CS 352, Winter 2018, Dr. Burnett
HW #1: Design principles

Due: see main class web page
2-person group assignment

Your goal is to apply the design principles of visibility, feedback, constraints, consistency, affordance from Rogers Section 1.6.3 to an existing piece of software.

• Select any software that already existed by December 31. Preferably something you have helped to write (eg, for a class or work), but commercial or open source software is ok too. It can have a very simple (eg, just ASCII q and a) or very complex user interface. Include one or more screenshots or sketches to be referred to below.
• For each design principle in Section 1.6.3, provide a concrete example of how the software's UI supports that principle. Do this by referring to specific things on that picture. Be sure to justify why you are saying that the example supports that principle (3-5 sentences per principle). (If nothing about your UI at all supports a design principle, you can say so, but you might have to write a lot more to justify that.)
• For each design principle, provide a concrete example of how the software violates that principle (with screenshot, justification, etc., as above). (If nothing about your UI at all violates a design principle, you can say so, but you might have to write a lot more to justify that.)

Hand-in instructions: One person from each group will submit a .docx, .doc, or .pdf file to TEACH. The assignment must have each group member's name.

Tentative Grading Policy (Graded by Claudia):
Here are the things considered while grading:
1) The assignment requires examples for all the 5 design principles for full credit.
2) Graded on a total of 20 marks, with 10 for providing examples of how the software's UI supports these 5 principles and 10 for how the software violates the same.
3) It is necessary for you to provide a concrete example of how the software violates and supports the principle to get full credit. If the example doesn't clearly explain the violation of the design principle or if it does not explain how the software supports the design principle no credit is allotted.
4) At least 2 points will be deducted if no screenshots of the tool/application are provided. Could be a lot more if the omission makes everything unclear.
5) Consistency should refer to internal consistency. If an answer gives references to both internal and external consistency, full credit will be given. If only external is discussed, no credit will be given.
6) Lack of concreteness and specific examples will result in no credit given for the section.