Jakob Nielsen and Vincent Flanders - Essay Example

Jakob Nielsen and Vincent Flanders Question 1 (a) Firstly less than 1% of the population has a landline as national telecommunications are poorly managed and corrupt and growing political stability has encouraged foreign direct investment. This is a significant reason because limited landline use is leaving rural communities with minimal contact with the cities and mobile phones are allowing good standard communication links. The money received from the direct investments is allowing wireless networks to be set up and these networks have simple logistics that are easy for the Africans to get up and running. In contrast landlines can take years to set up but all that is needed for a wireless connection to work is a mobile handset and a prepaid cell phone calling card. Some clever calling tactics have made mobile phone usage affordable for a large segment of the population. Considering that Africa is largely a poor country who otherwise couldn’t afford mobiles this is very significant. Customers are able to pay as they go so if they don’t have the money to use the phone they wont have a bill that can not be paid, as could happen with a landline. Companies can set up base stations that cover around 35 kilometers for a lot less than it would cost to run copper wires to each customer’s phone. This is significant because, as is stated in the article, companies such as Telkom Kenya Ltd in Nairobi are not investing in new land lines. This seems rather confusing considering the fact that there are only 313,000 landline subscribers in a country of 30 million people. This is in fact because Telkom has partnered with foreign companies that are placing new wireless infrastructures to ease the demand for phone communications. (b) There are concerns over too much competition between wireless companies as there is not enough money to pay the workers and jobs are being cut. They are effectively running themselves out of business as the workload can not be met due to financial difficulties. Companies are finding that they haven’t got enough money to lay down new lines, which is mainly due to the corruption which is rife in Africa, having said that some companies are teaming up with foreign Companies that are putting in new wireless infrastructures to try and sustain the boom. Customer dissatisfaction may increase as the novelty of wireless communication wears off, this will call for a demand in new and improved technologies. However this can be prevented through creating better services and working towards providing the technologies that are wanted. There may also be dissatisfaction in the fact that some people have to own more than one handset; this is due to companies not allowing rivals access to their networks. A call from one network to somebody on a different one can not be made! This results in added costs to customers. The wireless market will be very beneficial to the African people as so many indirect jobs are provided by it. This should help to sustain the boom as those who don’t have the benefit of education can still benefit from the wealth the market provides. This comes in the form of jobs such as wireless phone kiosk workers. (c) 3 % 58.2% 9% More than 50% of the population has mobile coverage (d) Availability There has been a significant rise in the number of mobile users in Africa and 80% of these are for personal use rather than for business so it would make sense to have a mobile based medical information centre rather than a landline one. 590 words Question 2 (a) Galileo is expected to overcome the inaccuracy of GPS in order to enable location-based services. This is not available now as the margin of error with GPS is too great to send correct information to a mobile. Galileo’s accuracy is ten times better than its US GPS counterpart and will solve inaccuracy problems, especially if devices come equipped with GPS detectors. There are going to be expensive atomic clocks on board that will be beneficial in giving accurate locations and it has a strong ground based infrastructure. It is expected to provide more accurate and timely courier locations as there is less likelihood of interference from tall buildings, it will also be easier to receive signals indoors. The problem at the moment is that there can be a 5 minute delay in readings and a van can cover large distances in a city like London in that timescale. Through using GPS alongside Galileo, stronger signals will be received allowing more timely readings. (b) A GPS enabled phone will be more reliable for location based services as GPS can detect very weak signals reliably, meaning an accurate reading can be given on locations. A fourth satellite is used to enable timing errors to be corrected and pins down exact locations. If the mobile were GPS enabled, signals could be sent and received directly to it, rather than through a third party, meaning services like couriers would have minimal time delays in information being received. (c) Galileo could be used to implement a form of road charging involving vehicle tracking. The on-board GPS units will enable a method of self-location by vehicles. The details of the vehicles and their journey information will be sent to roadside monitoring points (static data collectors). The GPS system will enable a receiver to establish its location from signals received by four satellites, the timing information from the signals