CPS613	F2024 Final Exam
	Heuristic Evaluation of Visual Studio and Visual Basic

General Information

Basic Parameters

• The final exam will take place during the final exam period. The time and place will be posted on the TMU exam website.
• This exam is worth 15% of the total grade.
• This exam is closed book but semi-take-home: All the exam questions are permanently posted on this web site for the entire term and exam period. You can and should prepare your answers to the questions before the exam, discuss them with each other and with the course instructor as much as you want, but you will not be allowed to bring any kind of documentation into the exam.

Exam Structure

You will notice that the questions in this part of the exam are grouped into 6 sections, each of which consists of a few questions. You will not need to answer all of these questions during the exam. Instead we will pick one question from each section at random by roll of dice at the beginning of the exam and you will only need to answer that question for that section. Therefore, you will only be answering 6 questions altogether in this exam.

Note: since the questions will be picked at random at the beginning of the exam by rolls of dice, if there are multiple exam rooms, the rolls of dice will be split between the rooms and merged to form one common exam for all rooms.

Exam Preparation

The guidelines will also be discussed throughout the lectures during the semester, and summarized again in the last lecture. The slides for that lecture, which include links to additional videos on the guidelines, are available at all times in the D2L content module called "Heuristic Evaluation".

Explain each answer and support that explanation with at least three examples, and preferably four. If you think that Visual Studio does not follow a particular guideline very well, also explain what you would have expected it to do.

Note that the reference provides a good explanation of the guidelines,but tends to use shallow examples to support these definitions. You should try to use better examples that are more specific to Visual Studio. Therefore answers which describe features that are now standard in most user interfaces such as shortcut keys, cut and paste icons, File menu commands, open and save dialog boxes are not very valuable. Generally speaking, answers which address the core functionality of Visual Studio will get higher grades than answers which only deal with a few esoteric details of the interface. The core functionality of Visual Studio are the parts of the IDE where users spend most of their time: 1) creating and editing applications in the design and code views, and 2) debugging them with the run and debug facilities.

Section A: General Ease of Use Issues - 8 marks

1. Be consistent (Guidelines p. 34) Note that this question deals with two levels of consistency: consistency with other applications and consistency within the VS IDE itself.
2. Keep it simple (Guidelines p.35)
3. Use modes cautiously (Guidelines p. 44). Also describe the modes that the VS IDE has. (Note that this question is about modes and not modal dialog boxes).

Section B: Presentation Issues - 6 marks

1. Organize the screen well (Guidelines p. 49 + lecture notes) In lieu of examples, describe the organisation of the central working screen of the IDE.
2. Use colours judiciously and usefully (Guidelines p.47). How are colours used in the VS IDE?
3. Get the user's attention judiciously (Guidelines p. 45)

Section C: Supporting Users' Limitations - 8 marks

1. Prevent user errors (Guidelines p. 31)
2. Give the user frequent closure on tasks to help deal with human memory limitations (Guidelines p. 36)
3. Whenever feasible, let the user recognize, rather than having to recall (Guidelines p. 37)
4. Accommodate different user experience levels (Guidelines p. 52).

Section D: Communication Issues - 6 marks

1. Use specific and constructive terms in error messages (Guidelines p.42)
2. Use user-centered wording. (Guidelines p. 41). This guideline applies to all all language used in the user interface, not just error-messages.
3. Use informative feedback (Guidelines p. 39). This guideline applies to all feedback, not just messages, and not only related to errors.

Section E: Control and Efficiency Issues - 7 marks

1. Keep the locus of control with the user (Guidelines p. 32)
2. Optimise user operations (Guidelines p. 32). Please note that even though the examples given in the textbook involve only accelerator keys, I am not interested in these keys because they are now standard in most systems. Instead I expect you to evaluate how well the VS IDE optimises user operations in general.
3. Make user actions easily reversible (Guidelines p. 44).

Section F: Models - 10 marks

1. Help the user develop a structural mental model of the system (Lectures). In this question the "system" consists of both the application being developed using the VS IDE and the environment that is used to develop it; this environment includes the Visual Studio IDE, the .NET framework, and the VB language.
2. Draw on real-world analogies (Guidelines p. 39). In particular what is the central metaphor of the VS IDE and how is it conveyed?
3. Use cognitive directness (Guidelines p. 38). Please note that even though the examples given in the textbook mostly involve accelerator keys, I am not interested in these keys because most systems have some. Instead I expect you to evaluate how well the system minimizes mental transformations that the user must make in order to develop applications using the VS IDE.