CMSC 434
Homework #2
Spring 2003
Due Monday February 17th, 2003
Escape from Maryland
For this project you will attempt to get out of town before finals!
You will go to each of the following web sites:
Microsoft Expedia http://www.expedia.com
(for any airline).
American Airlines http://www.aa.com
Orbitz http://www.orbitz.com
(for any airline).
For each site, find out the flight number and times for a flight
closest to 9am on the second Tuesday in May from Dulles to Dallas,
and the price of an economy ticket. Also, for each site, do this
three times. Do all of the following for each trial:
- Time yourself in seconds
- Count the number of pages you visit
- Count the number of switches betweeen mouse and keyboard
- Count the number of mouse clicks
|
| Time (secs)
| # Pages
| # device switches
| # mouse clicks
|
| First Trial | | | |
|
| Second Trial | | | |
|
| Third Trial | | | |
|
In addition to turning in three tables as the one above (one for each site),
write a one page analysis (single space, 11 pt font) of the three interfaces
for making these reservations. What can you say about the efficiency of
each system based on your tiny experiment? What worked, what didn't work?
Where were you confused, frustrated, surprised? What did you enjoy?
And, most importantly, what recommendations do you have to improve all
three systems. On another page, discuss the techniques you used to collect
the requested statistics while doing this homework, if there were any
unforseen problems in concentrating on the task, and in general any problems
that arose while you were working on the assignment.
Make sure you staple all of these sheets of paper together to turn in.
Web Accessibility