This assignment will give you an opportunity to do usability evaluations of interactive software products. It is very important to remember that you are evaluating product usability, not its gross functionality or the elegance of its implementation.

You will need to identify 2 similar software products with substantially different user interfaces. For example, you might compare command-line and menu driven interfaces. You must have access to any on-line help or documentation that is normally available for the two products.

Your task will be to install the two software products and learn to use them to do common tasks from their domain. For example, using a word processor to write a business letter or bibliography.

Based on your experiences with the products you should complete the usability evaluation form (p.136 Shneiderman) for each product. You should summarize your findings in a 3 to 5 page memo to me.

The write-up for this assignment is due 2 weeks from today. Your write-up for this assignment should include: the product names, short descriptions of their interfaces and documentation, descriptions of your task scenarios, relevant data displays, summary statistics, and your conclusions or recommendations.

Assigned: 2-05-02
Date due: 2-19-02