University of Liverpool Proposed New Library Interface A Direct Manipulation based strategy COMP106 Assessment 2Proposal 16

Key Tasks COMP106 Assessment 2Proposal 16 There are several key tasks that the current library system interface performs…. Borrow a book Renew a book Check your library record Suggest new books Search for a book

Task Operations COMP106 Assessment 2Proposal 16 From these, I have decided to analyse these tasks in turn…. Search for a book The steps involved with searching for a book are…  Step 1: Recall information about the book  Step 2: Search for the book in the catalogue  Step 3: Analyse the search results (NOT IN CURRENT INTERFACE

Task Operations COMP106 Assessment 2Proposal 16 From these, I have decided to analyse these tasks in turn…. Borrow a book The steps involved with borrowing a book are…  Step 1: Check availability of the book after searching  Step 2: Go to the shelf to pick up the book  Step 3: Take the book out on loan (NOT IN CURRENT INTERFACE)

Task Operations COMP106 Assessment 2Proposal 16 From these, I have decided to analyse these tasks in turn…. Check your Library record The steps involved with checking your Library record are…  Step 1: Recall personal ID and PIN  Step 2: Enter the information into the system  Step 3: Analyse the results displayed

Interface Metaphor COMP106 Assessment 2Proposal 16 I now have the task of designing a metaphor for my new Library interface. This will be based around the concept of a Bookshelf. The key ideas of this are…. Bookshelf Books Book-ends Index Different shapes Different sizes Bookmarks Different colours

Interface Metaphor COMP106 Assessment 2Proposal 16 Each of these key ideas will help the user relate the property to the action they are performing. Books These will represent the physical books themselves and are stored on the ‘bookshelf’. This relates to the real life concept whereby the books are stored in the bookshelves and have to be taken off the shelf and taken out to be issued to the user.

Interface Metaphor COMP106 Assessment 2Proposal 16 Each of these key ideas will help the user relate the property to the action they are performing. Different Characteristics In the real life bookshelf, not all books will be the same shape, size or colour. These differences in characteristic could prove useful to the interface if each type of book was allocated a colour. For example…. Green for Fiction Red for Fact

Interface Metaphor COMP106 Assessment 2Proposal 16 Each of these key ideas will help the user relate the property to the action they are performing. Index The University library will store many thousands of items across many different physical locations. When searching for a book, an ‘index’ of all available titles is searched for any matches. In the same way, when opening a book and looking for information, the index is consulted.

Interface Metaphor COMP106 Assessment 2Proposal 16 Each of these key ideas will help the user relate the property to the action they are performing. Bookends These will represent the divisions between books of different themes and subjects. In a real life bookshelf, these are used exactly for this purpose, and often have markers on them. When the search results of the system are displayed, there needs to be a similar division of results.

Interface Design COMP106 Assessment 2Proposal 16 I will now list the basic objects and attributes, relations and actions that will be made available to the user. Objects and Attributes Books: title, author Characteristics: size, shape, colour Index: classification, author Bookends: theme, subject, type

Interface Design COMP106 Assessment 2Proposal 16 I will now list the basic objects and attributes, relations and actions that will be made available to the user. Relationships Books: Each book would represent a different section of the interface Characteristics: A colour key could represent different types of book/functions in the system Index: This can represent the library database containing information on all the available books Bookends: Divisions between type/subject area on results screen with the use of a horizontal line

Interface Design COMP106 Assessment 2Proposal 16 I will now list the basic objects and attributes, relations and actions that will be made available to the user. Actions Search for a book (Task 1) Borrow a book (Task 2) Check library record (Task 3)

Interface Mappings COMP106 Assessment 2Proposal 16 I will now indicate the mappings from the interface actions to the conceptual model actions. Task How the user performs it How the interface performs it 1 Enter search criteria into textbox, press search button Validate the input, query the database, group results, display results to user 2 Enter ID into textbox, enter book ID, press issue button Validate the input, assign the book at the ID to the user at that ID 3 Enter ID into textbox, press query button, analyse results Validate the input, query the database, display results to user