Human Computer Interaction Assignment

This document reports the usable aspect of two human-computer interaction product, both are software, one uses to join and split files, another uses to learn the Japanese alphabet. - Software: Fastest File Splitter and Joiner v3.x (Usable) - Software: Kana Tutor v4.2 (Not usable)

Human Computer Interaction

Assignment 1

Document Code: Ass1 – v1.1

Student:

Trần Công Phan Vinh (Mr)

Instructor and Evaluator

Huỳnh Anh Dũng (Mr)

Hanoi, Sep 18 th 2010

Change Description New Version

(A – Added M - Modified D – Deleted)

SIGNATURE PAGE

ORIGINATOR: Trần Công Phan Vinh Sep 1 8 th

Human Computer Interaction Instructor

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 INTRODUCTION 5

1.1 Purpose 5

1.2 Scope 5

1.3 Definitions, Acronyms, and Abbreviations 5

1.4 References 6

1.5 Overview 6

2 MY BACKGROUND 7

3 FILE SPLITTER AND JOINER V3.X 8

3.1 What is FFSJv3.x? 8

3.2 What task does this software perform? 9

3.2.1 Splitting 9

3.2.2 Joining 11

3.2.3 MD5 Checksum 13

3.3 Present one way in which this software is usable for me 14

3.3.1 Summary of this software usability 14

3.3.2 Why it is usable for me 14

3.4 How would someone else find this product difficult to use? 17

3.5 How could this difficulty be resolved? 18

4 KANA TUTOR V4.2 18

4.1 What is Kana Tutor v4.2? 18

4.2 What task does the software perform? 18

4.3 Present one way in which this software is difficult for you to use? 22

4.3.1 Summary of this software usability 22

4.3.2 Why it is not usable for me? 23

4.4 How could this difficulty be resolved? 25

4.5 How would someone else find this software easy to use? 26

5 CONCLUSION 27

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Purpose

This document reports the usable aspect of two human-computer interactionproduct, both are software, one uses to join and split files, another uses to learnthe Japanese alphabet

- Software: Fastest File Splitter and Joiner v3.x (Usable)

The purpose of this report is to practice describing and analyzing a product’sinterface as well as develop awareness to different kinds of users and to whatconstitutes good or poor design

In order to make sense of this assessment, this report will only describe the

attributes that related to HCI terms, joining and splitting files terms and Japanese alphabet terms.

FFSJ Fastest File Splitter and Joiner

(Hiragana + Katakana + Manyougana)

The rest of this HCI report contains:

- My background – This can affect my opinions and decisions.

- An analysis of FFSJ v3.x usability:

o What is FFSJ v3.x?

o What task does the software perform?

o Present one way in which this software is usable for me

o How would someone else find this software is not usable?

o How could this difficulty be resolved?

- An analysis of Kana Tutor v4.2 usability:

o What is Kana Tutor v4.2?

o What task does the software perform?

o Present one way in which this software is not usable for me

o How could this difficulty be resolved?

o How would someone else find this software is usable?

- A short conclusion of the software FFSJv3.x and Kana Tutor v4.2.

2 MY BACKGROUND

In this report, I am the user and the one will do an assessment of those products It isobviously that my background is the most important aspect to consider those products areusable or not In this case, my psychological profile will be used to describe my

background in order to simplify the connection between my background and my opinions

in this report

Interest in download file and the need

of joining and splitting software?

confusable task

3 FILE SPLITTER AND JOINER V3.x

FFSJ is a small program for splitting and joining files, because nowadays, whenpeople upload or transfer data, they usually encrypt to prevent errors and savetime

FFSJ was developed by Le Minh Hoang since 2006, but FFSJv3.x was releasedsince 2007.

The owner has introduced the strengths of FFSJ as below:

- Very fast: FFSJ can optimize disk-cache and memory usage, thismakes FFSJ 3-5 times faster than HJ-Split, Win Split, Master Splitter inboth splitting and joining tasks Of course, it is much faster than anycompression program

- Simple: FFSJ works well on all Windows platforms

- Small: FFSJ are small enough to fit on a floppy disk

- Easy to use: FFSJ has a friendly user-interface; it can be used to split

- Compatible: FFSJ can join parts produced by HJ-Split.

