Work Analysis and Design

Work Analysis & Design
1. Recently, Microsoft announced a technology, called “HoloLens.” Please learn what kind of technology it is through your own survey of relevant materials (e.g., Microsoft’s official announcement and media press). Using the theories, methodologies, discussion we had in our classroom (henceforth, called “HF knowledge”), including but not limited to usability testing, heuristic evaluation, Robert Wright’s four logical phases, provide your opinion whether this particular technology will be a mainstream market product or not (e.g., Google Glass failed to become a mainstream market product at least for now). Obviously, you cannot discuss all the HF knowledge, so use only relevant HF knowledge. Underscore key phrases representing HF knowledge (e.g., “According to the Feedback principle of heuristic evaluation, […]”). (30 points)
According to Microsoft official website, the HoloLens provides a new way to visualize the world. The introduction of the technology is an attempt to capture the ever evolving and changing world of computation taking hold of the holographic computing. However, reviewing the introduction of this technology in light of its predecessors, numerous questions arise as to whether it will become a mainstream market product. From a business perspective, for a product to be accepted and flourish in the market, it must capture the needs of the clients and provide a solution. The solution provide must finalize their most anticipated desire for the acquisition of the technology. As such, the technology is considered to be at its infancy with numerous promises of transforming and empowering people to achieve more from their view of the world. Being just the beginning, analysts say the prototypes works by tricking the brain. However, the logistics of the functionality of the HoloLens will matter less once it accomplishes the most basic aim of a commodity in the market; meeting the customer needs. Competition is a key concern for Microsoft from market leaders such as Google, Samsung, Sony and Facebook who are all lining up for the virtual reality.
With most of these companies’ products being under development, loyal users are more inclined to stick to their usual providers. For this reason, a projection of the company owning a market leader capacity will not necessary hold. Statistics indicate that consumer heuristics are indicative of their shopping habits. It is also evident that the announcement of companies such as Sony project Morpheus headset to accompany the play station 4 console deprives Microsoft of the chance to acquire this market fully. With the virtual reality industry gaining a lot of attention, the available move by Microsoft is to target the lower end of the market as it did with the smartphones to leverage its market attention and capability. Using this approach, the company has to evaluate the pricing of the HoloLens and adopting an average price will guarantee success of the product in the market. Lastly, from a technical point of view, Microsoft has the ability of leveraging its product in the market. Using technical twerks not previously incorporated in its predecessor and competitor Goggle Glass, the company can win the favor of a majority of clients in the market. There are a lot of chances available for the company to succeed in the market. However, despite the availability of these chances, it is not guaranteed that the product will be a mainstream product.
2. A student journalist of Purdue Exponent would like to learn how influential Purdue Exponent is on Purdue undergraduate students’ daily lives. Since she has no experience in survey design, she asked you to design a survey questionnaire with only 5 questions. Design a survey of 5 questions for her and explain to her the potential problems or weaknesses of your questionnaire if it has any. (20 points)




Purdue exponent influence on undergraduate student lives

Questions


Answers
Daily
Often
Rarely
Never
1.      How often do you visit Purdue exponent?




2.      To what extent do you find the site informative?
Very
Often
Rarely
Not at all




3.      What is your opinion regarding the design of the site?

4.      To what extent do you feel the information provided is credible?
Large
Medium
Small
Never




5.      How would you describe your experience with using the site?

The survey aims at determining the experience of the students with the use of the Purdue exponent. Therefore, the questions are tailored specifically for the students. Despite this, in an effort of acquiring data that can be analyzed to determine the level and percentage of satisfaction, the questions are closed ended. However, a greater challenge posed by this model is that all possible answer choices are not included. As a result, the sincerity of the candidates will not be fully realized since some may prefer to answer with the closest choice while other may opt to leave blank. Also mutually exclusive choice are not provided prompting the challenge of multiple answers on a given question. When this occurs the validity of the candidate is questionable leading to discarding their opinions. Lastly, the problem of lack of direct questions appears in the survey making it impossible to evaluate the thoughts of the respondents once the survey is served.

3. Please visit the City of Lafayette website (http://www.lafayette.in.gov/) and conduct a condensed version of heuristic evaluation (HE). It is “condensed” simply because you are the only expert evaluator for this HE. Report at least 10 problems in the tabular form with your own severity rating. In addition to the HE report, write an email to Mr. Tony Roswarski, the Mayor of City of Lafayette, to suggest three most important changes that should be made for the website. (30 points)
Problems facing Lafayette website
Problem
Level of severity
Bad
Worst
Severe
1.      Consistency and standards



2.      User control and freedom



3.      Responsiveness



4.      Error control



5.      Outlook of homepage



6.      Help and documentation



7.      Sitemap



8.      W3C validity



9.      Backlinks



10.  Text to Html ratio





To Tony Roswarski,
The Mayor, 
City Of Lafayette,
20 N 6th St
Lafayette,
IN  47901

