1. 13-1 © Prentice Hall, 2007 Chapter 13: Designing the Human Interface Object-Oriented Systems Analysis and Design Joey F. George, Dinesh Batra, Joseph S. Valacich, Jeffrey A. Hoffer

2. Chapter 13 13-2 © Prentice Hall, 2007 Chapter Objectives Af ter studying this chapter you should be able to: – Explain form and report design. – Apply general guidelines for formatting forms and reports. – Explain effective text, table, and list formatting. – Explain common Web layout design errors

3. Chapter 13 13-3 © Prentice Hall, 2007 Chapter Objectives (Continued) Af ter studying this chapter you should be able to: – Explain interface and dialogue design. – Apply general guidelines for designing interfaces and dialogues. – Explain common errors in developing Web interfaces. – Design human-computer dialogues, including the use of dialogue diagrams.

4. Chapter 13 13-4 © Prentice Hall, 2007

5. Chapter 13 13-5 © Prentice Hall, 2007 What Is a Form? A business document that contains some predefined data and may include some areas where additional data are to be filled in Typically based on a database record or query

6. Chapter 13 13-6 © Prentice Hall, 2007 What Is a Report? A business document that contains only predefined data A passive document meant only for reading or viewing, not data input Typically contains data from many unrelated transactions or records

7. Chapter 13 13-7 © Prentice Hall, 2007 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?

8. Chapter 13 13-8 © Prentice Hall, 2007 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

9. Chapter 13 13-9 © Prentice Hall, 2007 A coding sheet is an “old” tool for designing forms and reports, usually associated with text-based forms and reports for mainframe applications.

10. Chapter 13 13-10 © Prentice Hall, 2007 Visual Basic and other development tools provide computer-aided GUI form and report generation.

11. Chapter 13 13-11 © Prentice Hall, 2007 A typical form design specification: Based on a use case connection Involves three parts: 1)Narrative overview 2)Sample design 3)Assessment

12. Chapter 13 13-12 © Prentice Hall, 2007

13. Chapter 13 13-13 © Prentice Hall, 2007 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

14. Chapter 13 13-14 © Prentice Hall, 2007

15. Chapter 13 13-15 © Prentice Hall, 2007 Grouping, organization, layout, and highlighting are important considerations in form design

16. Chapter 13 13-16 © Prentice Hall, 2007 Highlighting can include use of upper case, font size differences, bold, italics, underline, boxing, and other approaches.

17. Chapter 13 13-17 © Prentice Hall, 2007 Methods of Highlighting Blinking and audible tones Color differences Intensity differences Size differences Font differences Reverse video Boxing Underlining All capital letters Offsetting and position of nonstandard information

18. Chapter 13 13-18 © Prentice Hall, 2007

19. Chapter 13 13-19 © Prentice Hall, 2007 Printed Reports Business reports are static, no user interaction. Therefore, business reports are often printed in hardcopy form. Considerations: Laser or Inkjet printers – good for graphics, but too expensive for large batches Impact printers – fast, reliable, inexpensive, but not good at displaying graphical content

20. Chapter 13 13-20 © Prentice Hall, 2007

21. Chapter 13 13-21 © Prentice Hall, 2007 Bar and line graphs give pictorial summary information that can enhance reports and graphs.

22. Chapter 13 13-22 © Prentice Hall, 2007 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

23. Chapter 13 13-23 © Prentice Hall, 2007

24. Chapter 13 13-24 © Prentice Hall, 2007 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

25. Chapter 13 13-25 © Prentice Hall, 2007 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

26. Chapter 13 13-26 © Prentice Hall, 2007

27. Chapter 13 13-27 © Prentice Hall, 2007 A typical interface/dialogue design specification: Similar to form design, but includes multiple forms and dialogue sequence specifications

28. Chapter 13 13-28 © Prentice Hall, 2007 Data entry structure is concerned with navigation flow. Navigation flow should be natural and intuitive to the user, not disjointed and confusing. Left-to-right, top-to-bottom is best.

29. Chapter 13 13-29 © Prentice Hall, 2007

30. Chapter 13 13-30 © Prentice Hall, 2007 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

31. Chapter 13 13-31 © Prentice Hall, 2007 What Is a Dialogue? A sequence of interactions between the system and a user Dialogue design involves: – Designing a dialogue sequence – Building a prototype – Assessing usability

32. Chapter 13 13-32 © Prentice Hall, 2007 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

33. Chapter 13 13-33 © Prentice Hall, 2007

34. Chapter 13 13-34 © Prentice Hall, 2007 Dialogue diagrams depict the sequence, conditional branching, and repetition of dialogues.

35. Chapter 13 13-35 © Prentice Hall, 2007 Recap After studying this chapter we learned to: – Design forms, reports, interfaces, and dialogues. – List and apply accepted guidelines during interface design. – Properly format text, tables, and lists. – Design dialogues using dialogue diagrams.

36. Chapter 13 13-36 © Prentice Hall, 2007 Recap (cont.) After studying this chapter we learned to: – Explain interface and dialogue design. – Apply general guidelines for designing interfaces and dialogues. – Explain common errors in developing Web interfaces. – Design human-computer dialogues, including the use of dialogue diagrams.