I/O Screens

417 LAB ACTIVITY 9: Designing Screens and Reports and entering them into System Architect

WHY:

This activity is designed to help you learn how to design input and output screens. To do this you must choose appropriate formats, methods and media for computer inputs and outputs and apply human factors and internal controls to those inputs and outputs. You will be designing an input and output screen in the lab this week and will do more of them as you develop milestone 9. This milestone will mark the beginning design for your project prototype.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

Discover how to prepare a screen design for an input data flow and enter it using System Architect.
Discover how to enter data into your input screen.
Discover how to prepare a report screen.

PERFORMANCE CRITERIA:

Ability to use the skills learned in this lab to successfully complete your project.

RESOURCES:

Chapters 12 and 13 in Systems Analysis and Design Methods
Activities 18 and 19.
60 minutes

PLAN:

Choose roles if you have not already done so.
Choose one of the source documents from your project and design a GUI input screen to capture the data from that source document on paper. Be sure to make wise choices among the GUI choices: text box, radio buttons, check box, list box, combo box, and drop down list. (Systems Architect does not support spinners). Make sure there is enough help information on the screen to make it user friendly.
Open a New Diagram and choose the Graphics Screen option. This is only available on computers 2-14 and 21. A Legend box will appear. All GUI structures must come inside this box. Anything outside the box will not be visible when you demonstrate your final project. You can select items from the draw menu or move them from the tool box. Note that when you place a GUI image in the legend you will be asked for its name. This is the text that will be displayed next to the image (for buttons) or above the image (for boxes). I recommend that you experiment with the images you plan to use on a test screen before building your final screen. The help screens under Screen Painter may be helpful. To test how your screen will behave, choose Test Mode from the second column under Draw. To return to the edit mode, choose Test Mode again. You can enter sample data in list boxes and combo boxes by double clicking on the control when in test mode. System Architect calls text boxes Edit boxes. Anything you enter or click while in test mode is retained for the next time you view the screen in test mode.
Design one of the reports from your project. If it simply reports information and requires no user interaction you do not need to use a graphics screen. If you do use a graphics screen, I recommend that you use Edit boxes for each section of your report. That way, you can populate it with data while in test mode, and the data will be retained the next time you look at that screen in test mode. System Architect has no facility for taking the data you entered on an input screen and transferring it automatically to a report.