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Running Head: INTRODUCTION AND METHODOLOGY 1

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INTRODUCTION AND METHODOLOGY

Introduction and methodology Comment by Dr. Singh: Fix line spacing for the entire document Double Zero for Before and After line spacing.

Action research

IST 8101

Shashank Pitla

Wilmington University

Introduction and Methodology

Introduction

I am planning to create a whole interaction between people and the machines. I am yearning to improve the interaction between the two so as to ensure that there are effective control and operation of the machine by the humans. I want to create a good user interface design which will provide an efficient user interface that will enable user user-friendly and easy to use so that the users can obtain their desired results. It can be achieved by ensuring that only minimum input is required by the operator so that they can achieve their desired output.

Technology is constantly changing as time goes by. Every business tries to keep pace with the current business trends. The main aim of every business is to make profits. Making profits requires the business to increase its sales, and it can do so by ensuring that it maintains its customer base by ensuring that it attracts more customers and at the same time attracts new buyers. This technological era has seen many businesses change their trading tactics by diverting into e-commerce where sales worth billions of dollars are being made every year (Shneiderman & Elmqvist, 2017) It is now clear that nowadays thousands of businesses are completely depending on the internetInternet for their success. The internetInternet has now emerged as a top source of commerce, social interaction, entertainment, and information.

Our business is desperate to keep up with these trends. The websites have now become a vital platform where people are trading and not just a mere advertisement method as it were several years agoago,. Thereforetherefore; I want to improve the design of our website so that it can be able to easily generate online traffic as well as interest among the internetInternet users who visit (Galitz, 2007). The user interface design of any website plays a crucial role by ensuring that it brings large volumes of web traffic and this is no exception to our site.

I have noted that our current website has inappropriate graphics, it is difficult to navigate, it lacks consistency, and also it is difficult to navigate. I am associating these defects as the main cause of our organization losing a subsequent customer base which is making us vulnerable to our competitors. I am therefore working towards building a site that has simple navigation capabilities between the screens, employs the K.I.S.S principle, has minimal movements, and has appropriate language and graphics. A powerful program with poorly designed user interface has little value because it is denied customers a decent chance to learn more about the company and products it is offering thereby accomplishing a quest of purchase or even informing (Yuan & Yu, 2010).

Usability of any website is the foundation of any successful user interface, and this is the easiest way of creating a positive user interface (Hutt, 2013). It is this positive user interface that will ensure that a positive user experience is created by our customers, defining what type of relationship that our products possess from our customers. As our main aim is to venture into online business and we can only achieve this by creating a user-friendly website which will provide an enhanced experience to the online visitors. I want to ensure that I use an effective and a simple user interface design to help in achieving the objectives of the site which is increasing a consumer base for our products. If it is complex, it will push the traffic away, but if it has the usability, then it will have a smooth completion of any task, making it ideal and enjoyable as required by the user.

Methodology

Numerous research methods can be used when researching about the user interface. These research methods include interviews, observations, documentary analysis, and questionnaires (Hutt, 2013). I have utilized all these methods in my verge of determining the most appropriate way to improve the firm and the best way to create a perfect user interface. This user interface is responsible for ensuring that customer is retained by every means possible. Comment by Dr. Singh: Add an indent at the beginning of every paragraph.

Interviews, as I found, is the most flexible and the most used methods to gain qualitative information about the people’s experience (Hutt, 2013). In my ways, I utilized this technique to acquire a lot of information from the customers on the ways they felt that the improvements had to be done. Since it is time-consuming, I only made an attempt of interviewing 12 people. I used a semi-structured interview format where I developed a guided series of questions. It is here that I learn that our customers are not satisfied with the current state of our website and they demand improvements on the same so that they can remain royal. Comment by Dr. Singh: Instead of I, use the researcher.

I understand that if consumers are dissatisfied with the services that we are offering, then they have no choice but to seek for preferences. Therefore, observation is the most straightforward method that I noted that something is wrong in the business because as the days went by, we were just losing more and more customers (Galitz, 2007). Our competitor's websites as I noted were awesome something that prompted me to know that our website was the greatest problem we need to solve.

Documentary analysis assisted me to know the business trends and how they are constantly changing as the days go by (Galitz, 2007). I read several newspapers and article about e-commerce and this is where I learned that it is the only direction that businesses will operate in if they desire to succeed in their operations. Reading articles from successful business persons and successful companies was phenomenal in informing me of the most appropriate decision to take on the same matter.

Although I just used a few interviews, they assisted me greatly in determining which direction to take. Retired CEO’s were of great help to me because their vast knowledge and experience were crucial as it helped me come to the conclusion that something had to be done on the company’s site so that it could attract more customers.

Action Research

Plan

I felt that keeping the business on toes with the current technological trends would be the most effective long-term means of ensuring business success. Upon my research, I was able to learn that e-commerce is the current and the most livelyliveliest business trend that needs to be embraced at any cost. We hope that it will be a breakthrough to our success and the website created will portray the highest degree of user friendliness. We hope to:

• Double our current customer base. This will have a great impact on increasing our sales by almost the same margin

• Create an effective business’ website which our customers will use with a lot of ease

• Improve our customer relations to ensure that both parties mutually benefit from each other

Action

Our first step is to assess and evaluate the data collected. Our second step is to develop a true understanding of the dimension we shall take in the user interface improvement. We shall then reflect on the projects, collect data on our current practice before developing an implementation plan to employ the findings of the action research before implementing the same. After that, we monitor the progress of action research plan before finally evaluating its success

Observation

I have noted that significant improvements have been realized by businesses which have embraced new ways of conducting businesses. As for these days, it is clear that people are conducting their businesses through the internetInternet, where they can advertise and sell their products (Shneiderman & Elmqvist, 2017). I have realized that people usually prefer those websites that are simple to use, have an intuitive interface, have no information workload, have consistency, use appropriate graphics and language, and have minimal distractions. I have noted that successful businesses today are now embracing these principles and have invested heavily in developing good user interfaces and this decision has heavily paid off.

Reflection

The results of this study suggest that businesses have and can benefit from creating a perfect user interface program. The majority of firms have developed positive attitudes towards embracing technological advancements as they have been of great aid in ensuring their great proficiency in the business operation (Mandel, 2006). Since we embraced the changes we have seen significant customer base increase which has made me understand that buyers need decency and your website can mean success or failure to your business. However, this process was not easy at all. The employees were reluctant to embrace it, and on top of it the financial constraints, and much time consuming were prevalent.

References

Galitz, W. (2007). The essential guide to user interface design (1st ed.). Indianapolis, IN: Wiley Pub.

Hutt, A. (2013). User Interface. New York: Prentice Hall. Comment by Dr. Singh: Missing country name.

Mandel, T. (1997). The elements of user interface design (1st ed.). New York: Wiley. Comment by Dr. Singh: Missing country name.

Shneiderman & Elmqvist, N. (2017). Designing the user interface: Strategies for effective human-computer interaction.. New York Comment by Dr. Singh: Incomplete reference.

Yuan, J & Yu, F. (2010), Liferay user interface development (1st ed.). Birmingham: Packt Pub. Comment by Dr. Singh: Missing country name.