AFTER NINE WEEKS.....

THE THEME OF THE LECTURE FOR THE WEEK NINE WAS EVALUATION.THIS IS CONCERNED WITH THE GATHERING OF DATA AND THIS IS DONE WITHIN A SPECIFIED ENVIRONMENT OR WORK CONTEXT.EVALUATION IS USEFUL IN ;

• UNDERSTANDING THE REAL WORLD
• COMPARING DESIGNS
• ENGINEERING TOWARDS A TARGET
• CHECKING CONFORMANCE TO A STANDARD

IN THE REAL WORLD BEFORE THE PROCESS OF DESIGNING, WE SHOULD ALWAYS UNDERSTAND WHAT THE USER WANTS.WE SHOULD ALWAYS KEEP IN OUR MINDS THAT THE DESIGNER IS NOT A USER. IT IS ALWAYS VITAL TO THINK ABOUT THE PROBLEMS THAT THE USER WILL EXPERIENCE,THE TASKS THAT THE USER IS GOING TO PERFORM AND HOW THEY ARE GOING TO DO THAT.

THEN WHEN COMPARING THE DESIGNS WITH ONE ANOTHER THERE IS ALWAYS A COMMERCIAL COMPETITION BETWEEN THE DESIGNS TO FIND OUT WHAT IS THE BEST DESIGN AND WHAT DO WE MEAN BY BEST IS THAT THE DESIGN SHOULD BE FAST,PLEASANT AND MOST RELATIVE.

IN ENGINEERING TOWARDS A TARGET WE SHOULD ALWAYS AIM FOR A SPECIFIC PERFORMANCE OR MEASUREMENTS AND THE EXISTING ARES OF THE DESIGN WHICH THE USER DID NOT LIKE CAN BE IMPROVED AS A RESULT OF THIS.

FURTHER MORE THERE ARE FEW STANDARDS THAT MEASURE THE QUALITY OF A PARTICULAR DESIGN IF THEY ARE BEING DEVELOPED ACCORDING TO THE DEIGN GUIDELINES AND SOME OF WHICH ARE,

• ISO STANDARD
• ACCESSIBILITY STANDARD
• HEALTH AND SAFETY STANDARD
• IN HOUSE STANDARD

THERE ARE TWO FORMS OF EVALUATION AND THEY ARE;

• FORMATIVE EVALUATION
• SUMMAT IVE EVALUATION

-FORMATIVE EVALUATION

• EVALUATION AS PART OF THE DESIGN PROCESS
• INTERATIVE DESIGN
• ACCEPTANCE TESTING PREDICT USABILITY OF SYSTEM OR ASPECT THERE OF CHECK DESIGN TEAMS UNDERSTANDINGS OF USER REQUIREMENTS
• INITIAL DESIGN WITH THE USER
• TEST OUR IDEAS QUICKLY AND INFORMALLY

-SUMMATIVE EVALUATION

• EVALUATION OF AN ESSENTIALLY FINISHED SYSTEM
• ITERATIVE DESIGN
• ACCEPTANCE TESTING
• IDENTIFYING THE USER DIFFICULTIES SO THAT THE PRODUCT CAN BE FINELY TUNED
• UPGRADING PRODUCT

IN ADDITION TO THIS THERE ARE SOME FACTORS WHICH WE SHOULD CONSIDER SUCH AS;

• KIND OF INFORMATION REQUIRED
• NATURE OF SYSTEM OR SPECIFICATION UNDER THE EVALUATION
• STAGE IN THE LIFE CYCLE BEING EVALUATED
• WHETHER OR NOT STATISTICAL VALIDITY IS REQUIRED
• RESOURCES AVAILABLE

THERE IS ALSO ANOTHER TYPE OF EVALUATION CALLED, QUALITATIVE EVALUATION AND THIS INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING.

• DESCRIPTIVE
• TYPICALLY NON-NUMERICAL
• MAY BE SUBJECTIVE
• INTROSPECTIVE THE FEED BACK FROM USERS
• DIRECT OBSERVATION
• QUERY VIA QUESTIONNAIRES AND INTERVIEWS
• CONTINUOUS EVALUATION THROUGH FEED BACK AND FIELD STUDIES

QUANTITATIVE EVALUATION IS ANOTHER TYPE OF EVALUATION AND THIS COVERS ;

• PRECISE MEASUREMENTS
• NUMERICAL VALUES
• BOUNDS ON HOW CORRECT OUR STATEMENTS ARE
• USER PERFORMANCE
• CONTROLLED EXPERIMENTS
• STATISTICAL ANALYSIS

THE LECTURE FOR TODAY COVERED A VAST AREA OF THE FIELD OF EVALUATION.BUT IT WAS VERY INTERESTING FOR ME AND ENJOYED THE LECTURE ALOT.THE LECTURE WAS FAIRLY STRAIGHT FORWARD AND MAY BE THATS WHY I ENJOYED THE LECTURE.ANY WAY ONE MORE ENTRY IS TO BE DONE TO COMPLETE THIS ASSIGNMENT AND HOPEFULLY I MIGHT HAVE TO DO THAT AFTER THIS ENTRY.

AT THE END OF EIGHT WEEKS

THE LECTURE FOR THIS WEEK WAS GIVEN BY A NEW LECTURER AND HE WAS PRETTY COOL AND THE THEME FOR THIS WEEK'S LECTURE WAS USABILITY.IN THIS THE LECTURER DISCUSSED HOW THE MULTEMEDIA APPLICATIONS ARE USED INA VARIETY OF CONTEXTS AND THE MAIN USES CAN BE SUMMARISED AS FOLLOWS.