- Free and Safe: FFSJ free and clean, it do not contain any form ofadware, spywares, viruses, Trojans and backdoors

I checked, and most of the above are true FFSJ can join parts produced byHJ-Split, if the split parts have the right format extension FFSJ took 20second to join 4 parts; each part’s size is 150MB, when HJ-Split took 25second FFSJ’s size is very small, only 350KB

FFSJv3.x can perform three main tasks: Splitting, Joining and MD5 Checksum 3.2.1 Splitting

1. Switch to the "Splitting" tab:

2 Select the source file There are several ways to select the source file:

- Choose the source file from open dialog

- Drag a file from Windows Explorer and drop to the "Splitting" tab

- Edit source file name directly

3 Setup parameters according to your preference: change output directory,

change number of split parts, change part limit, etc

4 Click "Split" button, enter your password if you want to encrypt the data,

and wait until File Splitter completed the task You will see the message:

5 Done

3.2.2 Joining

All split parts must have the same name, except for their extensions

(.001, 002, a, b, etc.) Joining split parts is equivalent to restoring original file

1 Switch to the "Joining" tab:

2 Select the first split part (.001 or a file) There are several ways to

select the first split part:

- Choose the first part from open dialog

- Drag the first part from Windows Explorer and drop to the "Joining" tab

- Edit the first part name directly

3 Check the list of split parts from drop-down list

4 Setup parameters according to your preference: Change output file,

specify your split parts are in different locations, etc

5 Click "Join" button, enter the password if your split parts are

password-protected, and wait until File Joiner complete the task You will see the message:

6 Done

3.2.3 MD5 Checksum

1 Switch to "MD5 Checksum" tab:

2 Select a file to get MD5 signature There are several ways:

- Choose a file from open dialog

- Drag a file from Windows Explorer and drop to the "MD5 Checksum" tab

- Edit the file name directly

3 Click "Get & Copy" button, and wait until File Checksum complete the

task You will see the message:

4 Done MD5 signature has been copied to clipboard, you can paste MD5

signature to somewhere and keep this signature with your file

3.3 Present one way in which this software is usable for me

3.3.1 Summary of this software usability

FFSJv3.x is a simple splitting and joining files software Its design hasapplied the Nielsen heuristics, the heuristics help the interface of thissoftware look prettier and easier for me to use

Nevertheless, I am not the only user of this software My perspective of itmay not be applied for all other users Some other can find this softwarepractically hard to use because they expected a more detailed tutorial or asystem recovery if they make mistake for example But most of thoseproblems can be solved without redesign too much

In conclusion, this program is a usable product.

3.3.2 Why it is usable for me

Visibility of

system status through providing appropriate feedback within reasonable time.FFSJv3.x always keep users informed about what is going on,

For example: When FFSJ completed splitting task, you will hear a

sound and see a message

Match between

system and the

real world

Because the owner is Vietnamese, so it was written in two languages,

Vietnamese and English

Error prevention FFSJv3.x provides MD5 Checksum to help users check the integrity

of files It helps users prevent from downloading error files

Recognition

rather than recall

The buttons are all big and have good metaphor, so inexperiencedusers can understand, recognize the function of each button for the 1st

time using FFSJ

Flexibility and

efficiency of use

Since v3.0, FFSJ has published its command-line interface (CLI) in

order to make FFSJ more flexible

Examples: To split file c:\test\LargeFile.dat to 5 equal-size parts,

save to c:\test\SP directory:

FFSJ.exe "-Task=Split" "-Input=c:\test\LargeFile.dat"

"-Output=c:\test\SP\" "-PartCount=5"

Aesthetic and

minimalist design

FFSJv3.x is very simple but pretty design, it has few buttons but can

carry all the tasks it need to do

3.4 How would someone else find this product difficult to use?

3 Help and

documentatio

n

I was surprised after 2 years of using this software that it provides

Help and documentation

Users have to click on the red-border area to get help It is too difficult to recognize And it has only online documentation, so users with no

internet connection cannot read it.

3.5 How could this difficulty be resolved?

Problem

No

Way to solve

1 Make a new button to help users stop when FFSJ is joining or splitting Many times

I wanted to stop because I found out I have made some mistakes but FFSJ do notprovide me anything to halt the process When FFSJ is processing, users cannot do

anything except wait until it finished it tasks

2 Provide users some methods to recover from errors, for examples, do not delete

immediately and move the split files to the Recycle Bin By this way, users can

restore the deleted file and save time for not re-download them again.

