Team Size: 1
Duration: one week
Part 1:
Major domestic appliances such as washing machines, microwave ovens, and
video recorders are controlled by embedded microprocessors so they can
be regarded as examples of ubiquitous computing. Analyse one such appliance
with which you are familiar from the point of view of the user interface
it provides. What considerations do you think motivated the final design?
You should give a critical assessment of the good and bad points of the
interface and address in particular whether the flexibility of a microprocessor
and modern display technology could be used to better effect to enhance
the interface. What benefits if any would result from your appliance being
on a computer network or having its own WWW page? You are asked to submit
a report of at most 5 pages.
Part 2:
SYS has been using Eudora as its standard email program for several years,
running Eudora on Macs and PCs. Recently CPC has standardised on ECS Mail
for the University. You are asked to use both these systems and then describe,
compare and contrast their user interfaces and suggest where they might
be improved. Are they suitable for general use by members of the university?
Your report should be at most 10 pages in length.
SYS will set up test versions of both Eudora and ECS Mail on SYS Macs
for the purposes of this exercise. Further details will be posted once
the installation is complete.
A.R. Forrest
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Last Updated: 25 November 2000
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