RE: PRIORITIES FOR LAFAYETTE.IN.GOV

I am writing to advise concerning the following challenges facing your website
Lack of responsiveness- the design of the website lacks a mobile friendly viewport making it render poorly on mobile devices. As a result, a majority of visitors using these devices are discouraged from visiting the website. Adopting a responsive template for the design of the site is essential to promoting the site locally and internationally.
The 404 error page needs customization to be user friendly and redirect the users to the homepage once the requested page cannot be found. Lastly, the homepage design needs to be appealing and welcoming to the user as opposed to the current jumbled outlook. Adopting a design that provides an overview of the city of essential.
Yours sincerely,
Student Name
4. Suppose that you are one of TAs for IE48600, and you receive the following email right before the spring break. Since the submission deadline is right after the spring break, you cannot make the team come to see you in person. You have to respond in email. Please bullet list all the issues identified in the current HTA. For each issue, provide an informative, but succinct, instruction on how to resolve the issue. Obviously, you do not want to draw the whole HTA for the team. You cannot refer to a slide in the classroom (e.g., see page 3 in the L4 slides) or external materials because it may confuse the team. Basically, Team 07 should be able to correct the HTA simply relying on your email. Note that your email could contain some drawings as attachment (the attachment should be embedded in this exam response). (30 points)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear TA:
Based on our previous discussion, we constructed an HTA for Purdue CCO (https://www.cco.purdue.edu/) as attached. Please note that we have not completed it, yet. However, we want to double check whether we are in the right track. If you can provide some feedback on our HTA, we will work over the break. Thank you very much!
Best regards,
Team 07
Issues identified in the current HTA
Ø  Job search- involves a critical evaluation of potential clients offering jobs based on the relevant skills of the individual. Job search is a process that involves numerous tasks among them visiting the employers’ website, registering and filling out the form. As an issue, there are several policies and guidelines to be followed. The basis of the issues and the policies is inherently dependent on the demands, qualifications and needs of the employer. There are several health technology assessment concerns that emerge in a job search environment.
Ø  Individual and environmental concerns. Prior to applying to a specific job, one has to determine the regulations that apply in the said sector where the opportunity is offered. In addition to this, understanding the operational area is paramount in determining how to behave and respond to the industry requirements.
Ø  Checklist qualifications. There are a number of standards portrayed by an industry based on the needs of the clients that the industry serves. As such it is paramount to determine and weigh ones potential in relation to the opportunity at hand. Doing so guarantees that one’s objectives are in line with the needs of the institution and organizational goals are met.






References
Cco.purdue.edu,. (2015). Purdue CCO. Retrieved 18 February 2015, from <https://www.cco.purdue.edu/>
Chilcott, J., Tappenden, P., Rawdin, A., Johnson, M., Kaltenthaler, E., & Paisley, S. et al.    (2010). Avoiding and identifying errors in health technology assessment models:          qualitative study and methodological review. Health Technol Assess, 14(25).           doi:10.3310/hta14250
Hempel, J. (2015). Project HoloLens: Our Exclusive Hands-On With Microsoft's Holographic        Goggles | WIRED. WIRED. Retrieved 18 February 2015, from             <http://www.wired.com/2015/01/microsoft-hands-on/>
Lafayette.in.gov,. (2015). City of Lafayette, Indiana: FAQ's. Retrieved 18 February 2015,   from <http://www.lafayette.in.gov/egov/apps/faq/list.egov>
Marketrealist.com,. (2015). Microsoft added Revolution Analytics for data analysis - Market           Realist. Retrieved 18 February 2015, from      <http://marketrealist.com/2015/02/microsoft-added-revolution-analytics-data-    analysis/>
Microsoft HoloLens,. (2015). Microsoft HoloLens. Retrieved 18 February 2015, from             <http://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-hololens/en-us>
Monitor, T. (2015). Despite excitement over HoloLens, Microsoft's stock plunges. The         Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 18 February 2015, from               <http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/2015/0128/Despite-excitement-over-           HoloLens-Microsoft-s-stock-plunges>
Moorhead, P. (2015). Microsoft HoloLens Gets Face Wearables Right. Forbes. Retrieved 18          February 2015, from       <http://www.forbes.com/sites/patrickmoorhead/2015/01/28/microsoft-hololens-gets- faces-wearables-right/>
Nngroup.com,. (2015). 10 Heuristics for User Interface Design: Article by Jakob Nielsen. Retrieved 18 February 2015, from <http://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-           heuristics/>
Scott Smith, P. (2012). Customer Satisfaction Survey Questions: 5 Sample Templates You Can        Use Right Away - Qualtrics. Qualtrics. Retrieved 18 February 2015, from         <http://www.qualtrics.com/blog/customer-satisfaction-survey-questions/>
Yahoo Finance,. (2015). Microsoft’s HoloLens faces stiff market competition. Retrieved 18 February 2015, from <http://finance.yahoo.com/news/microsoft-hololens-faces-stiff-          market-230655931.html>




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