system analysis and design

1. CS 503
SYSTEM ANALYSIS AND DESIGN:
REPORTS DESIGN

2. WHAT IS A REPORT?
• A business document that contains only predefined data
• Passive document for reading or viewing data
• Typically contains data from many database records or transactions
• Can either be output as a printed document or on a display monitor
(electronic)

3. TYPES OF REPORTS
EXTERNAL REPORTS
• Include statements, notices, and other documents that are produced for
people outside the organization.
• Because they are official business documents for an outside audience,
they need to be produced with the highest-quality graphics and color.
• Examples include monthly bank statements, late notices, order
confirmation and packing slips, and legal documents.
INTERNAL REPORTS
• For use only within the organization.

4. TYPES OF INTERNAL REPORTS
■ DETAILED REPORTS
These contain specific information on business transactions — for example, a list of all overdue
accounts, with each line of the report presenting information about a particular account. A credit
manager could use this report to research overdue accounts and determine actions to collect
past-due amounts.
■ SUMMARY REPORTS
These are often used to recap periodic activity. An example of this is a daily or weekly summary
of all sales transactions, with a total dollar amount of sales. Managers often use this type of
report to track departmental or division performance.
■ EXCEPTION REPORTS
These provide details or summary information about transactions or operating results that fall
outside of a predefined normal range of values. When business is progressing normally, no
report is needed. For example, a manufacturing organization might produce a report that lists
parts that fail quality control tests more than 0.2 percent of the time.
■ EXECUTIVE REPORTS
These are used by high-level managers to assess overall organizational health and
performance. They thus contain summary information from activities within the company. They
might also show comparative performance with industry-wide averages. Using these reports,
executives can assess the competitive strengths or weaknesses of their companies.

5. GENERAL DESIGN GUIDELINES
• User-focused activity
• Follow prototyping approach
- Initial prototype is designed from requirements
- Paper vs. Electronic output
- Assess usability
- User review prototype design and either accepts the design or requests
changes
- If changes are requested, the construction-evaluation-refinement cycle is
repeated until the design is accept.
• Requirements determination
- Who will use?
- What is the purpose?
- When is it needed or used?
- Where is it needed or used?
- How many people will use it?

6. Meaningful titles
Clear, specific, version information, current date
Meaningful information
Include only necessary information with no modifications needed
Balanced layout
Adequate spacing, margins and clear labels
GENERAL DESIGN GUIDELINES

7. GENERAL FORMATTING GUIDELINES
• HIGHLIGHTING
- Use sparingly to draw user to or away from certain information
- Methods should be consistently selected and used based upon level of
importance of emphasized information.
- Draw attention to keywords, high-priority messages, unusual data values
Methods for Highlighting
• Intensity Difference
• Size differences
• Font differences
• Reverse video
• Boxing
• Underlining
• All capital letters
• Offset positions of
nonstandard information

8. • USE OF COLORS
Benefits of using color
- Soothes or strikes the eye
- accents and uninteresting display
- facilitate subtle discrimination in complex displays
- emphasizes the logical organization of information
- draws attention to warnings
- evokes more emotional reactions
Problems using color
- Color pairings may wash out or cause problems for some users
- Resolution may degrade with different displays
- Color fidelity may degrade in different displays
- Printing or conversion to other media ma not easily translate
GENERAL FORMATTING GUIDELINES

9. Tips for Color Combinations
1. Use color consistently throughout a document
2. Use monochromatic colors to indicate intensity (colors
of the same hue but with different tints, tones and
shades)
3. Emphasize company or organization colors
4. Avoid bright colors that overwhelm the viewer
5. Use logical and readable combinations.

10. DISPLAYING TEXT
- Display text in mixed upper and lower case and use conventional punctuation
- Use double spacing if space permits. otherwise, place a blank line between
paragraphs.
- Left-justify text and leave a ragged right margin
- Do not hyphenate words between lines
- Use abbreviations and acronyms only when they are widely understood by users
and are significantly shorter than the full text.
- Separate key sections with subheads
GENERAL FORMATTING GUIDELINES

11. Poor text formatting
GENERAL FORMATTING GUIDELINES

12. Proper text formatting
GENERAL FORMATTING GUIDELINES

13. SERIF AND SANS SERIF FONTS
Times New Roman serif font.
Arial sans serif font.
Traditionally:
- Serif fonts makes words more readable
- Sans serif fonts makes individual letters more legible
Currently:
Tone and Mood - for serious documents, choose classic font with clean lines such
as Garamond
Branding and logos - If a company report includes a standard log, don't use exact
font used in the logo and choose one that goes well visually with
the logo or other elements
GENERAL FORMATTING GUIDELINES

14. Formatting Columns, Rows and Text
- Sort in meaningful order
- Place a blank line between every five rows in long columns
- Similar information displayed in multiple columns should be sorted vertically
- columns should have at least two spaces between them
- Allow white space on printed reports for user to write notes
- Use a single typeface, except for emphasis
- Use same family of typefaces within and across displays and reports
- Avoid overly fancy fonts
Formatting Numeric, Textual And Alphanumeric Data
- Right-justify numeric data and align columns by decimal points or other delimiter.
- Left-justify textual data. Use short line length, usually 30 to 40 characters per line
- Break long sequences of alphanumeric data into small groups of three to four
characters each
DESIGNING TABLES AND LISTS
Labels
- All columns and rows should have meaningful labels
- Labels should be separated from other information by using highlighting
- Re-display labels when the data extend beyond a single screen or page

15. DESIGNING TABLES AND LISTS

16. DESIGNING TABLES AND LISTS

17. DESIGNING TABLES AND LISTS

18. ADDING CHARTS
Charts give a pictorial summary information of a report to deliver meaningful
interpretation of data and other relevant information or trends.
Highlight key dataUse simple effects for clarity

19. TABLES VS. GRAPHS
Use tables for reading individual data values
Use graphs for:
• Providing quick summary
• Displaying trends over time
• Comparing points and patterns of variables
• Forecasting activity
• Simple reporting of vast quantities of information

20. LAYOUT
Margins - help focus reader on
document's contents and make it
readable.
Standard report on letter size
paper 1" margins on all sides
Shrink margin to fit elements in a page
Electronic reports can have narrower
horizontal margins
Bound reports must have adequate inside
margin space to avoid obscuring
elements of report.

21. Inventory Report

22. Billing statement
Order report
Balance report

23. ASSESSING USABILITY
• Overall evaluation of how a system performs in supporting a particular user for a
particular task
3 characteristics :
Speed, Accuracy, Satisfaction
Success factors
Consistency:
Design elements all appear in the same place on all forms and reports
Context:
users, tasks, environment
MEASURES OF USABILITY
Considerations:
* Time to learn
* Speed of performance
* Rate of errors
* Retention overtime
* Subjective satisfaction