3 Make a new button (clearer) to inform users about the help and documentation And

make offline documentation, so everyone can use it for help

4 KANA TUTOR V4.2

Kana Tutor v4.2 is software by South Street Software released as a shareware.Kana Tutor v3.0 setup is approximate 2 MB in size and it runs on Windows95/98/Me/NT/2000

Kana Tutor v4.2 helps Japanese learners learn Japanese Kana

Kana Tutor v4.2 helps you learn Japanese Hiragana and Katakana

You can display the desired kana, and then practice drawing it on the drawingpad

Click the "animate" button to view the animated strokes in order.

It also includes male and female voices speaking the Kana

To help make it easier to navigate the Kana and learn them, they have beenorganized into three sections The Base Alphabet contains the primary 46 kana.Once you have learned to draw these, choosing the Full Alphabet will give you afurther 25 kana which are based on the original 46 kana but contain an "accent",thereby changing its pronunciation The Yoo-On Table contains the final 33 kana.These are combinations of two kana and are easily learned once you havemastered the first 71.

Kana Tutor v4.2 also includes two tests to help reinforce your learning.Recognition displays 25 kana in a 5 x 5 grid You are given the Englishpronunciation of the kana and you must find it in the grid

The other is a Drawing Test in which you are asked to draw the kana Both testshave time limits as well as the option to choose the number of kana in each test

4.3 Present one way in which this software is difficult for you to use?

4.3.1 Summary of this software usability

Kana Tutor v4.2 is software that rarely applies any of Nielsen heuristics Itfunctions are useful but not easy to understand how to use The interface

of it contains some tiny and hard-to-understand buttons which are notrecognizable for most users (including myself) It has Help button butwhen users click it, they found nothing except some introducing linesabout the company and the programmer

The heuristics which were violated are the following heuristics:

Recognition rather than recall, Aesthetic and minimalist design, Help and documentation… The other heuristics are not violated but it does not

mean that they were applied in this application Although there are someusers feel that this software is easy to use but they are very specific andnot much

In conclusion, this software is not easy to use for a wide range of user It

will requires a lot of effort to make it became a product that easier to use

4.3.2 Why it is not usable for me?

Do you understand what those buttons’ functions are? Of course

absolutely not, right?

Because the metaphors are too bad, users cannot know what are

they stand for Besides, I cannot understand what function of theyellow area is, after used this software for 30 minutes (now I finally

knew it used for drawing session)

would like to use my hand and pencil

Besides, I became professional at Kana after just 5 hours learning

by book, so I wondered why the programmer released version 4.2

without any development for further learning

Kana Tutor v4.2 do not use the normal standard, which is known by

most of computer users

4.4 How could this difficulty be resolved?

Problem

No

Way to solve

1 Each button should be bigger and has a labeled text name to be easy to remember

They also need to re-design into a brighter color base to meet the enjoyable point of

human eyes

2 The software should be implementing to have much more function

4 Change some buttons’ image to make it clearer for users For example change the

“Eraser” button like the figure above

4.5 How would someone else find this software easy to use?

Flexibility and

efficiency of use

I just found out this software after being professional at Kana, sowith me Kana Tutor v4.2 is helpless But other users, who were juststarted learning Japanese, maybe feel it is efficiency to use

Users can use four senses to learn at once, ears to hear the sound,eyes to see the animation, mouth to pronounce and hand to write

down the Kana

Visibility of

system status going on, through providing appropriate feedback within reasonableKana Tutor v4.2 usually keep users informed about what is

time For example, when testing, if the users’ answers are wrong orright, the software informs users by using color change

5 CONCLUSION

- As far as we can see in the assessment of FFSJv3.x, this software has most of the heuristics of Nielsen, which includes:

o Visibility of system status.

o Match between system and the real world.

o Error prevention.

o Recognition rather than recall.

o Flexibility and efficiency of use.

o Aesthetic and minimalist design.

Although these principles were not fully implemented in this product but it is enough to say FFSJv3.x is usable

- In contrast, the assessment of Kana Tutor v4.2 shows not enough usability This product violated most of the heuristic and only seems to meet some of Nielsen

principles The violated principles are:

o Recognition rather than recall (most violated).

o Consistency and standards.

o Flexibility and efficiency of use.

o Help and documentation.

Obviously, despite of having some good points, this product is difficult to use or,

in other word, is not usable

In conclusion, a product which is usable must accomplish as much design heuristics as possible Besides, it takes a lot of effort to make a product meet those Nielsen principals

REFERENCES

[1] John Wiley, “Beyond human-computer interaction” Interaction Design, 2nd edition, New York, 2007, pp 29-36