Human Computer Interaction - Practice
Questions
Chapter 1 - HCI Overview
CASE STUDY: "EduStream University Portal"
EduStream is a newly launched internal university portal designed for students to register for
their semester modules, check grades, and access learning materials. The university’s IT
department, consisting entirely of highly skilled software engineers, built the system in record
time. They bypassed user testing to meet a tight deadline, relying on their own intuition and
technical experience to design the interface.
Upon launching EduStream, the university faced a massive backlash from the student body:
● High Failure Rate: Over 40% of first-year students failed to register for their modules
correctly because they couldn't figure out which buttons to press.
● Lack of Feedback: When students finally clicked the "Submit Modules" button, the screen
simply refreshed without any confirmation message or summary. Many students
submitted their forms multiple times, causing server overloads.
● Frustration: The lead engineer defended the system, stating, "The system works
perfectly; the students just need to read the 50-page technical manual to understand how
to navigate it."
You have been hired as an HCI Consultant to evaluate the portal and educate the IT team on
user-centric design.
EXAM QUESTIONS
Question 1
The university administration is puzzled as to why EduStream is failing despite the heavy
investment in programming and hardware. Based on HCI principles, identify and discuss THREE
(3) common reasons why systems typically fail. Furthermore, justify the study of HCI from a
"Business View" to convince the administration to invest in usability.
(8 Marks)
Question 2
The developers of EduStream skipped straight to the programming phase after receiving the
initial project brief. Critically discuss the correct User Interface (UI) Development process they
should have followed, outlining the sequential stages that must occur before programming
begins.
(6 Marks)
Question 3
When Sarah, a first-year student, tries to register for a module, she cannot figure out how to
add a class to her schedule. When she finally clicks a generic "Go" button, the screen refreshes
without any confirmation message, leaving her unsure if she is actually registered. Using
Donald Norman’s model of interaction, identify and critically explain the TWO (2) 'gulfs' Sarah is
experiencing.
(6 Marks)
Question 4
The lead engineer's comment implies that he is designing for a "Perfect User" rather than
everyday students with human limitations. Describe the unrealistic traits of this "Perfect User"
myth. Then, identify THREE (3) specific dimensions of usability the team should evaluate to
actually improve the EduStream portal.
(7 Marks)
Question 5
To fix EduStream long-term, the university decided to build a dedicated HCI team. Define what
HCI is, and identify THREE (3) different fields (the scope of HCI) that encompass the discipline,
to prove to the board that building interfaces requires more than just computer science.
(5 Marks)
TUTORIAL 1
You are in the year 2033 You are required to design a vending system that a traveler who is at
an airport can use to obtain drinks and snacks. Your team is required to identify the specific
product, the machine and how it is to be used In your design, include drawings that would show
how the machine would look like, and how it is expected to be operated.
Human Factors - Chapter 2
Learnfinity is a proposed centralized campus portal designed to unify independent legacy
systems, including course slide repositories, timetables, news panels, and administrative forms.
The system must serve a highly diverse stakeholder environment: tech-savvy engineering
students demanding rapid keyboard paths, first-time international freshmen with moderate
tech-literacy, visually or motor-impaired users requiring auditory screen readers or large touch
targets, and non-native English-speaking senior professors confused by complex e-learning
jargon.
The Usability Dilemma: The initial beta test revealed severe interaction issues. The home
dashboard causes severe cognitive load by displaying simultaneous, un-prioritized visual
pop-up emergency alerts and promotional event banners in identical high-intensity orange and
yellow color schemes. Furthermore, navigation is excessively deep, forcing users through five
nested sub-menu layers. On mobile viewports, essential buttons are extremely small (less than
4mm), tightly clustered, and lack clear borders, causing users to accidentally tap "Reset Profile"
instead of primary options. The interface must be redesigned to lower cognitive search load,
prevent working memory bottlenecks, and accommodate physiological, sensory, and cultural
differences.
1. Physiological Human Factors & Input Engineering [7 Marks]
a. Compare the physiological reaction times of the human auditory system (150 ms)
and the human visual system (200 ms). Explain how these exact millisecond
differences dictate the design of Learnfinity's critical real-time lecture cancellation
and emergency evacuation alarms.
b. What is Fitts' Law. With reference to mobile touchscreen devices and physiological
motor constraints (such as finger size and user dexterity limitations), discuss the
design considerations required for structural button layouts and pulling down
complex navigation menus in Learnfinity.
2. Cognitive Psychology - Memory Bottlenecks & Information Chunking [8 Marks]
An early wireframe of Learnfinity features a unified "Administrative Tools" page containing 24
unorganized, unstructured links scattered across a single grid display.
a. Critically evaluate this design against George Miller’s classical theory of short-term
memory limit. Explain why this layout results in a cognitive bottleneck for novice
users.
b. Propose an alternative information architecture for these 24 administrative links.
Discuss how the cognitive techniques can be applied to focus user attention and
reduce cognitive search load.
3. Sensory Perception & Visual Organization [6 Marks]
Consider how visual and Gestalt principles dictate the layout of input forms.
Human perception often groups items together based on their proximity and alignment. In
Learnfinity's student portal login interface, the "Sign-On ID" and "Password" text fields are
placed closely together, but the "Reset Password / First-Time Enrollment" button is positioned
directly adjacent to the Password field without clear separation boundaries.
Using psychological theories of perceptual grouping and the concept of figure-ground
relationships, discuss why this arrangement causes users to execute erroneous clicks, and
recommend how to structure the layout to optimize sensory clarity.
4. Interface Metaphors & Cultural Constraints [6 Marks]
To simplify the learning process for new users, the development team plans to utilize real-world
physical mappings.
a. Define what an "interface metaphor" is. Identify and discuss two distinct benefits of
leveraging concrete physical objects in the design of digital learning platforms.
b. Analyze the potential cross-cultural and international design risks of representation
on a globally accessible portal. For instance, evaluate why a yellow US-style physical
mailbox icon or culturally sensitive hand gestures (used as icons) would fail to serve
as universally recognizable conceptual metaphors for Learnfinity's global user base.
5. Stakeholder Categorization & Conflict Resolution [7 Marks]
To gather detailed user requirements, the Learnfinity team must execute a detailed stakeholder
analysis.
a. Identify and classify the following four entities into their respective stakeholder
categories (Primary, Secondary, Tertiary, and Facilitating):
1. Students actively downloading learning slides.
2. The University's Board of Directors tracking annual academic KPI dashboards.
3. System engineering staff managing software server updates.
4. Compliance officers who receive weekly system reports to audit teaching hours.
b. Discuss a potential design conflict that could arise between a secondary
stakeholder's goals and a tertiary stakeholder's objectives, and explain how
stakeholder prioritizing helps resolve this conflict during system development.
6. Cognitive Psychology - Cognitive Activities in Action [4 Marks]
What goes on in our heads when we carry out our everyday activities involves a set of cognitive
processes. State the nine (9) specific cognitive activities.
7. Sensory Perception - Gestalt Principle of Similarity [3 Marks]
Human perception works instantly on an eye-brain performance level. Explain how looking at
the "big picture" influences humans when composing connections.
8. Physiology - Movement and Menu Optimization [3 Marks]
(a) Movement (speed and accuracy) is crucial for interactive systems. State the one (1) specific
design guideline for arranging menu items to optimize movement target acquisition.