player's character alters its behavior to reflect aspects of the user's emotional state. If a player is surprised or startled then their character will jump back. The size of the player's character can also grow larger as their level of involvement, measured through Galvanic Skin resistance, increases.

Write a brief technical report exploring whether or not affective computing is likely to have an impact upon more main-stream uses of Internet and web-based computing.

[15 marks]


Section B (Rob's Questions)

3. Question on second half of the course.

[Total 25 marks]

4. Question on second half of the course.

[Total 25 marks]


[end]