Systems Analysis I Designing Output

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Systems Analysis IDesigning Output Input

• ISYS 200
• Glenn Booker

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Output Input Design

• In order to design any information system, we
  need to provide a means for data to be entered
  into the system, and information to be output
  from it
• We focus on output design first, since that is
  most critical to meeting system requirements
• Inputs then need to be complete enough to allow
  producing the desired outputs

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Output Design
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Output Design Objectives

• We want output to meet several objectives
• Output has to fulfill a specific purpose
• It must be meaningful to the user
• The quantity of output must be correct
• It must reach the right audience
• It must be timely
• It should be done using an effective method

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Output Methods

• Outputs can be internal or external
• Internal outputs stay within your organization,
  such as reports to managers, salespeople, etc.
  or corporate intranet web sites
• External outputs leave your organization, such
  as bills, public web sites, etc.

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Output Technologies

• There are many ways to produce output
• Printer
• Display
• Multimedia
• CD or DVD
• Electronic output
• Push/pull technologies

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Printed Output

• Printed output can be designed for many forms of
  printed media
• Traditional letter, legal, or A4 paper sizes
• Oversize paper (posters, B through E blueprints)
• Custom-size forms (bills, barcodes, receipts)
• Continuous paper (scrolls, banners)
• Options include color vs. black white printing,
  and where the printer is located

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Display Output

• Displays include
• Traditional monitor (CRT or LCD), including PDA
• Special purpose monitors (e.g. for security or
  manufacturing)
• Touch screens
• Oversize or projection monitors
• Displays allow for interactive response to the
  output, are quiet, and are good for brief and/or
  frequently used outputs

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Multimedia Output

• Multimedia output includes audio, video, or
  animation
• Allows for very complex content and/or repetitive
  content which may not be captured well any other
  way
• Is much more expensive to develop, and often
  requires relative isolation to use
• Can also augment printed or screen outputs

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CD or DVD

• Most applications, and many outputs, are
  distributed on CD-ROM or DVD-ROM
• Generally serves as a way to get files to a
  screen output, not an output technology itself
• Could include text, PDF, multimedia, or many
  other forms of outputs

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Electronic Output

• Electronic outputs are mainly thought of by
  examples such as web sites and email
• More formally, it consists of push and pull
  technologies
• A pull technology makes the information
  available, so a user can choose to obtain it, or
  ignore it
• Posting a newsletter on a web site, to be
  downloaded by a user, is a pull technology

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Electronic Output

• A push technology selects the information, and
  sends it to the user
• Sending email to a user with the latest product
  specials or books published is a push technology
• Both push and pull technologies make use of other
  output technologies, such as creating printable
  documents, web sites, etc.

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We Left Out

• Obsolete output technologies include
• Magnetic tape
• A 1970s vintage ½ magnetic tape held up to
  9600 of 9600 bpi tape, for a capacity of about
  132 MB
• Modern versions are the DAT, DLT, VXA, 4 or 8 mm
  tapes used for backups
• Paper tape
• Microfiche or microfilm
• Punch cards
• Stone tablets

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Choosing Technology

• Choosing the right output technology must
  consider many factors
• Who is the audience?
• How technologically savvy are they?
• What level of quality and detail do they expect?
• How many recipients are there?
• What is the purpose of the output?
• How fast does it need to be generated?
• How often does it need to be generated?

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Choosing Technology

• Will it be stored? If so, how long?
• Are there any restrictions regarding the
  production, storage, or distribution of the
  output?
• Are there any environmental requirements on
  creating the output?
• Acoustic noise, smell, space, electromagnetic
  noise, temperature, connections to other
  equipment
• What cost is acceptable for creating the output
• Consider both initial and maintenance costs, and
  the cost of supplies

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Avoiding Bias

• Outputs can introduce unintentional bias from
  the analyst who designs them
• We want to avoid that bias consciously
• How information is sorted
• Setting limits (business rules)
• Choice of graphics

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Sorting Information

• Output data are often sorted by cost, time, or
  alphabetically
• The manner chosen to present results can place
  accidental emphasis on output results
• Hence many business names start with multiple
  As, so they show up first in the Yellow Pages
• Only one in six Internet users can tell paid ads
  (e.g. sponsored links) from genuine search
  results (see here)

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Setting Limits

• The limits used to generate output (e.g.
  determine the scope of what is presented) can
  introduce bias
• Often such limits are based on business rules
• How long overdue is too much for a bill? A
  week? A month?
• How old are sales records before being moved to
  an archive? A year? Five years?

