CS 6751 -- Human-Computer Interface

Small Home Work 2: Good/Bad Designs

Due January 31

In class we will discuss what it means for an artifact to be usable and to be a good design, and also what it means for an artifact to have a bad design and to have usability problems. Even though you're probably not an expert in this area, you have everyday real life experiences which make you sensitive to these issues.

The purpose of this assignment is to have you identify both good and bad designs of artifacts in our day-to-day lives. Pick out some artifact that you think is well-designed and very usable and tell me about it. In two paragraphs describe what the artifact is and explain why you feel it is a usable design.

Also, pick out some artifact that you feel is poorly designed and unusable. Take another two paragraphs to describe it and explain why you feel it is unusable.