Application Programs, User Interface, Forms, Tips for User Friendly Interface

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Database Management System (CS403)

Lecture No. 32

Reading Material

"Database Management Systems", 2nd edition, Raghu Ramakrishnan, Johannes Gehrke,

McGraw-Hill

Database Management, Jeffery A Hoffer

Overview of Lecture

o Application Programs

o User Interface

o Designing Forms

Until now we have studied conceptual database design, whose goal is to analyze the

application and do a conceptual design on the application. The goal is to provide a

conceptual design and description of reality. It is independent of data model. Then we

discussed the relational database design. A relational database stores all its data inside

tables, and nothing more. All operations on data are done on the tables themselves or

produce another tables as the result. Here we had discussed the selection of data

model. Thereafter we had discussed data manipulation language through SQL. We are

using SQL Server as a tool. In this lecture we will discuss application program.

Application Programs

Programs written to perform different requirement posed by the users/organization are

the application programs. Application programs can be developed in parallel or after

the construction of database design. Tool selection is also critical, but it depends upon

developer in which he feels comfortable.

General Activities in Application Programs

Following are the general activities, which are performed during the development of

application programs:

· Data input programmes

Editing

Display

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Processing related to activities

Reports

User Interface

In the minds of users, a system's user interface is the system; everything else is just

stuff they're happy to ignore. The design of the user interface is therefore critical to

the success or failure of a project. Get it right, and your users will forgive the

occasional infelicity in implementation. Get it wrong, and it won't really matter how

efficient your code is.

The irony here is that if you do get it right, hardly anyone will notice. Really elegant

interfaces are invisible. Even if you get it wrong, no one might notice. The interfaces

of many computer systems, particularly database systems, are so awkward that your

system will be just one more of the mediocre, mildly abusive computer systems

people have come to expect.

Effective interfaces can also require more work to implement, although this isn't

necessarily the case. In addition, the payoffs can be huge, and they're not all of the

"virtue is its own reward" variety. An effective user interface minimizes the time

users require to learn and implement the system. Once the system is implemented,

productivity gains are higher if users don't have to struggle to bend it to their will.

Chances are good that both of these issues were addressed in the project goals. They

certainly impact the infamous bottom line.

Effective interfaces that closely match the users' expectations and work processes also

minimize the need for external documentation, which is always expensive. And while

users might not consciously notice how wonderful your user interface is, they'll

certainly notice that your system seems to just work better.

So, what constitutes an effective interface? To my mind, it's one that helps users

accomplish their tasks and otherwise gets out of the way. An effective interface

doesn't impose its requirements on users. It never forces users to play by its rules; it

plays by the users' rules. An effective interface doesn't force users to learn a bunch of

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uninteresting stuff just to use it. And finally, it doesn't behave in unexpected ways.

Following are the two types of user interfaces:

Text based

Graphical User Interface (GUI) most commonly called as Forms

Text Based User Interface

In text based user interface certain keyboard numbers are designated for any action

but it is used very rarely nowadays. For example

Adding a Record

Deleting a Record

Enrollment

Result Calculation

Exit

Forms

Forms are now days used extensively in the application programs. Following are the

different types of forms

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Browser Based

These are web-based forms. They are developed in HTML, scripting language or

Front Page.

Non-Browser/Simple

Graphical User Interface

This is an example of Graphical user interface

User Friendly Interfaces

Two definitions of user-friendly that are often mooted are "easy to learn" and "easy to

use." If we put aside for the moment the question of what, exactly, "easy" means, we

still have to ask ourselves, "Easy for whom?" The system that's easy for a beginner to

learn is not necessarily easy for an expert to use. Your best approach is to consider the

needs of each level of user and accommodate each with different facets of the

interface. Following are the different kinds of users:

Beginners

Everyone is a beginner at some point. Very few people remain that way--they will

either pass through the stage to intermediacy, or they'll discard your system entirely in

favor of someone else's. For this reason, you must be careful not to build in support

for beginners that will get in the way of more advanced users. Beginners need to

know what your system does before they start to learn how to use it. The best way to

present this information is outside the main system itself. For simple systems, an

introductory dialog box that describes the system can be sufficient. (Just be sure you

always include a means of dismissing the dialog box permanently.) For more complex

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systems, a guided tour might be more appropriate. Online help isn't a good option for

beginners. They might not know it exists or, if they do, how to use it. I have had some

success using an online user's guide, however, by including a link to it from the

introductory dialog box and from the Help menu. To be successful with beginners,

these guides must be task-oriented. Beginners don't want to know what "menu item"

means; they want to know how to create an invoice.

Intermediate

For most systems, the majority of users fall into the intermediate category.

Intermediate users know what the system does, but they often forget the details of

how. This is the group you must support directly in the user interface. Fortunately, the

Microsoft Windows interface provides a lot of tools for helping these users.A well-

designed menu system is one of the best tools for reminding intermediate users of the

system capabilities. A quick scan of the available menu items will immediately

remind them of the functions available and at the same time allow them to initiate the

appropriate task.

An excellent second level of support for intermediate users is online help. Writing

online help is outside the scope of this book. In this context, however, I will mention

that most intermediate users will use the index as their primary access mechanism.

The index should therefore be as complete as you can possibly make it.

Experts

Expert users know what to do and how to do it. They're primarily interested in doing

things quickly. The more shortcuts you can build into your system, the happier you

will make this group of users. In my experience, expert users tend to be keyboard-

oriented, so make sure that you provide a way to move around the system using the

keyboard if you're catering to this group.Expert users also appreciate the ability to

customize their working environment. Providing this functionality can be an

expensive exercise, however, so you will want to carefully evaluate the benefit before

including it. If you do decide to include some level of interface customization, even if

it's only a matter of arranging windows on the screen, be certain to maintain the

changes between sessions. Nothing is as irritating as having to rearrange everything

every time you load a program

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Tips for User Friendly Interface

Following are some of the important tips, which should be adhered for interfaces:

It should be user friendly and user must not search for required buttons or text

boxes.

Interface should be designed in such a manner that user is in charge of the

form.

It should be designed in manner that user memory is always tested

You should be consistent in your approach while designing interface.

· It should be processes based rather than the data structure based.

Entities and Relationships

First type is the simple entity on a page.

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Windows Controls

There are number of controls which are used to take input and display output like

buttons, checkboxes etc. Following are the examples

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Numbers, Dates and Text

Normally text boxes are used for the display of dates

Summary

In today's lecture we have studied the application programs and designing user

interface and forms. We have studied different techniques and practices for the user

interface and form designing. We will discuss an example of form designing in our

next lecture.

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