Page 374 -

364 CHAPTER 12 Automated data collection methods

web server installed, the Apache web server (http://httpd.apache.org) is
available for most major platforms. Download the server, install it, and
configure it. The server configuration file (httpd.conf) will have entries that
indicate where log files can be found. Once you get the server running, build
a few web pages with links between them and access them.
(b) Examine the log files to determine what they can tell you about pages that
were accessed, when they were accessed, and other related details.
(c) Find an open source web log analysis tool and use it to analyze the log files.
(d) For a further challenge, try to configure and use a web proxy server, such as
Squid (www.squid-cache.org).
2. Use implicitly collected information data from your computer to conduct
an investigation of information management patterns. Start with folders and
subfolders for documents: Do you have all of your documents in one folder or
do you have many subfolders? How many documents in each folder? How many
subfolders in each subfolder? What is the maximum “depth” of your subfolders?
How many documents do you have on your desktop? Collect similar information
for your email: How many items are in the inbox? How many folders? Repeat
this analysis with a friend's data. Can you draw any conclusions about data
management habits and practices?
3. Try to find and use a keyboard logger or general activity tracker. Install the
program on your computer and use it to accomplish some tasks. Find and
examine the log files: what do they tell you about how you used the program?
Can you relate the contents of the log files to the tasks that you performed with
the program?
4. Some simple excursions into collecting data on keyboard and mouse usage can
be conducted without writing custom software.
(a) For keyboard usage, carefully remove the backspace and arrow keys from
your keyboard. Disconnect your mouse as well. Ask someone to type a
paragraph of text into a word processor and time their response. As your
participant will be unable to delete any mistakes or use the arrow keys to
move to a different part of the text, you will get a record of exactly which
keys were pressed. You can use this data to collect error rates.
(b) Mouse usage can be measured with a drawing program. Draw two circles on
opposite sides of the screen. Select the “pencil” tool and ask the user to hold
down the mouse while moving back and forth several times between the two
targets. As long as the mouse is held down, this will lead to a set of trails
similar to those found in Figures 12.10 and 12.11. Time the results. If you
vary the distances between the targets and the size of the targets, you can
run a Fitts' law study.