Interface questions and answers
Questions
Q1. Describe when form interfaces are typically used, giving an example.
Q2. State two places you might typically find a menu-driven interface.
Q3. What is a GUI interface and a WIMP interface?
Q4. Who might typically use a command line interface?
Q5. What is a dialogue box?
Q6. What is ‘tab order’ on a user interface?
Q7. Define validation.
Q8. Define verification.
Q9. What is a natural language interface?
Q10. Describe the type of environment where you might find a natural language interface being used.
Answers
Q1. Form interfaces are usually used where data has to be entered into a system e.g. a school secretary entering details about pupils, a librarian entering details about books, a company entering details about orders.
Q2. Menu-driven interfaces might be found in a tourist information office, a train station to buy tickets, a cinema to buy tickets and any other place where you cannot guarantee the ICT skills of the users.
Q3. GUI stands for Graphical User Interface. WIMP stands for Windows, Icons, Menus and Pointers.
Q4. Designers of drivers and network managers might typically use command line interfaces.
Q5. A dialogue box is any window that appears because you have to make selections from choices e.g. a print dialogue box.
Q6. Tab order is the order that you move from one field to another when filling in a form.
Q7. Validation is the term used to ensure that only 'sensible' data is entered into a database.
Q8. Verification is the process of checking that the sensible data entered is actually the data you want.
Q9. A natural language interface requires the user to enter responses to questions asked by the computer. The questions are displayed on the VDU and the answers are entered via the keyboard. This kind of interface is called a 'natural language' interface because the computer and the user appear to be holding a conversation.
Q10. A natural language interface can be found on data entry terminals and other types of ‘dumb terminals’ connected to a network where non-expert users are guided by the computer through the complex tasks they need to perform.