IELM 231: IT for Logistics and Manufacturing

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IELM 231 IT for Logistics and Manufacturing
Course Agenda
Introduction
IT applications design Human-Computer Interface
Fundamental IT tools sorting, searching
The Client-Server architecture, Interacting
applications
IT in logistics, Case study 1 web-based auctions
How auctions work Web issues session
tracking Web issues secure communications Web
issues cash transactions
IT in logistics, Case study 2 web-search
Search robots Data processing, Data
storage/retrieval (DB, indexes) Data
presentation page ranking techniques
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Examples of Industrial IT applications
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Demand
forecasting (uses statistics) Inventory tracking
(uses Database) Materials requirement
planning Operations scheduling Accounting Perso
nnel data management (employees, salary/benefits,
leave data, ..) Communications Asynchronous
(email, messaging) Synchronous (ICQ, VoIP,
) Dissemination (Internet, Intranet,
Web-search, ) eCommerce Auctions, Online
retail, Banking, Services,
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Basics of IT applications
Stand-alone application computer program input
? do something ? output Complex applications
Many interacting computer programs
Fundamental component IT applications take
inputs (from sensors, humans) Most IT
applications provide outputs (to actuators,
humans)
? A Good design of the User-Computer Interface
is important !
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Human Computer Interface (HCI) Design
A Good design of the User-Computer Interface is
important !
Principal component analysis time-motion
study factor analysis
How do we know what is a good HCI ?
Usability Evaluation
Design ? Test with real/typical users ?
Analyze time for operation, subjective feedback,
? Guidelines for what is good and
rules to identify what is bad
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HCI Design Nielsens heuristics.
1. Visible System Status - For any activity
expected to take over 3-5sec, give status
feedback to user
IE download Better feedback
MS Windows search No estimate of time
- For each action, system should respond in some
way e.g. in a web form, clicking a submit button
? button changes color, or a clicking sound is
made One way to do so is to use DHTML in forms
instead of HTML
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HCI Design Nielsens heuristics..
2. Messages must match real world, not program
objects
Example ATM machine message when trying to
withdraw some money
Better Tells user what they can do Blocks out
restricted actions
Poor User does not care what is X.25 What is the
Local limit ?
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HCI Design Nielsens heuristics
3. User control and freedom - For choice made
by error, provide a way back e.g. undo, redo,
or a method to re-start e.g. Home button on
website
undo, redo
link to home
where you are
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HCI Design Nielsens heuristics.
4. Use Consistent (or better, Standard)
terminology and icons - Do not use multiple
words/names for same function in different
places - Consistent terminology in prompts,
menus, and user-guides - Use icons/images
without ambiguous meanings - Consistent color,
layout, capitalization, and fonts throughout the
application
US road signs Which one is for curvy road ahead?
MS Internet explorer Search in page, or Print
Preview?
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HCI Design Nielsens heuristics..
5. Eliminate potential errors Avoid possibility
for user to make errors
No calendar !
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HCI Design Nielsens heuristics
6. Recognition is better than recall - show
the choices made by user at an earlier stage,
instead of having to remember earlier
actions
Example NikeID
Previous choices
What remains?
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HCI Design Nielsens heuristics.
7. Flexibility and efficient use For novice
users, provide easy (though longer)
interactions), For advanced/frequent users,
provide short-cut, special keys, macros,
Example Special keys
Example shortcut
ALTe
ALTet
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HCI Design Nielsens heuristics..
8. Help the user to recognize, diagnose, and
recover from error Error messages should be
expressed in plain language (no codes), precisely
indicate the problem, and constructively suggest
a solution.
Poor design examples
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HCI Design Nielsens heuristics
9. Help and Documentation - Must provide
help/manual/user-guide - Language and format of
User-guide should use simple, standard terminology
MS Help (Good design) - standardized format
provides search book-metaphor use of links
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HCI Design Nielsens heuristics
10. Aesthetics and minimalist design - Do not
put too much, irrelevant information in Dialog
boxes - Use standard and commonly accepted
controls (sliders, buttons etc.) - Select
fonts/sizes that are suited for screen display to
maximize readability
Fonts designed for web use (readable on-screen in
large/small font size)
This is an example of Verdana and smaller This
is an example of Georgia Others Arial, Comic
Sans MS, Adobe Minion web (Internet Explorer
default)
How to ensure your font is used on client?
Cascading Style Sheets (XML)
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Gerhardt-Powals Heuristics.
1. Automate unwanted workload - Eliminate mental
calculations, estimations, and unnecessary
thinking
Example Travel agent website Destination
selection Selection list Departure date -
allows proper dates only - linked to a calendar
tool
image source www.cxholidays.com
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Gerhardt-Powals Heuristics..
2. Reduce uncertainty by clear and obvious
display of data
Better design
Poor design
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Gerhardt-Powals Heuristics
3. Reduce cognitive load by combining lower-level
data into a higher-level summation
4. Group data in consistently meaningful ways to
decrease search time
Example setting options in Powerpoint
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Gerhardt-Powals Heuristics.
5. Use names that are conceptually related to
function - Terminology should be easy to
recall/recognize - Terminology should be
context dependent
Example Tool (or functions) provided by Adobe
Photoshop
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Gerhardt-Powals Heuristics..
6. Present data in a way to ease processing
time - do not require user to perform
combinations, addition, subtraction etc. - use
colors/graphical outputs for easy
visualization Special caution design to
accommodate color-blind users
Colors of rainbow
Dont use only color to present choices Use
combination of Color, Images (icons), Words
How the colors of rainbow appear to people with
different types of color-blindness
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Gerhardt-Powals Heuristics
7. Include only the information a user needs at a
given time - Do not distract user with
non-essential data
Bad design !!
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Summary
What you have learnt - Success/Failure of IT
systems may depend on User-Interface they
provide - Principles of good user-interface
design - How to identify poor interface
design - How to to improve poor designs by
application of Nielsen or Gerhardt-Powals
heuristics
Useful technologies in design of good
GUIs Active programming languages like VB,
VC, Javascript Passive HTML, XML, DHTML,
Cascading Style Sheets,
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References and Further Reading
This book is available online via the
library Jeff Johnson, Web bloopers 60 common
web design mistakes, Academic Press
Web sources 1. Bruce Tognazzinis Principles of
interactive design 2. NASA Usability web-site
(great resource!) 3. Bonnie Skaalids
guidelines 4. Discussion of Nielsen and
Gerhardt-Powals heuristics in HFI
Next Common tools used in applications sort,
search