1.Ultima
Computers is a company with a reputation of providing quality financial
software products. Having consistently made profits for the past five years,
the company is diversifying into other areas.
Ultima
Computers is a company with a reputation of providing quality financial
software products.
Having consistently made profits for the past five years, the company is
diversifying into other
areas.
areas.
Ultima acquires a project from Sunny Hills Resorts, a company that owns
and operates
resorts globally.
Sunny Hills Resorts wants Ultima to develop a web-based payroll application. Therefore, the
systems analyst of Ultima gathers the requirements from the Assistant Vice-President (Finance) at
Sunny Hills. The developers at Ultima apply their experience of developing financial software to
the development of the new product. The application is developed before the deadline, and it is
found to be bug-free during the internal testing. Further, the application is deployed over the
Internet so that the users from all the branches of Sunny Hills Resorts can access it.
After the initial use, the following feedback comes in from all branches of Sunny Hills:
The site can be viewed properly at most of the workstations in the company. However, several
old computers in remote branches do not display the Web pages in their entirety. The
investigation reveals that some computers can only support a 640x480 resolution. Because the
website was built with an assumption that computers supporting an 800x600 resolution would be
available, the pages on the website did not fit into the display area of the monitors.
The same old computers were found to be able to support only 16 colors. Because the color
palette used for building the site had 216 colors, colors appear frayed on these computers.
Users in many branches have complained that each page on the website takes two to five
minutes to load. Investigations reveal that 75 percent of the branches have a bandwidth of less
than 128 kbps, and there are several users, who often share the link during the day.
Most users of the application are unable to find the information related to leave data of the
employees. The few users who did find the link had to go through five screens to reach it.
Many users have said that they could never identify the buttons and links, which are active, and
the ones, which are inactive. As a result, they click the buttons and links repeatedly until they get
frustrated and give up.
To resolve these issues, Ultima has to rework to design a more user-friendly application. The
project cost increases by 50 percent and Ultima faces a heavy loss.
Identify the possible causes behind the problems in the application. In addition, state the problems
and justify how these problems could have been averted.
resorts globally.
Sunny Hills Resorts wants Ultima to develop a web-based payroll application. Therefore, the
systems analyst of Ultima gathers the requirements from the Assistant Vice-President (Finance) at
Sunny Hills. The developers at Ultima apply their experience of developing financial software to
the development of the new product. The application is developed before the deadline, and it is
found to be bug-free during the internal testing. Further, the application is deployed over the
Internet so that the users from all the branches of Sunny Hills Resorts can access it.
After the initial use, the following feedback comes in from all branches of Sunny Hills:
The site can be viewed properly at most of the workstations in the company. However, several
old computers in remote branches do not display the Web pages in their entirety. The
investigation reveals that some computers can only support a 640x480 resolution. Because the
website was built with an assumption that computers supporting an 800x600 resolution would be
available, the pages on the website did not fit into the display area of the monitors.
The same old computers were found to be able to support only 16 colors. Because the color
palette used for building the site had 216 colors, colors appear frayed on these computers.
Users in many branches have complained that each page on the website takes two to five
minutes to load. Investigations reveal that 75 percent of the branches have a bandwidth of less
than 128 kbps, and there are several users, who often share the link during the day.
Most users of the application are unable to find the information related to leave data of the
employees. The few users who did find the link had to go through five screens to reach it.
Many users have said that they could never identify the buttons and links, which are active, and
the ones, which are inactive. As a result, they click the buttons and links repeatedly until they get
frustrated and give up.
To resolve these issues, Ultima has to rework to design a more user-friendly application. The
project cost increases by 50 percent and Ultima faces a heavy loss.
Identify the possible causes behind the problems in the application. In addition, state the problems
and justify how these problems could have been averted.
Solution:::::::::::::
The following table describes the problems in the application and their causes.
Problem
|
Cause
|
Difficulty in viewing the Web pages in entirety.
|
The possibility of a low screen resolution on the client monitor was not considered while designing the interface. If this possibility were considered, the Web pages in the site could have been viewed in entirety.
|
Appearance of frayed colors on the monitors
|
The infrastructure limitation was not considered while designing the application, which was designed by using a 216-color palette. In the case of applications that provide graphical user interface, it is wise to use the color palette in such a way that the colors do not appear frayed.
|
High download time for pages in remote locations
|
Bandwidth problems were not considered at the time of designing the website. While designing a website for areas with low bandwidth, the designer should ensure that the page does not contain many colors and graphics, which can make the page heavy to load.
|
Inaccessibility of functionalities
|
In the requirement analysis phase, the end users were not involved and their requirements were not gathered. In addition, the interaction was not designed in a way that could have helped users access the key functionalities on the home page or with 2-3 clicks.
|
User frustration due to repetitive clicks
|
The application does not disable the buttons or links that are not active at a particular point of time, thereby misleading the users to click them repetitively. Moreover, it does not give any feedback to the users if they click an inactive link or a button or not.
|
The Problems in the Application and Their Causes
To avoid the preceding problems, a systematic interaction design process should have been followed. The end users of the application should have been involved in all the phases of the development process. In addition, the requirements should have been gathered by studying the current system of the organization.
2.BookTreasure Inc. is a huge library containing more than 1 million books and more than 1000 members. Managing the records of these books and members manually is becoming a difficult task
BookTreasure Inc. is a huge library containing more than 1 million books and more than 1000
members. Managing the records of these books and members manually is becoming a difficult
task. Therefore, the management of library wants to automate the library management system.
The automated system should allow the members of the library to search a specific book and
check its availability by using an online catalogue. The system should also allow the library staff to
accomplish the following tasks:
Issue a book
Return a book
Add a member
Remove a member
Add a book
Remove a book
Generate reports
While developing the preceding application, Jim Brown, an application developer, divides the
application in the following modules:
Search for a book
Issue a book
Return a book
Add a book to the library database
Further, he creates the following interaction designs for the preceding modules:
Search for a book module.
The Interaction Design for the Search for a Book Module
Issue a Book module.
•
•
The Interaction Design for the Issue a Book Module
Return a Book.
The Interaction Design for the Return a Book Module
Add a Book module.
The Interaction Design for the Add a Book Module
Analyze the preceding designs and identify the problems. Further, suggest solutions for the
identified problems.
members. Managing the records of these books and members manually is becoming a difficult
task. Therefore, the management of library wants to automate the library management system.
The automated system should allow the members of the library to search a specific book and
check its availability by using an online catalogue. The system should also allow the library staff to
accomplish the following tasks:
Issue a book
Return a book
Add a member
Remove a member
Add a book
Remove a book
Generate reports
While developing the preceding application, Jim Brown, an application developer, divides the
application in the following modules:
Search for a book
Issue a book
Return a book
Add a book to the library database
Further, he creates the following interaction designs for the preceding modules:
Search for a book module.
The Interaction Design for the Search for a Book Module
Issue a Book module.
•
•
The Interaction Design for the Issue a Book Module
Return a Book.
The Interaction Design for the Return a Book Module
Add a Book module.
The Interaction Design for the Add a Book Module
Analyze the preceding designs and identify the problems. Further, suggest solutions for the
identified problems.
Solution::::
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