IS 341

Business Systems Analysis

Chapter 8 - Notes

Designing the Human Interface

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***Read ALL the Tables in this chapter!!!! Great information here!!!!***

*** And you need to know this information!!! ***

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I. Designing Forms and Reports

Form – a business document for predefined data (usually used for input?); usually contains details about only one record

Report – a business document containing only predefined data; a passive document used solely for reviewing or reading, usually visual – printed or on screen; usually contains details about multiple records

A. The Process of Designing Forms and Reports – many times follows a prototype approach (or trial-and-error); discover what the user wants, then work on presenting it in a way that is both esthetic and utilitarian for the user

B. Deliverables and Outcomes – design specifications for the new system; includes:

1. Narrative overview – general overview of characteristics of target users, tasks, system and environmental factors where form/report will be used; purpose is to explain to developers why this form/report exists and how it will be used

2. Sample design – a sample design of the form/report,

3. Testing and usability assessment - should also include information on testing and usability assessment so the design may be thoroughly tested and assessed

II. Formatting Forms and Reports – as technology evolves formats may change to match emerging technologies, but some basics stay the same for people (psychologically) regardless of the technology used

A. General Formatting Guidelines – format can affect user performance based on physical factors and user perceptions; differences between well-designed and poorly-designed forms/reports can be obvious; points to remember:

1. Use meaningful titles – clear and specific with proper content; include dates when possible

2. Include meaningful information – include what’s important, remove extraneous data

3. Balance the layout – use adequate spacing and margins, label fields clearly, balance information across the screen/paper

4. Design an easy navigation system – forward/backward movement should be easy and clearly defined, clearly show current location, notify user of last page in a multi-page sequence

B. Highlighting Information – use highlights to emphasize anything out of the ordinary, e.g., errors or data out of expected ranges; use bright colors, flashing text, reverse text/background colors

C. Displaying Text – textual output is becoming increasingly more important as text-based applications become more widely used in business

1. Case – use both upper- and lowercase text with conventional punctuation

2. Spacing – use double spacing where possible; if not, put a space between paragraphs

3. Justification – default should be left justification with ragged right margin

4. Hyphenation – do NOT hyphenate between lines

5. Abbreviations – use abbreviations and acronyms ONLY where they are widely understood by users and significantly shorter than the full text

D. Designing Tables and Lists – with textual information content is derived through reading all the text; in Table and Lists, context and meaning are derived through format and placement; as with pictures, this can enhance and speed understanding, or simplify a complex issue

1. Use meaningful labels – columns and rows should have meaningful labels, labels should be highlighted, labels should be redisplayed when data extends beyond a single screen/page

2. Formatting columns/rows/text – data should be sorted into a meaningful order, there should be some separation between columns, insert a blank row after 5 or 6 rows of data (text says 5, my professional experience was always 6), allow white space for writing notes on printed reports, use a single typeface (font) except for emphasis, avoid anything overly fancy

3. Formatting numeric, textual and alphanumeric data – right justify numeric data and align columns by decimal point, left justify textual data with 30-40 characters per line, break long sequences of alphanumeric data into smaller sequences of 3 or 4 characters

E. Paper Versus Electronic Reports – if a report is to be stored for long periods paper takes physical space (and must be found!) while screens can be regenerated easily and stored efficiently/electronically; what printers do you use? Can a screen report be recreated exactly on your printer? Consider both the user and the use and storage of the report when designing output media

III. Designing Interfaces and Dialogs – how information is captured from users (input) and presented to users (output); I/O should be uniform across the system, not a helter-skelter group of diverse ideas (not confusing)

A. The Process of Designing Interfaces and Dialogs – should be USER focused!

B. Deliverables and Outcomes – similar to deliverables for forms/report with a fourth item:

1. Narrative overview

2. Sample design

3. Testing and usability assessment

4. Dialog sequence outline – how the user moves from one display to another

IV. Designing Interfaces

A. Designing Layouts – computer-based forms should use standard formats similar to paper-based formats to ease training and reduce confusion; common areas for most forms are Header information, Sequence and time-related information, Instruction/formatting information, Body/data details, Totals or data summary, Authorization/signature, Comments; filed-to-field navigation is important

*****Flexibility and Consistency are primary concerns! Uniformity is important and makes use much easier

B. Structuring Data Entry – always provide defaults and NEVER require the user to enter data that is already available in the system; do not require user to specify dimensional units (e.g., dollars) – provide it for him

C. Controlling Data Input – the biggest source of errors is USER INPUTS (mistakes!); control user inputs to stop or correct mistakes whenever possible (numeric vs. alpha, incorrect input values that could be selected from a list) BEFORE they are stored in the system

D. Providing Feedback – helps user interact with the system more smoothly

1. Status information – keeps user informed as to what is going on with the system (please wait, working, performing lookup)

2. Prompting Cues – ask the user for specific input

3. Errors and Warning Messages – tell the user if an error occurred or if something unusual is happening, or if an action is about to be irrevocable

E. Providing Help – Help screens are important to user interaction, user acceptance and user satisfaction; a well-crafted help system is many times preferable to a help desk or help line

V. Designing Dialogs

Dialog – the sequence of interaction between a user and a system

A. Designing the Dialog Sequence – to define the sequence you must have a clear understanding of the user, the task, and the technological and environmental characteristics of the job

B. Building Prototypes and Assessing Usability – these may not be required activities due to the simplicity of a system or work previously performed, but dialogs should be well-tested with users as they are developed

VI. Pine Valley Furniture WebStore : Designing the Human Interface – the electronic interface for an Internet-based application is CRITICAL! This is the junction where a customer interacts with the firm.

*****Studies show that when someone is surfing the web, they give a page less than 6 seconds viewing time before moving to the next page – one study showed average viewing time on a web page (when surfing) at about 3 seconds!!

A. General Guidelines for Designing Web Interfaces - Most of the same guidelines that apply elsewhere still apply here. Since there are countless non-professionals designing webpage interfaces, some people believe that interface design has taken a large step backwards with the Internet. Problems:

1. Most “click” actions on the Internet do not provide feedback.

2. Most web pages support only “click” functions, not user interactivity.

3. There are few standards for encoding Web content and control mechanisms (it’s a “do what you want” environment).

4. Most web-scripting and programming languages and GUI component libraries lack maturity - we are still in then early stages of Web development as a serious business tool.

B. General Guidelines for Web Layouts – (see both Common Errors tables)

C. Designing the Human Interface at Pine Valley Furniture

D. Menu-Driven Navigation with Cookie Crumbs

Cookie Crumbs – techniques for showing users where they are (and have been) on a Web page by using a series of tabs on the page – this helps keep users form getting “lost” in a group of Web pages, and helps navigation with a Website

E. Lightweight Graphics – use of simple graphics to enable a Webpage to be displayed more quickly – people get tired of waiting for a page to fully display and move on to another location (short attention span on the Web); use large images only in places where customers request a full image

F. Forms and Data Integrity

1. Forms should be easy to understand and use, be clearly labeled, and should have ample room for customer input;

2. Fields such as Dates should show examples (mm-dd-yyyy);

errors should be eliminated by refusing to allow errors to be entered into the system;

3. Fields should clearly show which fields are required, optional, and should show valid ranges of values

G. Template-Based HTML – use of templates for displaying common attributes for most items/products, rather than individually designed Webpages for each item (time consuming)