enables the distance to each satellite to be calculated. The fourth satellite in the GPS will allow timing imperfections to be overcome. Galileo is expected to provide the accuracy that is needed for this scheme, so being on-board vehicles will give an accurate location of where that vehicle is. (d) Road users may have a number of concerns over the use of data required in this way. All traffic information will be tracked and logged. The police will have access to this data and could use it to track stolen vehicles, vehicles involved in car chasing, monitor any suspicious movements and so on. For the criminal sector of the public this is likely to be a huge concern. There will be concerns as to where the revenue will go that is raised from the data being used. Will it go towards improving road services or be used for other government projects? If they are paying for use of the roads they should be entitled to their money going towards improvements. There may be concerns over mobile phone operators using the data because they could pass on the details to third parties. These parties may call the drivers all the time to offer different things like insurance. There are concerns over being constantly surveyed as travels will not be private and it may seem to be an intrusion in to people’s privacy. 540 words Question 3 (a) http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft/consumers/about-identity-theft.html (Accessed 16th August 2007). http://stopspamhere.ca/idtheft-e.html (Accessed 16th August 2007). Identity theft is where somebody steals your personal information that is used to identify who you are, for example your credit card details and name. These details are taken without your permission and are used to impersonate you, usually to commit crimes of financial fraud. People who steal your identity may rent homes or set up accounts on gambling sites online for themselves using your details. This can go unnoticed until you receive a bank statement and notice missing money that you haven’t spent. Risks of your identity being stolen can be prevented if you are very careful when handling your personal information. All mail with your information on it, such as household bills and loan applications should be shredded when no longer needed, this will prevent criminals going through your bins and stealing papers with your details on. Also be aware that giving out details over the phone is risky, as you have no proof that the person on the end of the phone is actually who they say they are. Do not let yourself be pressured into agreeing to something you don’t really want. Regularly checking bank statements should help to uncover people stealing your money as quickly as possible, thus minimizing the extent of the fraud. Also realize that your details can be stolen online without you having any inclination. Protect your computer with firewalls and virus detectors as these are often used to obtain your details from your computer. Emails from companies should be treated with caution, especially if they are asking for money for something that looks to good to be true. (b) Biometric identification works through using distinctive body features such as fingerprints and iris patterns that are unique to each person. This needs a lot of human inspection to compare patterns. However vocal characteristics may also be used to identify people, which are converted into digital form and processed automatically by computers. It involves comparing one piece of data to another, with one piece of data having to be authenticated as being associated with a certain individual. The recognition depends on no two people having the same fingerprint and so on. Digital forms of biometric data can be compared using mathematical equations that can be computerized. (c) Privacy issues are considered to be a problem for ID cards as they are going to be used to delve into every aspect of your personal life from different personal databases, credit, criminal and travel records to name a few. When the government passes on our personal information to companies who are simply not capable of protecting it, security of our privacy becomes an issue. This is because the data used for the ID cards and e-passports can be stolen and identity fraud becomes a threat to us. People’s information can be passed on to commercial companies for analysis which may post the data online, as happened in the article. There is also the likelihood of incorrect data being gathered on people as companies try to cut costs on collecting required information on people. This could result in people being wrongly accused of terrorism and delays in trips abroad will arise. 