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Choice of Graphics

• The way data are presented can introduce severe
  bias in their interpretation
• See also How to Lie with Statistics, Huff Geis,
  ISBN 0393310728

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Choice of Graphics

• The absence of a Y axis scale leaves a lot to the
  imagination

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Choice of Graphics

• Comparison to a goal or objective can make a big
  difference in interpretation

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Avoiding Bias

• So to avoid bias in the design of outputs
• Be aware of the sources of bias
• Get users involved in the design of outputs
• Establish clear sources and specific business
  rules for getting and presenting data
• If desired, create flexible output so users can
  change limits or ranges
• Encourage users to have multiple data views

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Designing Printed Output

• Printed outputs typically include three kinds of
  reports
• Detailed reports, which are essentially a dump
  of records from a master file in the database
• They have little formatting
• Exception reports are generated to tell when
  something goes out of its allowable limits
• Late books, overdue accounts, etc.
• Summary reports are used to analyze the data,
  such as management reports

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Design Conventions

• Most reports have constant information and
  variable information
• Constant information describes parameters which
  apply to the whole report titles, search
  criteria, report date, etc.
• Variable information is the body of the report
  a tabular section in the middle of the report

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Design Conventions

• Printed output design has to choose the paper
  duh
• Size, type (regular, bond, security, etc.), and
  quality are basic keys
• The use of color versus black white ink
• Core attributes of a printed output include
• Heading or title of the report, page numbering,
  date report was generated, column headings
• Group related data together

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Display Output Design

• Many of the input design principles also apply
  to screen output design
• Display outputs need navigation controls
• Outputs on screen tend to be
• More transient than printed outputs
• More specifically targeted to the user
• May be customizable by the user
• Access to display outputs might be
  password-protected

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Display Output Guidelines

• Any display output should try to
• Be simple as possible
• Keep presentation consistent with other displays
• Support user movement and navigation
• May want ability to drill down for more details
• Be attractive
• Like printed output, display output should be
  reviewed with users of the system to verify its
  usability

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Graphics in Display Design

• Graphs and other graphical output can help users
  interpret data
• Will discuss more in chapter 10
• Keys are to identify
• The purpose of the graph
• The data to be presented
• The intended audience
• What the audience will do after seeing the data

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Web Site Design

• Web site design shares some traits with screen
  design, but is complicated by
• Screen resolutions
• From 800 x 600 to 1600 x 1200 pixels
• If a public web site
• Varying speeds of connection
• From 56kbps dialup to 7.1 Mbps DSL (or higher)
• Varying ability to handle cookies, Java,
  JavaScript, Flash, and other types of elements

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Web Site Design

• Limitations by whether the user is browsing with
  IE, Netscape, Firefox, Safari, etc.
• See AnyBrowser to avoid browser-specific
  conflicts
• Accordingly, there are many more variables to
  make a good web site than a good display
  interface
• Web Pages That Suck
• Interface Hall of Shame
• Jakob Nielsen's Website
• The sites cited in the text are good, too

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Web Site Design

• ltopiniongt If youre going to do serious web site
  design, learn HTML, and stay away from MS
  FrontPage
• Try Dreamweaver or HomeSite lt/opiniongt
• Key concepts for a good web site include
• Plan the structure the overall navigational
  approach, as well as the scope of each page
• What kind of metaphor does the site follow?
• Content what does the site need to contain?

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Web Site Design

• Text what does the site need to say?
• Graphics
• Learn when to use GIFs and when JPGs,
• Keep graphics size and quantity to a minimum
• Use thumbnails to link to larger images
• Use a consistent presentation style throughout
  the site
• Check how your site looks using various platforms
  (PC, Mac, Unix) and different browsers

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Output Production

• There are many ways to prepare data for output,
  depending on its home
• Database programs have their own methods for
  creating reports
• Or you can dump your database report into a PDF
  file
• Or you can use generic querying tools
• Crystal Reports, Business Objects

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Output via XML

• The Extensible Markup Language (XML) helps create
  output in many formats
• A document written in XML can be converted into
  many formats from a single source file
• PDF, HTML, and RTF are among output options
• XML is based on SGML, the Standard Generalized
  Markup Language, a method of representing texts
  in electronic form

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Input Design
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Input Design

• Inputs for an information system seek to avoid
  the maxim GIGO
• Garbage In, Garbage Out
• An information system is only valuable if it has
  good data, so a key to retaining its integrity is
  to control incoming data
• Here well refer to generic inputs as forms

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Input Design Objectives

• Good input forms help meet basic objectives
• Effectiveness in meeting its purpose
• Accuracy ensures data are completed correctly
• Ease of use
• Consistency in design throughout the application
• Simplicity
• Attractiveness

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Input Design

• Good forms help guide business processes by
  getting data in a consistent manner
• Forms are often the first source document for
  either data entry, or direct input to a system
• Forms should be
• Easy to fill in,
• Meet their intended purpose,
• Ensure accurate data, and
• Be attractive

