Flaws in the Design of the Report of Employees

Chapter 8

• 3. Imagine the worst possible reports from a system. What is wrong with them? Information has errors and is inconsistent from page to page and from report to report. The layout is difficult to read and understand, and the reports are inflexible, prohibiting the user from changing the information to the users liking. List as many problems as you can. What are the consequences of such reports? Unusual data values or an unavailable device, nonstandard use of GUI widget, bleeding-edge technology, anything that looks like advertising, scrolling text and looping animators, nonstandard link colors, outdated information, slow download times, fixed-formatted text, Displaying long lists as long pages, complex URLs, hidden links, buttons that provide no click feedback, Links that don’t provide enough information and lack of navigation support. Consequences would be unusable reports. What could go wrong as a result? It could not meet the needs of the business. How does the prototyping process help guard against each problem? It allows the user to review the prototype design and to either accept the design or request changes and this method is repeated until the design is accepted. • 4. Given the guidelines presented in this chapter, identify flaws in the design of the Report of Employees shown below. What assumptions about users and tasks did you make in order to assess this design? Redesign this report to correct these flaws. The • flaws in this design do not have clear and specific titles other than EM ID and Name and title. No name of the facility, date or page number. This design is not clear Employee Name, Title 0124543 John Smith, VP Marketing
2345645 Jared Wright, Project Manager
2342456 Jennifer Chang, Systems Analyst
4564234 Mark Walters, Software Engineer
7875468 Nick Shelley, BI Analyst
4446789 Kim Eagar, HR Manager
4678899 Emily Graham, Receptionist

Pine Valley Furniture Page: 1 of 1 Employee Reference Date: 9-Aug-14

Title Name Employer _ ID HR Manager Kim Eagar 4446789 VP Marketing John Smith 0124543 Project Manager Jared Wright 2345645 Systems Analyst Jennifer Chang 2342456 Software Engineer Mark Walters 4564234 BI Analyst Nick Shelley 7875468 Network Operations Specialist Matt Hoffman 4452378 Receptionist Emily Graham 4678899

Chapter 9

3. Transfer the E-R diagram of Figure 9-21 into a set of 3NF relations.

The 3NF relations are:

VENDOR (Vendor _ ID, Address)
PRICE QUOTE (Vendor ID, Item Number, Quote _ Quantity, Price) PART (Item No, Description) PART RECEIPT (Order No, Vendor ID, Item Number, Quote Quantity, Date, Order_Quantity)