1. A. Online spreadsheets, word processors, and other office productivity tools

Question

1.

A. Online spreadsheets, word processors, and other office productivity tools blur the line between websites and traditional software. In doing so, they provide both opportunities and challenges for HCI researchers. As the software infrastructure for online tools resides completely on the hosting server, researchers can easily modify and redeploy interfaces without having to update individual computers. As with traditional web interfaces, requests for content from the server can be logged and resulting files can be analyzed. However, as client-side interactions (usually executed through JavaScript code) do not generate server requests, additional data recording measures may be necessary. What other challenges or opportunities can you see in such dynamic applications? Pick an online word processor, spreadsheet, or presentation tool: how would you design a system to study its usability?

B. A hybrid system for automated computer data collection might involve a combination of web server logs—ideally from a proxy that would track all of a participant's interactions—and one or more software packages instrumented to collect data of interest. What would be the pros and cons of such a system relative to a full-scale activity logger that would track all user interactions?

C. Legitimate concerns about user privacy have led some researchers to be very
cautious about the data that they collect with keyboard or activity loggers. This
appropriate concern for user privacy does not come without a cost: in throwing
away details such as document titles, destination addresses for emails, and
specifics of visited web pages, researchers lose information that might have been
used to develop a more nuanced understanding of the underlying activity. For
example, was the user sending email to colleagues at work, or at home? Can
you think of ways to configure logging software to collect certain attributes of
document titles, email headers, and related information in a manner that might
prove useful for research purposes while still being respectful of user privacy?
What effect might greater notification—perhaps telling participants that you
might record sensitive information—have on your experiments?

D. The Fitts' Law, Children, and Mouse Control sidebar provides an example of
experiments that used mouse motion data to study how children differed from
adults in their use of mice. Although 3- to 5-year-old children do not make much
of use keyboards, slightly older children might begin to type. How would you
study differences between children and adults in terms of their use of keyboards?
What sort of data would you collect and how would you interpret it? How would
this differ if you were considering smaller keyboards such as those used on some
cell phones?

Explanation / Answer

(A)

Though the online spreadsheets, word processors or other office productive tools is good at many ways and even provides challenges to the HCl researches. Computing in the cloud is quite appropriate for online word processors. But there are many powerful tools presents in the market which are way better than the online spreadsheets and word processor. So here are few challenges as well as opportunities that these online tools create:

So, Google Docs is nothing but an online word processor and provide mostly all the features which a Microsoft office provides. Here are few usability of Google Docs:

(B) Here are few procs and cons of hybrid system to a full scale in activity logger:

Procs:

Cons:

(C)

Configuring Logging Softwares:

Protecting Privacy:

Hence, these are the things one should keep in mind before promising anything about the key loggers as they may result harmful at times.

(D)

Q1) How would you study differences between children and adults in terms of their use of keyboards?

Q2) What sort of data would you collect and how would you interpret it?

Q3) How would this differ if you were considering smaller keyboards such as those used on some cell phones?

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