Potential Exam Questions

Theory-focused practice questions generated from the lecture presentations first, with supporting concepts from the readings. The order is intentionally randomized.

1. How can diary prompts affect the type and quality of data collected?
2. What is a future workshop?
3. How is feedback used to make system state and action results visible?
4. What is metaphorical design, and how can metaphors guide concept development?
5. How can a design report show evidence for design decisions rather than merely narrating the process?
6. How can whitespace improve readability and interaction?
7. What is the difference between quantitative usability measures and qualitative UX findings?
8. Why are follow-up probes important in interviews?
9. What makes academic writing accurate, brief, and clear?
10. What are the limitations of scoring concepts with criteria and weights?
11. How does a semi-structured interview differ from a structured questionnaire?
12. What is the role of systematic coding in qualitative analysis?
13. How does experience-centered design frame users as participants in meaning-making?
14. Why should evaluation tasks avoid leading participants toward a preferred answer?
15. Why should academic claims be supported with references?
16. What does it mean to design for others rather than for yourself?
17. How do dark patterns differ from poor usability?
18. How do critique, fantasy, and implementation phases support vision generation?
19. What is a prototype manifestation? Give an example.
20. What does it mean for design to be dialogical?
21. How should a team choose the appropriate level of detail for a design representation?
22. Why should research method choice follow the purpose of the study?
23. How do scenarios connect users, goals, context, actions, and consequences?
24. What is triangulation, and how can it strengthen a design study?
25. How do consent, briefing, debriefing, and data handling affect evaluation ethics?
26. What is the difference between a sketch, wireframe, mock-up, and prototype?
27. What are the accessibility principles of perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust interfaces?
28. What is experience-centered design?
29. What is a dark pattern?
30. What is active listening in an interview context?
31. What does empathy mean in design research?
32. What is an affinity diagram, and when is it useful?
33. Why is transparency about choices, assumptions, and limitations important in project writing?
34. Why is design not only problem solving?
35. How can researchers make qualitative analysis credible in a report?
36. What is a semi-structured interview?
37. What is a business model canvas?
38. What is the danger of forcing qualitative data into premature categories?
39. What should be included in a basic evaluation plan?
40. How do inspiration cards combine domain knowledge and technology possibilities?
41. How do technology change and meaning change differ as sources of innovation?
42. What is the difference between observing work and asking people to describe work?
43. What is the relation between design, values, and intentional change?
44. What makes a good opening question in a research interview?
45. What is Pugh concept selection?
46. What is the purpose of a pilot study before an evaluation?
47. What is a leading question, and why should it be avoided?
48. What is a focal point, and how can visual hierarchy guide attention?
49. How do proximity, similarity, and common region support visual grouping?
50. How can design rationale support later evaluation or redesign?
51. What is anticipated UX, and why is it useful before a product exists?
52. What role can participant-generated media play in diary studies?
53. Why does mediation make ethics relevant during design rather than only after deployment?
54. How are cultural probes different from conventional requirements gathering?
55. What are the main elements of a business model canvas?
56. What is the difference between incremental and radical innovation?
57. How does a decision matrix support comparison between concepts?
58. What is interaction relabelling?
59. What can be lost when a team only records the final design decision?
60. What are Gestalt principles in interface design?
61. What is technological mediation?
62. How do work models help designers understand situated activity?
63. How can exceptions or outliers be valuable in qualitative analysis?
64. What are diary studies useful for in design research?
65. How can a prototype support exploration rather than validation?
66. How does a Wizard of Oz evaluation work, and what kinds of questions can it answer?
67. What is the difference between description and interpretation in qualitative findings?
68. What is the difference between signposting and unnecessary repetition in a report?
69. When should active voice be preferred in academic or technical writing?
70. Why can a larger pool of ideas improve the quality of the best idea?
71. Why is fidelity alone a weak way to describe a prototype?
72. What are the strengths and limitations of storyboards in product design?
73. What is contextual design, and why does context matter?
74. Why should design teams consider viability alongside desirability and feasibility?
75. What is thoughtful interaction design?
76. How can designers reflect on the consequences of their design choices?
77. How can designers identify ethically problematic persuasion?
78. Why can constraints support creativity rather than only restrict it?
79. How can color choices create both meaning and accessibility problems?
80. How can fabrication methods affect what designers notice or explore?
81. What is an interview schedule, and why is it useful?
82. How can section structure help readers assess a design project?
83. What is ideation, and why should teams generate many alternatives before selecting one?
84. Why should probe returns be treated as inspiration rather than objective measurements?
85. How can fixation limit creativity during concept development?
86. How is empathy different from assuming that you understand the user?
87. What are the strengths and weaknesses of asking participants to capture their own data?
88. How does prototyping by demonstration involve users in shaping a design?
89. Why is recruitment a methodological issue rather than just an administrative task?
90. What are the typical roles in a user evaluation session?
91. How can technology shape users' actions and interpretations?
92. How does think-aloud data differ from post-test interview data?
93. What is a cultural probe?
94. What is an MVP, and how is it different from a prototype?
95. What is a prototype filter? Give an example.
96. How does affinity diagramming help move from raw observations to themes?
97. What are the advantages and limitations of observing participants during evaluation?
98. Why should interview questions move from easier topics to more sensitive or reflective ones?
99. What is design rationale?
100. How can an interviewer balance consistency with flexibility?
101. What is the difference between usability testing, UX evaluation, field evaluation, and analytical evaluation?
102. Why should concept selection preserve learning rather than just declare a winner?
103. What is scenario-based design?
104. What is the difference between skeuomorphism, flat design, and neumorphism?
105. What makes a scenario concrete enough to support design discussion?
106. Why should designers report both successful and problematic evaluation findings?
107. Why can early traditional usability testing be risky for unfinished concepts?
108. How can a final design argument connect theory, data, concept development, prototyping, and evaluation?
109. Why can business goals conflict with user autonomy in interface design?
110. How can value proposition, customer segments, channels, and revenue streams relate to a design concept?
111. Why are sketches useful even when they are rough or incomplete?
112. Why can physical prototyping reveal issues that screen-based sketches miss?
113. What is an affordance in GUI design?
114. Why should evaluation data include both what users do and how they interpret the experience?
115. Why might users be unable to fully explain their own routines or tacit practices?
116. Why is design research often associated with meaning change?
117. What is the difference between divergent and convergent thinking?
118. Why should typography choices consider hierarchy, readability, and context of use?
119. How do closure, continuation, and figure-ground affect perception of layouts?
120. How can access, time, ethics approval, and messy data shape research quality?
121. Why are scenarios useful for reasoning about use before implementation?
122. How can prototype fidelity vary across appearance, functionality, interactivity, data, and spatial structure?
123. How can external representations support collaboration in design teams?
124. How does sketching externalize design thinking?
125. Why is recognition often easier for users than recall?
126. What is the difference between low-fidelity and high-fidelity prototyping in terms of learning goals?
127. What kinds of insights can cultural probes produce?
128. What is cooperative prototyping?
129. Why are cultural probes often ambiguous, playful, or open-ended?
130. How can critical incidents be used to elicit concrete experience rather than general opinion?
131. How is qualitative HCI research different from survey-style data collection?
132. What are the five usability quality components, and what does each measure?
133. Why is it useful to document design alternatives, arguments, and decisions?
134. How do diary studies capture experiences that interviews might miss?
135. Why should a prototype be matched to the question the team wants to answer?
136. How can extreme characters help designers explore unusual interaction possibilities?
137. How can storyboards represent interaction over time?
138. What is plagiarism, and how can correct citation practices prevent it?