Transcript webNotes

Chapter 13:
Designing the Human
Interface
Object-Oriented Systems Analysis and
Design
Joey F. George, Dinesh Batra,
Joseph S. Valacich, Jeffrey A. Hoffer
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Chapter Objectives
– Explain form and report design, and apply
–
–
–
–
general guidelines for formatting forms and
reports.
Explain effective text, table, and list formatting.
Explain interface and dialogue design, and
apply general guidelines for designing
interfaces and dialogues.
Explain common Web layout design errors, and
common errors in developing Web interfaces.
Design Web Interfaces using Coldfusion
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Fundamental Questions when
Designing Forms and Reports
1. Who will use the form or report?
2. What is the purpose of the form or report?
3. When is the form or report needed and
used?
4. Where does the form or report need to be
delivered and used?
5. How many people need to use or view the
form or report?
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Types of Reports

Scheduled Reports
– Predefined interval presentation of routine information

Key-Indicator Reports
– Summarize critical information on a recurring basis

Exception Reports
– Highlight data outside normal operating range

Drill Down Reports
– Provide details of summaries from key-indicator or
exception reports

Ad Hoc Reports
– Unplanned information requsts for nonroutine decisions
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Guidelines for Displaying Text

Case – mixed upper/lower case, using conventional
punctuation

Spacing – double-space if possible, otherwise insert
blank lines between paragraphs

Justification – left-justfiy with ragged right margins

Hyphenation – no hyphenation of words between lines

Abbreviations/Acronyms – only when commonly
understood and significantly shorter than actual words
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Interface/Dialogue Design
– Layout (of widgets, text, and table data)
– Structuring data entry (tab order)
– Controlling data input (validation and
format controls)
– Feedback (prompting, status, warning,
and error messages)
– Dialogue sequencing
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Common Areas in Forms

Header information
 Sequence and time-related information
 Instruction or formatting information
 Body or data details
 Totals or data summary
 Authorization or signatures
 Coments
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A typical
interface/dialogue
design
specification:
Similar to form design,
but includes
multiple forms and
dialogue sequence
specifications
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Feedback Messages

Status information – keep user informed of
what’s going on, helpful when user has to wait for
response

Prompting cues – tell user when input is needed,
and how to provide the input

Warning or Error – informs user that something
is wrong, either with data entry or system
operation
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Guidelines for Dialogue Design
– Consistency
– Allow sequence, shortcuts, and reversals
in navigation
– Frequent feedback
– Logical grouping and sequencing of
diagrams, with beginning, middle, and
end
– Comprehensive error handling
– Maximize ease and control of use
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Designing Web Layouts

For e-commerce applications, web form is the contact
point between customer and company
good design is very important

But, rapid proliferation of web sites without
corresponding increase in UI experts

Possible solutions:
– Make Web design easy enough for non-UI experts
– Train more people in Web design
– Tolerate poorly-designed Web layouts
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Design Web Interfaces

Design web interfaces using coldfusion with
Dreamweaver and Access
 - Create one database file (may only work for
Access 2003 .mdb file format).
 - In the Home directory (H:), create a directory
called “database”, then copy database file here.
 - Create data source and data name using Argus
 - Create html files with coldfusion and put these
files in the Web directory (I:)
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