Software for Collecting
|
|
Device Drivers
Device drivers are small pieces of software that contain instructions on how the computer should use and communicate with any connected devices. Each hardware device usually comes with its own device driver specifically designed for interfacing with it. Device drivers are the only way computers, software and external devices can communicate with each other. An example of this is a printer driver. The printer driver allows the computer to send documents to the printer in the correct way so the printer knows how to print them.
Device drivers are small pieces of software that contain instructions on how the computer should use and communicate with any connected devices. Each hardware device usually comes with its own device driver specifically designed for interfacing with it. Device drivers are the only way computers, software and external devices can communicate with each other. An example of this is a printer driver. The printer driver allows the computer to send documents to the printer in the correct way so the printer knows how to print them.
Data Validation
Data validation is the process of checking to see if data entered makes sense. Methods of doing this are by using self-validating data entry components, restricting the types of data that can be entered or restricting the data that can be entered to only a few choices. An example of data validation is checking to see if a phone number only contains digits and is the correct length. |
User Interface Design
The user interface is the way the user can interact with a piece of software and input or view data. It guides the user through the collection process so data can be collected accurately and efficiently. To ensure this there are numerous design factors that need to be taken into consideration.
The user interface needs to be designed to suit the user and help them achieve their goals. This means that if software is likely to be used by unskilled users, the user interface needs to be easy to learn and use.
The interface also needs to be consistent in its functionality and design. The user expects that certain aspects of the software, such as the file menu, are placed in similar locations and operate in similar ways. Consistency within software allows the users to utilise existing skills when learning and using new software applications.
Any on-screen components need to be readable as well as organised. This involves making any text easily readable, the grouping of like components and including blank areas to imply grouping of components and reduce cluttering. The use of images in the place of text labels should only be used when the image clearly depicts what the component does. E.g. the cut function is represented by a pair of scissors.
Software applications should also clearly show to the user what functions are available in the program. This helps users to explore the user interface which is how most people learn new applications. Functions that are not currently available to the user should not be hidden but rather made obvious that it is not available.
Any action made by a user should cause some kind of feedback within the user interface. This tells the user that either something is occurring or has occurred. If this does not occur, the user may either feel insecure of reinitiate the previous task in belief that nothing happened. An example of feedback is the mouse pointer changing when the computer is busy performing a long task.
A crucial component in many programs is the ability to reverse potentially harmful tasks. This could be in the form of a warning before making a permanent change or the ability to undo the user’s actions. This gives the user a way out of doing something they might not want to do.
The user interface is the way the user can interact with a piece of software and input or view data. It guides the user through the collection process so data can be collected accurately and efficiently. To ensure this there are numerous design factors that need to be taken into consideration.
The user interface needs to be designed to suit the user and help them achieve their goals. This means that if software is likely to be used by unskilled users, the user interface needs to be easy to learn and use.
The interface also needs to be consistent in its functionality and design. The user expects that certain aspects of the software, such as the file menu, are placed in similar locations and operate in similar ways. Consistency within software allows the users to utilise existing skills when learning and using new software applications.
Any on-screen components need to be readable as well as organised. This involves making any text easily readable, the grouping of like components and including blank areas to imply grouping of components and reduce cluttering. The use of images in the place of text labels should only be used when the image clearly depicts what the component does. E.g. the cut function is represented by a pair of scissors.
Software applications should also clearly show to the user what functions are available in the program. This helps users to explore the user interface which is how most people learn new applications. Functions that are not currently available to the user should not be hidden but rather made obvious that it is not available.
Any action made by a user should cause some kind of feedback within the user interface. This tells the user that either something is occurring or has occurred. If this does not occur, the user may either feel insecure of reinitiate the previous task in belief that nothing happened. An example of feedback is the mouse pointer changing when the computer is busy performing a long task.
A crucial component in many programs is the ability to reverse potentially harmful tasks. This could be in the form of a warning before making a permanent change or the ability to undo the user’s actions. This gives the user a way out of doing something they might not want to do.
Collection via Webpages
On webpages, data collection is accomplished through the use of online forms. These forms operate in largely the same way as non-online forms except for the time it takes for these pages to validate data against data already contained on the web server. This is because the collected data needs to be sent to the server for processing before a result is sent back; increasing the time it takes to validate this data. However, this process does not occur for simple data validation, such as checking if a valid date was entered, as it can easily be performed by the web browser using tools such as JavaScript. Online forms also have the ability to be custom generated to target each user. This is done with technologies such as PHP (Hypertext Pre-Processor), PERL (Practical Extraction and Report Language) and ASP (Active Server Pages) running on the host server to generate these pages before sending them to the user. In this way online forms can display and collect specific data to and from a specific user interactively. |
Importing data
Importing data normally involves altering the organisation of data to suit the needs of the destination software application. This could be resizing a photograph for use in a webpage or converting the format of a text document so it can be used by a word processor.
Importing data normally involves altering the organisation of data to suit the needs of the destination software application. This could be resizing a photograph for use in a webpage or converting the format of a text document so it can be used by a word processor.