Answer to Question #175565 in Web Development for Enam

Question

 Question 2

a) When designing a system to support group communication in an organization, there is a number of issues that need to be taken into consideration. Explain to your junior brother, five (5) of these factors to consider when designing a system for an organization with at least two relevant examples.

b) The main goal of the Human-Computer Interaction is to produce a system that is easy and safe to be used, apart from being able to function well. This computer system should not just be easily usable, but also easily assembled, studied and maintained. Discuss stating at least, one example of the usability goals.

c) Examples of sounds are voices in conversation and music. Too much sound would only serve as a disturbance to users. Explain briefly five (5) applications that are suited to use sounds as a form of reactive response.

Answer 1

a) Factors to consider when designing a system for an organization: The organization's environment, culture, structure, standard operating procedures, politics and management decisions.

A behavioral definition of an organization is that it is a collection of rights, privileges, obligations, and responsibilities that is balanced over time through conflict and conflict resolution. This definition suggests that building new information systems or rebuilding old ones involves much more than a technical rearrangement of machines or workers. Technological change requires changes in who owns and controls information, who has the right to access and update that information, and who makes decisions about whom, when, and how.

Organizational politics reflects the political struggles due to divergent concerns and perspectives of individuals and groups within the organization. Political resistance is one of the great difficulties of bringing about organizational change.

b) Usability goals:

• Effectiveness (very general concept, too vague)
• Efficiency (alt term: ease of use)
• Safety
• Utility (alt term: usefulness)
• Learnability (alt term: ease of learning)
• Memorability

c) Sounds as a form of reactive response:

• Audio Alerts: indicates to the user that something has happened, its source, and what should be done about it.
• Providing Information: for example, folders on a desktop might have the sound of paper crumpling, and dropping an item in the wastebasket might produce a sound of breaking.
• Speech Output: using synthetic speech has become a reality in everyday interfaces
• Sound Input: almost always in human-computer interaction, this means using voice recognition – a relatively new technology that is beginning to achieve the level of performance needed to be effective.
• Sound output: for example, in interfaces where visual information cannot be presented (e.g. mobile or handheld devices with small or no screens)