1. A company is designing a kiosk that can display weather information in public locations. The kiosk will feature a touch screen so users can select a city by pointing on a map. Give three reasons why a touch screen is an effective device for this application.

A touch screen is an effective device for this application because the input to see the weather in your city should only require a click so more advanced input is not necessary, because touch is intuitive for most users, and because it is faster than typing which would be cumbersome in a public space.

  1. Explain the difference between direct-control and indirect-control pointing devices. Name a task when the one type is a more appropriate device than the other.

In direct-control, the user’s actions mimic the outcome of the action. For example, when using a touch screen, a user taps the precise location they wish to click and it is clicked; their is no mental effort to translate digital space to physical space. However, in indirect-control inputs such as mouse or a joystick, you must translate a different physical distance to a virtual distance that are not 1:1. However, a mouse and other indirect-control devices offer more precision so they are better to use in devices such as CAD tools.

  1. Make a list of pointing devices. Consider some new or futuristic alternatives.

Pointing devices include mouse, stylus, fingers, and joysticks. Some futuristic alternatives might be glasses that know where you are looking and point there.

  1. Define Responsive Design, i.e. what characteristics of a display would make an individual state that the design they are viewing seems responsive?

Responsive design allows the same interface to adapt to different kinds of devices. Therefore, if you view the interface on a desktop, then the interface adapts and allows for larger more spread out features, but if you view the interface on a mobile device, than the interface is more compact.

  1. Give an example of where collaboration and display technologies work together.

With redbox kiosks, multiple people often select a movie to rent without interfering with eachother.

  1. Give a definition of context-aware computing. Provide an example of one application of context-aware computing that would meet the user needs of a tourist.

An example of context-aware computing is the location services on smart phones which can notify you to do things on your todo list when you get to a specific location.