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IS 301 Computers and Knowledge Fall 2009
Points 25
Deadline Nov 30

IS 301-F09 Computers and Knowledge Assignment 4: Knowledge Usability

Your task in this assignment is to evaluate a knowledge-centric system or application based on a usability evaluation method such as Nielsen's "Ten Usability Heuristics". You can choose an application, system, or tool related to your own class project, or something completely different. The target of your evaluation should have a significant knowledge-oriented aspect.

This assignment can be performed individually or in your project team.

Typically, usability evaluation methods are intended for generic systems and applications, or for applications using a specific technology or environment, such as the World Wide Web. While this does not preclude their use for knowledge-intensive tasks, it is my impression that most of them concentrate on interaction and presentation aspects.

Applied to search engines, for example, the clear and minimalist design of Google may have been a positive factor, but without delivering superior results, Google would probably not occupy the undisputed top ranking in search engines right now.

Another example of knowledge usability for me is the difference between a library system such as PolyCat, and online article repositories like CiteSeer http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/, or now Google Scholar http://scholar.google.com/. Library systems typically provide access to different individual repositories, often arranged by domains. By now, usually there is a unified front end for searching multiple repositories, but to a user, it quickly becomes evident that there are separate systems underneath. This structure makes it very difficult to offer integrated services, such as related articles, or the ability to follow links to the sources cited in a paper.

As a starting point, you should identify a domain, task or system that requires intensive knowledge-centric interaction between the user and a computer.

If you're interested in learning more about this topic, the reading list below identifies additional sources for usability evaluations. However, it is not necessary for the completion of the assignment.

Grading Guidelines

This paper contributes up to 25 points to the overall assignments score. The score will be determined by the following criteria:

Submission

The deadline for this assignment is two weeks after the distribution. It should be submitted via the Blackboard Wiki.

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