• SINGLE USE/,MULTIPLE USER
• SINGLE USER,GROUP USER
• INFORMAING/TEACHING/ENTERTAINMENT
• NOVICE USERS/EXPERIENCED USERS
• CONTROLLED ENVIRONMENTS/UNCONTROLLED ENVIRONMENTS
• WEBSITES/KIOSKS/CD ROM/MOBILE/PDA

HE GAVE MANY SIMPLE EXAMPLES FOR EACH OF THESE USE AND ALMOST ALL THESE EXAMPLES WERE THINGS THAT HAPPEN TO SEE US IN OUR ORDINARY DAY TO DAY LIFE.

THEN HE EXPLAINED ABOUT CUTS.THIS STANDS FOR CONTEXT USER TASKS AND SYSTEMS. THE FOUR SEPERATE WORDS COULD BE DEFINED INDIVIDUALLY AS FOLLOWS IN A VERY CONDENSDE WAY.

CONTEXT - WORKING ENVIRONMENT,WORKING PRACTISCES

USER - PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES, MENTAL CAPABILITIES

TASK - NATURE OF TASK, USER GOALS, BUSINESS GOALS

SYSTEM - HARDWARE,SOFTWARE INCLUDING THE INTERFACE ITSELF

USABILITY PLAYS A MAJOR ROLE IN THE INTERNET APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT BECAUSE WE AS WEB DEVELOPERS, SHOILD UNDERSTAND THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE USER AND ALSO WE SHOULD DEVELOP OUR PROGRAMME ACCORDING TO THE USER AND THAT MEANS WE SHOULD ALWAYS THINK BEFORE DEVELOPING THE PROGRAMME, WHO IS GOING TO USE OUR PROGRAMME WHETHER THAT IS A CHILD OR AN ADULT OR WHETHER THAT IS AN EXPERIENCED USER OR NOT AND THINGS LIKE THAT.IN THAT CASE WEB DESINGNING IS ALSO NOT THAT EASY AS I THINK.........................

LECTURE NUMBER SEVEN

AFTER A BREAK TODAY I AM GOING TO SAY ABOUT MY EXPERIENCE IN THE SEVENTH LECTURE OF MACROMEDIA.OH!!! I FORGOT NOW IT IS NO MORE MACROMEDIA AND IT IS ONLY ABOUT INTERNET APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT.THE THEME OF THE LECTURE FOR THE SEVENTH WEEK WAS IPR AND COPYRIGHT ISSUES.

ACCORDING TO WHAT THE LECTURER SAID THERE ARE TWO BRANCHES OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND THEY ARE;

• COPYRIGHT
• INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY

COPYRIGHT INCLUDES CHIEFLY LITERARY,MUSICAL,ARTISTIC,PHOTOGRAPHIC AND AUDIO VISUAL WORKS WHERE AS THE INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY INCLUDES MAINLY INVENTIONS AND TRADEMARKS.FURTHER MORE THE LECTURER MENTIONED THAT THE FOLLOWING FIELDS ARE BEING PROTECTED BY THE COPYRIGHT ACT.

• LITERARY WORK SUCH AS WRITTEN WORK AND EVEN COMPUTER BASED WORK
• DRAMATIC WORK SUCH AS DANCE OR MIME
• MUSICAL WORK SUCH AS WORK CONSISTING OF MUSIC

ACCORDING TO THE ACT OF COPYRIGHT THE FOLLOWING CANNOT BE COPIED.

• IDEAS
• FACTS
• TITLES
• NAMES
• SHORT PHRASES
• BLANK FORM

THE LECTURER ALSO SAID THAT IF THE WORK IS COMPUTER GENERATED THEN THE COPYRIGHT EXPIRES AT THE END OF THE PERIOD OF 50 YEARS AND ALSO SHE STATED THAT THE COPYRIGHT WORKS ON THE NET INCLUDE THING LIKE NEW STORIES,SOFTWARE,NEWS AND E MAILS.

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS THAT THE NEW INVENTIONS CAN BE PROTECTED BY MEANS OF PATENTS AND TO BE PATENT AN INVENTION MUST BE,

• NEW
• INVOLVE AN INVENTIVE STEP
• BE CAPABLE OF INDUSTRIAL APPLICATION
• MUST NOT BE EXCLUDED FROM THE PATENT ACT

THEN AT THE LATTER PART OF THE LECTURE THE LECTURER ALSO MENTIONED ABOUT THE TRADEMARKS AND THE EXAMPLE THAT SHE STATED WAS HOW THE MY COLA CAME INTO THE FIELD AFTER BEING COPIED FROM COCA-COLA.

SINCE NO MORE MACROMEDIA IS INVOLVED, NO FLASH CLIPS TOO.BUT INSTEAD THE LECTURER SHOWED US SOME WEB SITES WHERE THE COPYRIGHT ISSUES AND PATENT ACTS ARE BEING CONSIDERED.SOME OF WHICH WERE;

• COPYRIGHT WEBSITE
• THE COPYRIGHT LICENSING AGENCY
• THE UK COPYRIGHT SERVICE
• UK PATENT OFFICE

FOR THIS WEEK THE LECTURE WAS PRETTY MUCH FORMAL I GUESS,ET IT WAS INTERESTING.THE THEMES FOR THE TUTORIAL THIS WEEK WAS MENU THAT STAYS AND THE MENU THAT DISAPPEARS.I FOUND IT VERY HARD BECAUSE I COULD NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT SHOULD BE DONE AND THEREFORE I COULD NOT DO IT.I WONDER WHETHER I WILL BE ABLE TO MANAGE MY SELF TO GO AHEAD WITH THIS MODULE FOR THE NEXT COUPLE OF MONTHS....