CS 6v81 Special Topics in Computer Science: 
Usability Study on a Commercial Home Appliance 
Control System: Investigating the QoS attribute "Ease of Use"

Summer 2005
First 6 week session (begins May 16) 
Credit hours: 3 or 6

This course involves the definition, execution, and 
analysis of a usability study on a commercial Home 
Appliance Control System. The study is based on current 
research in goal-oriented and scenario driven requirements 
based, system level testing. The focus of the study is 
going to be on evaluating the "Ease of Use" of the system, and 
on a recommendation for possible improvements.
Research issues involved in this project include the 
definition of metrics for "Ease of Use" that are meaningful
and feasible to collect and analyze.

As members of a small team, the students will actively 
participate in the study from setting up the state-of-the-art 
system in the research lab, refining and running high quality 
test scenarios, collecting and analyzing empirical data, 
and documenting the results in a report.

Pre-requisites: one or more of the following courses or equivalents 
		or instructor's permission 
	CS/SE 6354 (advanced software engineering)
	CS/SE 6361 (requirements engineering)
	CS/SE 6362 (software architecture)
	CS/SE 6367 (testing and verification)