Week 2 Discussion 1

“Interface Design Guidelines” Please respond to the following:

Imagine you are leading a team of designers for a new software product. During the kickoff meeting, the team starts to discuss design guidelines. About half of the team complains that guidelines can be too specific, incomplete, hard to apply, and sometimes wrong. The other half feels that building on experience from design leaders contributes to steady improvements. Take a stance on this debate and support your position. Then discuss how you would solve this conflict to get your meeting back on track.

Of the eight principles of design, called Golden Rules (strive for consistency, cater to universal usability, offer informative feedback, design dialogues to yield closure, prevent errors, permit easy reversal of actions, support internal locus of control, and reduce short-term memory load) choose the one that is most important and create an argument supporting your choice. Use specific examples to support your argument.

Week 2 Discussion 2

“HCI Theories” Please respond to the following:

Imagine you are the manager of a medium-sized IT department. While walking through the hall one day, you overhear a senior-level software developer telling a newly hired developer to focus on improving his coding skills rather than learning about theories related to human-computer interaction. Take a position on whether you agree or disagree with the senior software developer. Support your decision.

From the e-Activity, discuss the idea that all applications have to be visually consistent. Argue whether you agree or disagree with the idea and why.