IMS1002 /CSE1205
Information Systems 2
Lecture 8
Designing Forms and
Reports
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Designing Forms and Reports
• At the end of this lecture you should have some
understanding of
– what are forms and reports
– what are the design guidelines for forms and reports
– how to effectively display text, tables, lists and charts
– how to assess the usability of an interface
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Forms and Reports
• Form and report design are key ingredients for
successful information systems - especially for
users
• Each input data flow to a process will be
associated with a form
• Each output data flow from a process will be
associated with either a form or a report
• Forms and reports cab be paper-based or
screen-based
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Forms and Reports
• FORM is a business document containing some
predefined data and also some areas for other data to be
filled in
– typically based on one database record
– turnaround document is produced by a system and then
returned with input data
• REPORT is a business document that contains only
predefined data - a passive document for reading
– typically contains data from many different database records
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Designing Forms and Reports
• 1. Collect initial requirements
–
–
–
–
–
who will use the form or report
what is its purpose
when is it needed or used
where does it need to be delivered
how many people need to use it
• 2. Construct initial prototype
• 3. Users review and evaluate prototype
– Iterate
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Design Specifications
• Narrative overview
– Form name, users, task, system, environment
• Sample design
• Testing and usability assessment
– user ratings on perceptions of usability
dimensions - consistency, sufficiency,
accuracy, etc
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Formatting Forms and Reports
• General guidelines:
– Meaningful titles
> clear and specific, revision-no, date
– Meaningful information
> needed and useable information
– Balanced layout
> spacing, margins, balanced and clearly labelled
– Easy navigation
> easy forward/backward moves, current position
clear
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Poor Form Design
Vague
Title
TEACHING RESOURCE INFORMATION
Difficult to read,
Information
Packed tightly
BORROWER NUMBER
BORROWER NAME
LOAN NUMBER
DUE DATE
ITEM CODE
ITEM AVAILABILITY
REQUIRED ITEM
ITEM CODE
ITEM AVAILABILITY
REQUIRED ITEM
ITEM CODE
ITEM AVAILABILITY
REQUIRED ITEM
CONFIRMED?
7712255
DR. JIM SMITH
12753
30-5-98
KS H1
YES
YES
NO
No use of
different
intensity, fonts
etc.
No navigation
information
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Good Form Design
Clear
Title
Easy to read,
Clear balanced
layout
Intensity
differences,
boxing, font
sizes
Clear
navigation
information
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Highlighting Information
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Blinking and audible tones
Colour, intensity, size and font differences
Reverse video
Boxing
Underlining
Capital letters
Offsetting
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Colour vs No Colour
• Benefits of colour
– strikes the eye, draws attention to warnings
– accents an uninteresting display
– facilitates discrimination
• Problems with colour
– colour blindness
– resolution may degrade
– printing or conversion to other media may not
easily translate
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Displaying Text
• Case
– display text in mixed upper and lower case
• Spacing
– double spacing if possible, leave line between paragraphs
• Justification
– left justify with ragged right margin
• Hyphenation
– do not hyphenate words between lines
• Abbreviations
– use only when widely understood
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Poor Text Design
Vague
title
Fixed,
upper
case text
HELP SCREEN H2356
ADD A FORM WITHIN A REPORT
IN THE DATABASE WINDOW, CLICK THE FORM THAT IS BOUND
TO THE TABLE ON THE MANY SIDE OF THE ONT TO MANY
RELATIONSHIP AND HOLD DOWN THE MOUSE BUTTON.
DRAG THE FORM INSIDE THE MAIN FORM, AND THEN RELEASE
THE MOUSE BUTTON.
MICROSOFT ACCESS INSERTS THE SECOND FORM AS A
SUBFORM WITHIN THE MAIN FORM.
IF YOU NEED TO YOU CAN PRESS F1 T ORETURN TO THE MAIN
MENU, F2 TO GO TO THE PREVIOIS CARD AND F3 TO GO TO THE
NEXT CARD.
Single
spacing
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Good Text Design
Clear
title
Spacing
between
sections
Mixed
case
Clear
navigation
information
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Designing Tables and Lists
• Use meaningful labels
– for all rows and columns; relabel after change of page
• Formatting columns, rows and text
– sort in meaningful order
– place blank row after every 5 lines in long columns
– be consistent with typefaces and fonts
• Formatting numeric, textual and alphanumeric data
– right justify numeric data, left justify textual data
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Good Table Design
Clear separate
column labels
Numeric data
Right justified
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Formatting Information to Avoid Bias
• Sources of bias to avoid include
– providing information that does not match the
user’s task
– providing charts with too many items
– using columns and highlights improperly
– providing charts that use improper scaling
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Bias in Scales of Graphs
Sales
400
350
300
Quarter
First
Second
Third
Fourth
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Assessing Usability
• Usability typically refers to
– speed- efficient completion of task
– accuracy - output provides what is
expected
– satisfaction - output is liked
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General Design Guidelines for Usability
•
•
•
•
Consistency - of operation
Efficiency - related to user task
Ease - output self explanatory
Format - consistent format between entry
and display
• Flexibility - must be convenient to user
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Contextual Issues
• User
– experience, skills, motivation, education, personality
• Task
– time pressures, costs of errors, work duration (fatigue)
• Systems
– platform will influence interaction styles and devices
• Environment
– social issues and role should be considered
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Measures of Usability
•
•
•
•
•
Time to learn
Speed of performance
Rate of errors
Retention over time
Subjective satisfaction
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Collection of Usability data
• Usability data can be collected by
– observation
– interviews
– keystroke capturing
– questionnaires
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References
Hoffer, J.A., George, J.F. and Valacich, (2005) 4th
edn., Modern Systems Analysis and Design,
Benjamin-Cummings, MA USA.
Chapter 11 & 12
Whitten, J.L. & Bentley, L.D. and Dittman, K.C.,
(2001) 5th edn., Systems Analysis and Design
Methods, McGraw-Hill Irwin, Burr Ridge, Illinois
Chapter 13,14 & 15
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