HW4 - Option 2


Just follow the lines...
Creating a simple ballot is not an easy task. You need to present all options, provide various information, and have the user be able to use it correctly the first time with no help.

In this homework, you will create an eBallot to appear on a 1024x768 touchscreen. You will use the mouse to click on things but need to make them touchscreen-friendly. Your goals include making sure people do not overvote (vote for more people than they are allowed to). You also don't want people to accidentally undervote (forget to vote in some category). We've looked at Visual Basic and Visual C# a little already, but typing something like "visual basic tutorial" into your search engine of choice will provide you with many options!

There is a sample ballot at http://resources.co.ba.md.us/Documents/Elections/ballotstyle5.pdf from which you can get the information. You need to create a UI that will allow the user to start, select, and submit. Keep in mind things from the 2000 elections in Florida such as people double-punching the ballot (eg: they punched for Buchanan and then realized their mistake and punched for Gore).


Minimum requirements for this homework:
  • vote for all positions and issues
  • be able to change your mind
  • not be able to submit an invalid ballot
  • not forget to vote for some position or issue
  • be easy to use on a touchscreen for all potential users (if there are some users that will be unable to use your interface, you need to explain who they are and why you did not design for them)
  • a text file in which you discuss how you gathered information about the tasks for which this might be used as well as the options that users want to see

    A short code example for a simple Visual Basic application that displays the current time and also plays and stops playing a WAV file is posted in VB6 and VB.NET Feel free to use any part of this code example in your project.

    For this homework, do not worry about security-related issues (and there are plenty of those) in eBallots - just the UI.

    You will need to submit this via e-mail. Send your submission as a zipped file containing all of the files for your project. We will extract these to a directory, open your Visual Basic or Visual C# project file and compile and run it. I suggest that you test things out by sending the zipped file to yourself, extracting it on a WAM machine (like the ones in the first floor AVW WAM lab) and trying it out from scratch just like we will.

    The e-mail address to which you should send this project is eg43404@wam.umd.edu. Along with the zipped file attachment, the body of the mail message needs to have your name and your student ID number so that we easily know who you are. Of course, your code should be commented, and your name will appear there as well.

    Web Accessibility