Thai Vo
Cs391s
Mini assignment E

The device I’ve chosen to talk about is a CPS unit used in my astronomy class. The device allows students/ users to enter an answer, such as a letter or a number.  The professor would turn on his receiver, and then post the question up on PowerPoint. The students, then, would enter in their answer and press send. This is a great device for surveying a classroom.

The CPS has quite a few usability problems. For starter, because of the way the device was shaped and how the power button is positioned in-between 2 grooves. The power button can be a bit tricky to press. Also the power button is located at the very bottom of the unit, making it even more difficult to press. The device utilizes 2 led lights for output to the user. There is a red light and a green on. When the user presses down on a button, the red light lights up. Once the user presses send, the red light flashes rapidly as it transmit the message. There is an array of different flashing patterns, and each symbolizes something different. But since there are only 2 lights, it can get really confusing. For example, what if the user wants to change his or her answer? And what if they have forgotten what they’ve just entered?

I think that this device could greatly be improved with a few changes. With this device, it gets frustrating from time to time. Often time, I want to go back and change an answer, but I don’t know how to. I also don’t know if the answer I submitted went through or not. I get confused by the pattern of the flashing lights.

How can we improve this device? Well, we can start by relocate the power button somewhere else that isn’t hard to reach. I would put it at the top right land side corner. We then can just get rid of the grooves that they had designed in prevention of the power button being pressed by accident. Now, we need to figure out how to solve the case with the output display. I would suggest having a backlit LCD display. This way, it would be easier to see in dim class room. It would also let us know what we are entering in, what we have entered, is our answer being transferred, and has it been received. It can also show battery life. I think the LCD would greatly reduce the amount of frustration and confusion.