Be sure to limit yourself to 20-25 minutes per question on your first pass through the exam, to ensure you don't "bog down" on one or two questions.

---

1. Suppose your clients want a system to support their sales staff in tracking and contacting potential clients. Sometimes the sales staff will access the system over their cell phone, sometimes from their laptop, and sometimes from their work PC. Discuss the interface and access issues you must deal with to support all three modes.

   ---

2. First, give an example of a realistic situation where using an "intelligent agent" is more suitable than a direct manipulation interface, and justify your claim.

   Second, give an example of a realistic situation where a direct manipulation interface is more suitable than an agent, and justify your claim.

   ---

3. The "virtual keyboard" is a small device that projects an image of a keyboard onto a flat surface, and allows the user to "type" on the virtual keyboard by touching the images of the keys. Discuss the implications the virtual keyboard has for interface development with other small portable devices such as cell phones, PDAs, tablets, etc.

   ---

4. Briefly outline an appropriate set of use cases for the system described below:
   The system is an email organization tool: meant to help users organize, store, and search their email in a fast, efficient, and enjoyable way.

   ---

5. Identify and discuss ways we can make the following system easier to learn and use:
   A computer game simulates a character operating in a virtual world. The character can perform many different kinds of task, and each of these is mapped to a different combination of keystrokes. For people who do not wish to use the keystroke combinations, the function keys (F1-F12) are programmed to bring up different menus that allow the user to carry out the actions using mouse clicks.

   Most users find the keystroke combinations difficult to learn, and some beginners even find remembering the correct function keys a challenge when distracted by events occuring during the simulation.

   ---

6. Discuss the communication/collaboration issues we must address in the scenario below, and provide specific suggestions for handling them.
   WidDes is a company whose applications allow the development, editing, and saving of widget designs on a user's PC or across a client company's local network.

   Users with internet access can connect to the WidDes site to order and/or download software, check for patches/upgrades, access user forums, register their products, obtain trial versions of software, etc.

   WidDes maintains an internal sales staff who pursue sales options with larger businesses and government branches, and has an arrangement with an external vendor who sells the product overseas.

   Unique product IDs are associated with every WidDes product sold (for tracking/validation purposes) and if users have registered their product (for an annual fee) they can access a shared central repository on the WidDes site to save, share, or search for various widget designs.

   Trial versions of the software have special registration codes, and are set to automatically deactivate after a fixed time period. At regular intervals prior to deactivation, the trial versions will offer the user discount rates for product purchases/upgrades.

   New versions of the product are released each year, and a variety of levels of service/support contracts can be purchased for each product. Different packages cater to individuals, small and large businesses.

   Aside from the services described for the users, the company also has a number of requirements in tracking sales, marketing, management, and systems data:

   Sales/product data
   • how many copies of each product type are sold each day,
     and how many are subsequently registered for online use
   • how many service and support licenses expire or are renewed each month
   • how many full product versions are purchased by users who are upgrading from trial versions, and how many are purchased by users who are upgrading from previous versions
   • how many sales of each product type come from each member of our sales team, and how many from the external vendor
   • how many apparent duplicate or invalid registration keys are observed (indicating possible piracy issues)
     Systems/server data
   • how many hits are observed on each of our servers, and where are the hits coming from
   • how many lost connections or failed responses occur
   • what are the average connection lengths and response times
   • what is the current status of backups (full weekly, incremental daily) and total DB size and space available

   ---

7. For each of the systems listed below, identify how long you think it should take a user to master the basics of the system (e.g. less than a minute, less than 10 minutes, less than 20 minutes, less than an hour, etc.), and justify your answer.
   • an internet chat application
   • a hand calculator
   • a debugger for a programming language
   • a music recording/playback system
   • an email application
   • a new web browser
   • a stock trading/tracking system
   • an answering machine
   • an air traffic control system
   • a street directions application (mapping the route from X to Y)
   • a television remote control
   • a new spreadsheet application
   • a keypad lock/security control for a house alarm
   • an airport self-checkin kiosk

   ---

8. Select one of the systems listed below, then describe and justify the process you would follow in interviewing or surveying potential users to identify desirable product features and behaviour.
   • a debugger for a programming language
   • a stock trading/tracking system
   • an air traffic control system
   • a street directions application (mapping the route from X to Y)
   • a new spreadsheet application