Human Centric Computing COMP106 Assignment 2

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Human Centric Computing (COMP106) Assignment 2
Proposal 7
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Tasks that the user will perform with the
interface

• Here I am gong to especially concentrate on items
  that are new in my proposed interface.
• As well as the current Information , Search
  For Limit Search To I propose a section for
  the withdrawal of books.
• The withdrawal of books should only be used
  locally.
• The user will have to chose which section they
  choose to view before seeing the sub categories
  of each group.
• There should be a search category for specific
  course titles or modules.

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A section for the withdrawal of books.

• Currently there are three obvious sections to the
  Library site, I intend to include a fourth that
  will enable the user to withdraw a book on their
  own, this would be a feature that would only be
  available from within the libraries.
• To create this feature entirely through direct
  manipulation would be extremely difficult, and
  now everything will be represented by objects, to
  determine which book is being withdrawn a little
  typing will be required, but it can be viewed
  that the typing as a whole can be an individual
  object.
• When the user comes to withdraw a book, they will
  begin typing the name as it appears on the spine,
  and this will shorten the list of books that the
  user cold be trying to withdraw, a good example
  of where this function is used, is in the search
  feature of Microsoft Encarta (see Appendix 1,
  Figure 1).
• I want the actions to be carried out in a simple
  and concise manner, as well as them being as
  close to the intentions of the user as well as
  what the user expect to find from a withdrawal
  system.
• The sequence of steps behind this system will be
  as follows, most of them being automated. After
  the user has chosen the book they wish to
  withdraw from the library, they will enter the
  beginning of the title until they can see the
  title of the book they have in their hands, they
  will click on a withdraw button, this will ask
  the user to swipe their library card, and check
  if the user is allowed to withdraw anymore books,
  or currently has overdue books, if all checks
  prove ok, the different types of loan will be
  displayed on screen, I.e. 3 days 5 days etc, the
  user will choose one, this will be followed by
  the printing of a receipt and amending to the
  book database that this book is on loan to who it
  is on loan to that is the task completed.

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Choosing A Sub-Category

• Currently when the user navigates to the main
  Library page, there are three sections on screen
  with several hyperlinks in each. I plan to change
  this, in the centre of the screen initially
  there will be a news page, news of the day and
  new books, information like this. Then on the
  left hand side there will be four buttons, each
  of which will load a new frame into the centre of
  the page. The four categories will be the
  existing three and an extra for the withdrawal of
  books, discussed in the previous slide.
• The buttons at the side will be of images that
  appropriate images that represent their actions,
  all of this page will be manipulated using
  physical actions, such as pressing buttons of
  clicking the mouse.
• I want the actions to be carried out in a simple
  and concise manner, as well as them being as
  close to the intentions of the user as well as
  what the user expect to find from a withdrawal
  system.
• I can not think of a more direct method of
  performing this process, other than having all
  the information on the screen at the same time
  which can look off-putting and like it is
  encroaching into the users space. For this exact
  reason I will be having things open in frames as
  opposed to new windows.

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A search category for specific course titles or
modules

• This addition will be much smaller and more
  specific than the other proposed of the previous
  slides.
• On the search page I intend to add two features,
  the first being Search by course, so the user can
  search for Medicine , International Law or
  Computer Science and the search engine will
  come up with a list of books that are available
  or recommend for that particular course.
• The second feature is to search by module code,
  for example the user could search for COMP101
  and the search engine would return Java, Java,
  Java Object-Orientated Problem Solving or search
  for LAW101 and the results returned would be
  related to Contract Law
• There are two ways each of these could be
  represented, the first is that every course
  offered by the University of Liverpool could be
  listed, though there are far many course to make
  this an effective method, or each course could be
  added to a search table as discussed in slide 2
  and example of which is show in Appendix 1,
  Figure 1

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Automated functions of new features

• The Withdrawal of Books.
• After the user has chosen the book they wish to
  withdraw from the library, they will enter the
  beginning of the title until they can see the
  title of the book they have in their hands, they
  will click on a withdraw button, this will ask
  the user to swipe their library card, and check
  if the user is allowed to withdraw anymore books,
  or currently has overdue books, if all checks
  prove ok, the different types of loan will be
  displayed on screen, I.e. 3 days 5 days etc, the
  user will choose one, this will be followed by
  the printing of a receipt and amending to the
  book database that this book is on loan to who it
  is on loan to that is the task completed
• Choosing A Sub-Category
• Once the user has sat in front of the machine
  they are using the new catalogue with and has
  decided what they wanting to do, there will be
  four images on the left hand of the screen after
  opening the catalogue, these will clearly state
  what each of them do, all the user has to do it
  click on one of these four images and this will
  load a page into the main frame with all the
  sub-links available from within that particular
  category.