523 words Q2. Nielsen and Flanders Jakob Nielsen, born in 1957, is a web usability expert who earned a Post graduate degree in user interface design and Computer Science from the University of Denmark.1 He was a distinguished engineer for Sun Microsystems, to make heavy duty software easier to use, and during his tenure focused upon defining web usability.2 He was also the usability lead for several re-designs of the Sun website and intranet and has invented several usability methods. He is a co-founder of a consultancy in California names Nielsen-Normal Group and has written several books on website design. Flanders is a 1974 graduate of Wabash College with a B.A. in classics, focusing on ancient Greek art and culture3. He worked as the Associate Editor of Access to Wang, covering the minicomputer marketplace. He graduated to Webmaster at Lightspeed Net, which is now a part of Earthlink. He taught HTML to various local businesses and launched “Web Pages that Suck” in 1996 in order to provide live examples of sites that were poorly designed. Both Nielsen and Flanders have pointed similarities that should exist in all websites, because they are a part of website convention. For example, users expect to see a logo on the upper left part of the site. Secondly, users expect materials underlined in blue to be hyperlinks. Users also expect navigation of the site to be in a certain place and those expectations should be met. These principles may be noted in the Open University Website as well. For example, the top left hand corner of the website has the University logo. This is in line with the principles of User Interface which must allow for visibility, so that the goal is obvious and icons are used to depict clarity. Since the site aims to provide information about the University and its programs, the presence of the logo clarifies the purpose. Another important aspect from the perspective of UI design is the structure of the website so that links to appropriate content are provided through appropriate buttons. The buttons are generally the same size with different labels indicating different goals, however the text on the buttons, generally a single word, communicates the meaning of the underlying command. In the Open University website, there are seven important links provided within dialog boxes located on the top right hand corner of the site, and the entire web site has a pleasing, well structured appearance to it. The third principle of UI design evident in the Open University website is Affordance, or how clear the use of an element is to the user. This may be noted on the site in that all the text materials in blue links are appropriately hyperlinked to satisfy user expectations. In these ways, the site adheres to the relevant website design principles. Nielsen believes that sites must be accountable in that they must fulfil the designated purpose for which they have been set up such as generating sales etc and most elements must operate in a similar manner, although content may differ in different sites. Unless a site is able to be easily accessible and navigable to users and unless the links work properly, frustrated users are likely to stop using it. He believes there is a difference between the look of a site which can be more edgy than another example and the feel of a site, which is how easily users are able to navigate, gain information and solve problems. A site must be usable if the Company is to make money. He also believes that aesthetics is one of the parameters of usability and a site must provide subjective satisfaction to the user. Websites can be differentiated by being human centered and designing the site from the perspective of the user; however basic elements like a logo on the left hand corner and blue hyperlinks should be kept constant. A website will provide greatest levels of satisfaction if it looks good and also feels good in terms of usability. One of the challenges in website design is accessibility, or making a website accessible to a wide range of users, including disabled people. When making a site accessible to blind people for example, the site must be designed such that it can be used with peripheral audio devices that will relay the content of the text on the website to the user. In the case of the Open University, the site needs to be accessible to students from various age groups and backgrounds. Apart from this, it must also be accessible to corporate users and Companies who are sponsoring the University activities as well as members of the public or those who may be using the site for research purposes. One of the ways in which the Open University site has tackled this problem is by providing for availability of text in various sizes, so that older people who find it difficult to read smaller text are also able to clearly read the materials on the site by using larger text options. In order to achieve a truly flexible user interface whether the parameters of usage can be modified to suit the needs of the user, it is necessary to separate the interface and the application itself. In doing this, a meta layer is defined, which encompasses all the communication between the system and the users. Different user profiles are stored and the meta layer will be transferred to a number of standard interfaces, of which the parameters of the interface selected will be adjusted to suit the user profile. 925 words References: * “About Jakob Nielsen” [online] Retrieved September 17, 2007 from: http://www.useit.com/jakob/ * Biography of Vincent Flanders [online] Retrieved September 17, 2007 from: http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/vincent-flanders-biography.html * “Jakob Nielsen: Usability Consultant” [online] Retrieved September 17, 2007 from: http://www.answers.com/topic/jakob-nielsen * “The role of text” [online] Retrieved September 18, 2007 from: http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/file.php/1779/formats/print.htm * “User interface approaches for accessibility in complex World wide web applications - an example approach from the PEARL project”. [online] retrieved September 18., 2007 from: http://iet.open.ac.uk/pearl/publications/ERCIM2000.doc Read More