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Easy to fill in

• The structure of forms helps them be easy to fill
  in
• Flow should be left to right, and top to bottom
• Many forms require seven types of sections
• Heading information, including the title of the
  form
• Identification, such as an invoice number
• Instructions no matter how well designed the
  data entry body of the form is, provide
  instructions

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Easy to fill in

• Body is the part where the data is entered
• Within the body, sections may be defined for
  logically similar data
• Signature and verification for paper forms,
  some place to acknowledge the data is correct
• Totals, if any a summary of the finals results
  from the form
• Comment, if any
• See example on page 407

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Easy to fill in

• Captioning refers to using text labels for each
  field to be filled in
• Captions can be
• In front of a line,
• Under a line,
• At the top of a table column,
• Inside a box, or
• Part of a horizontal or vertical checklist (p.
  408)

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Meet their intended purpose

• Forms can support several kinds of purposes
• Record, process, store, or retrieve data
• The scope of data obtained on a form must meet
  the needs of the corresponding outputs it will
  feed
• Also may use specialty papers for some printed
  forms
• Such as perforated forms, continuous forms,
  duplicate forms, multi-part forms, etc.

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Ensure accurate data

• This is the most complex aspect of forms
• Want to get accurate data, but keep the number of
  possible choices limited to avoid errors
• Validation of data is very important look for
  illogical or impossible combinations of inputs
• Double check calculations
• Use check boxes, radio buttons, dropdown lists,
  or other fixed options to control possible
  entries (where possible)

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Be attractive

• Ok, this aspect isnt critical, but it certainly
  helps to have visually appealing forms
• Avoid clutter
• Ask for data in a logical sequence
• Use a visually logical tab sequence
• Group topics into separate sections
• Use bold font or exclamations sparingly

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Controlling Forms

• Many organizations have to control forms, just
  like any other tool
• What forms exist?
• What is the current version of each form?
• Are previous editions of the form still usable?
• Where do people get forms from?
• Typically assign a form number and revision date
  to each form

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Web Input Design

• Many of the same principles apply to web-based
  form design
• Key differences are
• Controlling navigation and cursor location
• Availability of context-sensitive help
• Possibility of hyperlinks
• Want to keep the display simple, use consistent
  presentation, support user movement, and keep it
  attractive

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Simplicity in Design

• Simplicity in design means only showing the
  information necessary
• At least 50 of the screen should show
  information relevant to the occasional user
• Divide the screen into three sections
• The Heading section, at the top, contains titles,
  and maybe icons or pull-down menus
• The middle Body section has the actual data entry
• The lower Comment section also has reminder
  instructions, and navigation controls

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Consistent Display

• A consistent display should follow the same
  general layout, navigation scheme, fonts, etc.
  throughout the site
• Like on paper forms, group similar information
  together
• Make sure web form obtains the same data as its
  paper counterpart, if any

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Support User Movement

• Any web site should provide clear navigation
  options for the user
• E.g. use the same icons throughout the site
• Follow the three-click rule
• A user should be able to get anywhere in three
  clicks or less
• Provide the illusion of movement among forms,
  such as by paging down, or adding on-screen
  dialog

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Keep It Attractive

• Avoid clutter, just like paper forms
• Use multiple windows or hyperlinks to avoid
  visual overload
• Use logical flows of material and topic
• Use graphics, lines, or boxes to help separate
  areas
• Use inverse video sparingly
• Avoid flashing or blinking imagesPLEASE

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Interface Tools

• A small number of icons may be used for
  navigation
• The usual options exist for creating a GUI
• Text boxes, check boxes, radio buttons, lists
  and drop-down lists, sliders, spinners, etc.
• Tabbed sections can be used for separate topics

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Colors

• The most legible color combinations are
• Black on yellow
• Green on white
• Blue on white
• White on blue
• Yellow on black
• For benefit of us colorblind folks, avoid red on
  green, or blue on red
• Avoid over four colors for most sites

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Page Design

• Some guidance on designing an effective intranet
  or Internet web site
• Provide clear instructions, even if you think
  its not necessary
• Use a logical sequence for data entry
• Use a variety of boxes, buttons, lists, etc. for
  data entrya zillion text boxes are really
  boring!
• Provide a scrolling text box if a lot of user
  text input is allowable

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Page Design

• Every input form needs two buttons Submit and
  Clear Form
• If a form is long, divide it into separate pages
• Validate that mandatory fields are filled in
• Provide a feedback screen to refuse submission
  of an incomplete form
• E-Commerce sites also need to ensure that users
  are clear on what they are buying, the
  quantities, shipping and tax charges
• A shopping cart-type metaphor is expected