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Automated functions of new featuresContinued

• Choosing A Sub-Category Continued
• After clicking on the link/ image information
  will be sent to the web server requesting the
  appropriate information, this information is then
  automatically sent back to the computer from
  where the request was sent, and the information
  is automatically interpreted by the web-browser
  and the information is displayed, so from the
  user clicking to the information being displayed
  all steps are automated.
• A search category for specific course titles or
  modules.
• While the user is typing in the first few letters
  of the course title or module code, the embedded
  script will already be reducing the number of
  items which could be included within the search.
  Once the user has entered the text they are going
  to search for, the search engine behind the page
  will look through a database for all items that
  correspond to the search text. All this will be
  done automatically behind the scenes without the
  user knowing.

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Metaphor Design
First of all the most important thing to point
out is that the most appropriate metaphor for
this system is the existing system, the item
which best describes this system, is the system
which it is built upon. In interface design a
metaphor is an item, phrase or figure of speech
which could compare the new system to an existing
object that could make the interface simpler to
use by increasing its familiarity. An object
which I think is fundamentally identical in
operation to this system is the menu system
involved with a DVD video, there are initially
few options and upon opening each of these there
are more options to be investigated. Each
sub-menu resembles the last therefore as well as
being familiar as it has things in common with a
DVD menu system as the user uses the system more
and more, they become more familiar with it
because is has a consistent design.
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Metaphor Design Withdrawing A Book
For each of the new tasks that I documented that
I will implement in the new interface, I have
designed and thought of a metaphor. For the
withdrawal of books from this online
catalogue. This can be compared to the actual
action of withdrawing a book from a library.
First you must find which book it is you are
wanting to take out, you take this along with
your library card to the check-out desk, your
card will be checked for overdue books or if you
limit has been reached,. Then the loan amount due
will be checked, and the load issued, books
stamped, task completed. In the online system the
procedure of steps will be extremely close to
that of the physical method. The user will need
to decide on which book they are withdrawing.
Once the user has searched the system for the
particular book they will click on a withdraw
button, this will ask the user to swipe their
library card, and check if the user is allowed to
withdraw anymore books, or currently has overdue
books, if all checks prove ok, the different
types of loan will be displayed on screen, I.e. 3
days 5 days etc, the user will choose one, this
will be followed by the printing of a receipt as
opposed to stamping the books. This will be the
task completed.
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Metaphor Design Choosing A Sub-Category
For the choosing of a sub-category. For this
action lots of metaphors spring to mind. The
metaphor of DVD menu system is very applicable
here. The main page having four links to
categories which all contain many
sub-categories. I think a metaphor design that is
even more simple and appropriate for this system
is that of a filing cabinet. One object with four
sub containers each of which have many items
within them. Because the interface will be
designed in this way, the user can relate to it
and use experience from the real world to
understand and to use this model.
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Metaphor Design New Specific Searches
For a search category for specific course titles
or modules. For this new feature, designing a
specific metaphor is quite a lot more difficult,
that you would first imagine, this search
feature, on a basic level is the same as any
other function created, so you could say that a
metaphor for this new feature is the existing
search feature or even a web based search engine
such as the popular Google. A simulated example
of what this part of the system is doing, is when
you go to a library there are books which
reference all the books and tell you where to
find what you are looking for, so the proposed
system, is similar to that just referencing items
differently. The idea of this system could be
metaphorically compared to a yellow pages, as
opposed to a phone book. A phone book will
contain all the businesses in the area sorted and
arranged by name, but a yellow pages will also
contain the same information but arranged
differently items would be arranged by the type
of business or trade.
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Model Mapping
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Appendix 1
Figure 1