CPSC 547 Project 3 : WebGrid Report

Table of Contents

Exploration of Webgrid

Description of the Initial Grid

The webgrid that I created for my domain was operating systems, and the context was focusing on the PC's operating system products. There were seven elements in this grid, OS/2, Windows 95, NetWare 4.1, Windows NT, DOS 6.2, FeeBCD, and Linux. When I were developing the properties for this grid, I considered the following criteria such as ease of installation, ease of use, performance, compatibility of device and application support, networking support, required memory, and popularity in the computer market. After I ranked each elements according to the data I gathered, two cluster analysis grids could be generated.

First, when I selected the focus button, webgrid grouped together the elements with similar attributes. The table displayed that Linux and FeeBCD had similar attributes. They provided high support for networking and free distributed in the public, but they existed same problems on highly unstable, and user unfriendly. In the contrary, Windows 95 and OS/2 were more stable and user friendly, but they were more expensive. Next, I selected the PrinCom button, it displayed a star shap diagram. I observed that a system with high reliability, user friendly, and high compatiblity, and it would be more popular even though it might be more expensive. On the other hand, if a system was unstable, users were hesitant to use it even though it was cheap. In my analysis, many users perfered to use a system which was stable, user friendly, compatible, even the cost of the system was expensive.

Comment on Initial Impressions

My first impression of the webgrid is confusion and frustration. It lacks of instruction and feedback. For example, I got the same picture when returned from a PrinCom table, and hit the FOCUS button. After I played a little, I found out that if you didn't reload netscape window you would not get an updated grid.

Table of contents | Link to Grid

Elicitation of constructs on CPSC547 topics

Description of the Grid

The grid that I created on the CPSC547 topics was information systems, and the context was the aspects of advanced information systems. In this grid, all elements were given according to our 10 CPSC547 topics. I started by adding the construts on the WebGrid Elicitation menu and I also created six properties. They were related to the platform depedency, network capability, functionlity, interesting level, and target user.

Comparison of the Grids

By comparing my grid to Dr. Graines' grid, I found out that we used similiar terminology in the following examples. First, the compare grid showed that I used a term of interesting vs boring, Dr. Grain used multimedia vs programming. They were assigned together, it showed that multimedia applications were more interesting, but the programming applications were much more boring. Another extremely closed properties were futuristic vs current, and Dr. Gaines used novel communication vs converntional communciation. The grid showed that we were saying the same thing but using different terminology.

Table of contents | Link to Grid

Elicitation of constructs on visual programming

Description of the Grid

The grid that I created on my presentation topic was visual programmming, and the context was its languages applications. In this grid, I used 8 elements and 9 constructs. All elements and constructs were based on my presentational material. The eight elements were VisSim, LCRCvisual, CODE, LEGOsheets, VIPERs, VPLus, KidSim and Prograph; the nine properties were built according to the languages of compatibility for different platform, GUI level, user level, simulation time, programming skills, learning model, performance, and user's reaction.

Analysis of the Grid - Focus, PrinCom

The grid clearly showed that most of high value number were grouped at the right hand side, and low value were grouped at the left hand side of the table. CODE, Prograph, and VPLus had same features : supported cross platform environment and real time simulation, displayed high GUI and provided functions in general purpose. However, their shortcomings were low learning ability, boring, and high programming skills. On the contract, KidSim, LEGOsheets and VIPERs would be more fun and a high learning capability.

Table of contents | Link to Grid

Department of Computer Science
chany@cpsc.ucalgary.ca 25-Mar-96