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Before designing your form, you should spend time planning. The first thing to do is find out what information needs to be collected and how. You can use existing paper forms that are used to currently collect the data, or screen shots of the existing Information System. With this information, you can begin initial drawings of a flowchart. You can use a commercial application like Visio (now owned by Microsoft) or Actrix (Autodesk); opensource solutions like Dia in Linux or even the Drawing shapes tools in MS Word. The old standby of paper and pencil works just as well. The resulting diagram is used to communicate the flow of information into and out of the system. Go over this diagram with your end user to be certain that you come to consensus as to what you are to collect and how it gets collected. Of course, you might be able to track (or stop tracking) information because of the nature of the new system. For example, if the paper form would have requested name, address and phone, it is quite likely that a computer based system would just need the phone to be able to access the account records and give you the name and address. Once you have determined what features you can take out, and what you can add in, go ahead and create your form. Letting users input data through your prototype form will be a great chance to get more suggestions as to how to tweak the form. Remember that the end users are the ones that will primarily accessing the form, so the feedback you get from them is of great value. No questions for homework, please finish reading the chapter regarding forms. |