CSC 306 HCI and User Interface Design Exam 2021

About this paper

CSC 306: Second Semester Examination for CSC306, Human-Computer Interaction and User-Interface Design, from the Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Science, University of Buea, for the 2020/2021 academic year (July 2021 sitting). The paper covers core HCI theory and practice: Question 1 is a 19-item multiple-choice section spanning accelerators and efficiency, command-line versus GUI interfaces, the direction of input/output between user and system, metaphors, slips versus mistakes, attention, Norman's execution-evaluation cycle, mapping, feedback, the human-side and machine-side disciplines that inform HCI, ergonomics, stages of human information processing, Java GUI layout managers, event-driven programming, containers, and adapter classes. Question 2 is a 10-item fill-in-the-blank section on the Gulf of Execution and Evaluation, working memory (chunks and capacity), pointing and text-input devices, the WIMP and WYSIWYG acronyms, and slips versus mistakes. Question 3 is a six-part structured question covering Fitts' Law (definition, formula, and a worked scenario about menu item placement and size), the design principles of grouping, visibility and consistency (with an alarm-clock interface application), affordance (definition, the real-versus-perceived distinction, critique of a coffee-tray and door design, and explanation of common GUI icon affordances), and font classification (serif, sans-serif, decorative) applied to a university website screenshot. Question 4 is a practical Java Swing programming question requiring completion of a TextFieldFrame GUI class, its TextFieldHandler event-listener class, and a short BMI-calculator GUI design task.