Systems Analysis and Integration - 2 Assignments
CIS320
Systems Analysis and Integration
Week 2 – User and System Interface Design
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Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
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Chapter 7 Outline
- User and System Interfaces
- Understanding the User Interface
- User-Interface Design Concepts
- The Transition from Analysis to User-Interface Design
- User-Interface Design
- Identifying System Interfaces
- Designing System Inputs
- Designing System Outputs
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
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Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
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Overview
- Information systems interact with people and other systems
- Poorly designed user interface can make the information system unusable
- Poorly designed system interfaces are a source of errors and inefficiency
- User and system interfaces involve both inputs and outputs and involve a large number of stakeholders
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
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User Interfaces
and System Interfaces
- User Interface – inputs and outputs that directly involve a human user/actor
- A dialog goes on between actor and system
- System Interface – the inputs and outputs that require minimal human intervention (mostly about communication between system and system)
- Inputs captured automatically
- Outputs direct to other systems
- Printed and distributed outputs (statements, reports)
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
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User Centered Design
- Design techniques that embody the view that the user interface is the system to the user
- Dates back to the 1980s (more for Mac)
- Principles of User Centered Design
- Focus early on users and their work
- Evaluate designs to ensure usability
- Use iterative development
- Note that contemporary A&D finally incorporates these principles
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
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Three Components of the User Interface
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
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Metaphors of Human Computer Interaction
- Direct manipulation metaphor
- metaphor in which objects on a display are manipulated to look like physical objects (pictures) or graphic symbols that represent them (icons)
- Desktop metaphor
- metaphor in which the visual display is organized into distinct regions, with a large empty workspace in the middle and a collection of tool icons around the perimeter
- Document metaphor
- metaphor in which data is visually represented as paper pages or forms
- Dialog metaphor
- metaphor in which user and computer accomplish a task by engaging in a conversation or dialog via text, voice, or tools such as labeled buttons
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
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Metaphor Details
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
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Direct Manipulation, Desktop, and Document Metaphors On One Screen
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
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Dialog Metaphor
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
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Use Cases and the Menu Hierarchy
- We design use case by use case
- Menus are a typical way to organize access to use case functionality
- Different types of users might have different menus
- Useful to design an overall menu hierarchy and then subsets for different users
- Once the hierarchy is established, menus can be implemented in a variety of ways
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
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Dialog Design
- For each use case, think of the natural flow of a dialog between user and computer
- Based on the flow of activities in use case description and/or the system sequence diagram
- Use natural language to emphasize feedback to user
- Create a storyboard of the dialog, showing the sequence of sketches of the screen each step of the dialog. (storyboarding)
- Review the storyboard with users
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
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From Dialog to Storyboard (part 1)
Use case Check out shopping cart
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
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From Dialog to Storyboard (part 1)
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
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From Dialog to Storyboard (part 2)
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
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From Dialog to Storyboard (part 2)
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
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Identifying System Interfaces
Inputs/outputs with minimal human intervention
- Inputs from and outputs to other systems
- These are direct interfaces with other information systems, normally formatted as network messages.
- Highly automated inputs and outputs
- These are captured by devices (such as scanners) or generated by persons who start a process that proceeds without further human intervention.
- Inputs and outputs to external databases
- These can supply input to or accept output from a system.
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
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Identifying System Interfaces
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
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XML for System Interfaces
- Extensible Markup Language (XML) -- embeds self-defining data structures within textual messages
- XML tags -- character sequences (such as <name> and </name>) that define the beginning, end, and meaning of the text that appears between them
- JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) - a lightweight data-interchange format – is now a new favorite language for system communication!
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
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System Inputs
- Primary Objective is Error Free Input
- Use electronic devices wherever possible
- Avoid human involvement as much as possible
- If information is already available in electronic form, use it instead of re-entering information
- Validate and correct information at time and location entered
- Device Examples
- Magnetic card strip readers, bar code readers, optical character recognition, radio frequency ID tags (RFID), touch screen, electronic pens, digitizers, speech recognition
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
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- Defining System Inputs Details
- Sequence Diagram
- Details for messages
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
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System Outputs
- Detailed reports -- reports that contain specific information on business transactions
- Summary reports -- reports that summarize detail or recap periodic activity
- Exception reports -- reports that provide details or summary information about transactions or operating results that fall outside a predefined normal range of values
- Executive reports -- reports used by high level managers to assess overall organizational health and performance
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
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System Outputs
- Internal outputs -- reports or other outputs produced for use within the organization
- Types of internal reports apply here
- External outputs -- reports or other outputs produced for use by people outside the organization
- Statements, notices, stockholder reports
- Higher quality, color, reflect image of organization
- Turnaround documents -- external outputs that includes one or more parts intended to be returned with new data or information
- Bills
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
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Summary
- There are two types of interfaces – user interfaces and system interfaces
- User interfaces involve direct user interaction with the system. System interfaces require minimal or no user interaction
- The design of the user interface has a long history as human computer interaction (HCI) and relies on user-centered design, which focuses early on users, evaluates designs to ensure usability, and uses iterative development
- Metaphors are used to think about the nature of the user interface, and they include direct manipulation, desktop, document, and dialog metaphors.
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition
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Summary (continued)
- Use cases are organized into one or more menu hierarchies to arrange functionality for users
- Dialogs and storyboards are used to design the interaction for each use case based on use case flow of activates and system sequence diagrams
- System interfaces include inputs and outputs to other systems, highly automated inputs and outputs, and inputs and outputs to external databases.
- Designing system inputs involves identifying devices and mechanisms, identifying inputs and the data content, and determining the controls necessary
- Designing system outputs includes designing detailed reports, summary report, exception reports, and executive reports
- Outputs are also classified as internal, external, or turnaround
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 6th Edition