REVIEW QUESTIONS FOR FINAL EXAM
Eng. 413
Dr. Jablonski
Spring 2004
Readings covered on the Final Exam:
- Krug, ch. 1-11
- Price and Price, ch. 11, 12
- Geoff Hart's "The Five W's of Online Help"
- Janet Eaton's "Creating Documentation that Shows" (PDF)
1. What does “don’t make me think” mean as a design principle? (ch. 1)
2. What are some “things that make us think,” according to Krug? (ch. 1)
3. How do users typically approach viewing/reading a new Web page? (ch. 2)
4. What are Krug’s three reasons why users don’t “pore” over every detail of a new Web page? (ch. 2)
5. Define “satisfice” as a user behavior (ch. 2)
6. Define “muddling through” as a user behavior (ch. 2)
7. Identify and define Krug’s five strategies for designing usable Web sites? (ch. 3)
8. What are the three traits of clear visual hierarchy? (ch. 3)
9. Identify and define the two kinds of visual “noise” discussed by Krug? (ch. 3)
10. According to Krug, what’s the maximum number of “clicks” a user will stand to find the desired information? (ch. 4)
11. What are the benefits of ruthlessly cutting Web page text/content to the bare minimum? (ch. 5)
12. What is “happy talk”? (Ch. 5)
13. What’s Krug’s rule of thumb for writing instructions to Web site functions? (ch. 5)
14. When it comes to navigating Web sites, there are two main kinds of user according to Krug. What are they? (ch. 6)
15. What are three factors that contribute to the “unbearable lightness of browsing,” as Krug calls it? (ch. 6)
16. What are the six purposes of navigation, according to Krug? (ch. 6)
17. What is “persistent navigation” (include the five elements of persistent navigation and any exceptions to the rule in your definition)? (ch. 6)
18. What are Krug’s four principles for writing page names? (ch. 6)
19. What are three strategies offered by Krug for orienting users in a site (i.e., telling them “you are here,” what the authors of the Web Style Guide referred to as providing “context”)? (ch. 6)
20. What are the five user questions a home page has to answer as quickly and clearly as possible? (ch. 7)
21. What are two ways you can answer these questions for users (for, primarily, e-commerce sites)? (ch. 7)
22. What is Krug’s answer to the common question about how different home page navigation can be from the rest of the site? (ch. 7)
23. What are the four reasons Krug doesn’t like pop-up menus? (ch 7)
24. What are the pros and cons of using pulldown menus?(ch. 7)
25. What is “the myth of the average user”? (ch. 8)
26. What is a usability test? (ch. 9)
27. How many users do you need to test, according to Krug? (ch. 9)
28. What kind of users do you need to test? (ch. 9)
29. What are the two main ways to test a comparable/competitor site? (ch. 9)
30. What’s a “cubicle test”? (ch. 9)
31. What should the tester/observer bedoing during a user test? (ch. 10)
- What should the tester/observer do after the tests? (ch. 10, ch. 11)
33. What are some typical problems users have with sites? (ch. 11)
34. In user testing parlance, what’s a “head slapper”? (ch. 11)
35. What is a “genre”?(Price and Price ch. 11)
36. What four questions can a writer ask of a genre to better understand it and learn to write within its conventions? (P&P ch. 11)
37. “A genre demands that you take on a conventional persona.” What does this mean? (P& P ch. 11)
38. When writing in a genre, what does “going gonzo” refer to? (P& P ch. 11)
39. What are the nine genres of customer assistance identified by Price and Price in ch. 12?
40. What is “embedded assistance”? Give at least two examples discussed. (P&P ch. 12)
41. What’s the best way to write topics for FAQs? (P&P ch. 12)
42. Identify at least five pointers given by Price and Price for writing instructions (P&P ch. 12)
43. What’s the difference between an FAQ and a Help system? (P&P ch. 12)
44. What are the four main types or sub-genres of Help, based on the kind of questions users ask/want answered?
45. Identify at least five pointers for writing e-mail responses to customers discussed by Price and Price. (ch. 12)
46. What are two criticisms of online help writing/writers mentioned by Geoff Hart in his introduction? (Hart, “Five Ws”)
47. According to Hart, good online help writing answers certain questions users have. What are these questions? (“Five Ws”)
48. What are the limitations of the “Five Ws” method discussed by Hart in his closing, and what still needs to be done to ensure effectively written online help? (“Five Ws”)
49. Why, according to Janet Eaton, is it easier to ask a friend for help with doing something rather than reading most manuals? (“Creating Documentation that Shows”)
50. Identify at least three tips Eaton gives for improving written instructions. (“Creating Doc. that Shows”)
51. How can screenshots be made more effective? (Eaton, Creating Doc. that Shows)
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