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.