Practice IB Design Technology (DT) Topic 7. User-centered Design with authentic exam-style questions for both SL and HL students. This question bank focuses on the exact syllabus content for 7. User-centered Design and mirrors Paper 1, 2, 3 style where relevant.
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A city council has commissioned a new self-service ticketing kiosk for a busy transport hub. The kiosk must support commuters buying single and return tickets, tourists purchasing day passes, and passengers who need step-free route information.
The first prototype includes:
During a short pilot, staff observed queues building at peak times and frequent errors when users selected the wrong ticket type. Some users tried to tap their cards multiple times, and several left without completing the purchase.
A designer produced a sketch to summarise the current layout, see Figure 1.
Figure 1: Early kiosk layout used in the pilot
The council wants the next iteration to be demonstrably usable, inclusive, and safe to deploy across multiple stations with different lighting and noise levels.
Outline one reason why usability is important to the success of this kiosk in the transport hub environment.
Outline one reason why efficiency is an important usability objective for this kiosk.
Outline one reason why error tolerance is important for this kiosk.
Suggest how the kiosk interface could be redesigned using design guidance to make it more usable for a wide range of passengers.
Explain how the design team could improve the kiosk’s usability using a user-centred approach, making reference to at least three usability principles and appropriate design guidance.
To ensure that all facets of a new software interface are considered, a company assembles a project group consisting of a systems architect, a cognitive psychologist, and a graphic artist. Which principle of the UCD process is primarily being applied?
To gain insights into how a new coffee machine should be designed, researchers spend a day in a busy cafe, silently recording the movements and interactions of the baristas.
Which user-centred research strategy is being utilized?
Which of the following strategies is most effective for gathering user feedback on an early design concept during the early stages of user-centred design (UCD)?
Which of the following strategies for user research is most effective for gathering in-depth qualitative data in User-Centered Design (UCD)?