CSE1IS Information Systems Week 9 Lecture 1 Output Design

S.C.&R. Chapter 6: pp. 246-260

1. Types of Output

Printer, screen, audio, DVD or CD, email, faxes and web pages. Other specialized forms of output are: POS terminal receipts, ATM receipts, digitized photos, visual displays on appliances.

Printed and screen output. We may be interested in

• hard copy (i.e. printed or paper reports)
• soft copy (a `report' that is displayed on a screen)

2. Types of reporting:

Report types can categorised as follows:

by content

detail reports (Figure 6-4 and Figure 6-5)

Shows one or more detail lines per record processed

exception reports (Figure 6-6)

Shows data (i.e. records) that only meets an 'exceptional'  condition i.e. only selected records are shown. These reports could be produced irregularly

summary reports (Figure 6-7)

No detail is shown, but only summary information is provided.

by destination

Internal Reports

Reports of this type may only require basic stationary and could be of draft quality.

External Reports

Reports of this type may require pre-printed stationary. In many cases they reflect the `image' of an organization and will need to be designed accordingly. Some examples include mailing labels, invoices, product listings etc.

Reports may be produced when requested (demand reporting).
Reports may also be produced at regular intervals - daily, weekly etc.
This is normally referred to as periodic reporting.

3. Controls used on reports:

Basically a subset of the controls used in screen design:

• labels and text boxes (text boxes can be set to grow vertically downwards for records with large amounts of data)
• lines and rectangles
• images
• tables
• check boxes(?) - one method of displaying yes/no

4. Report design:

Design considerations for report design (S.C.&R. pp. 251-259)

1. Use COBOL or BASIC format specifications
   For example
   • XXXXXXXXXXX  or X(11) for  an 11 character field
   • Z9.99 for a two decimal place number with  leading zeroes suppressed.
2. Use page header lines with page numbers and dates (see Figures 6-4, 6-5, 6-6 and 6-7)
3. Use column heading lines (see Figures 6-4 to 6-8)
4. Use column heading alignment. There are several options (see Figure 6-9)
5. Use spaces between columns (see Figures 6-4 to 6-9)
6. Order data items logically (left to right)
7. Use report/page footers where applicable
8. Remove unnecessary or redundant information  (see Figures 6-4 and 6-10)
9. Use control breaks (grouping) to provide subheadings and subtotals (see below)

Note that stationary can vary in width (80 to 140 columns), thus the amount of detail to be displayed will be affected by the stationary size

See the following for examples of report types

     Figure 6.10  ---- detail report with control breaks

     Figure 6.6  ---- an exception report

     Figure 6.7  ---- a summary report

5. Designing Output to the screen:

Main difference to printed reports:

You can only see a small part of the report at any time

• need to add buttons for navigation through the report
  • reports specifically designed for the screen should avoid scrolling
• plus a 'Print' option, that prints the report to the printer but without the extra navigation buttons

There basically two different display environments

• Text display
• Graphical display

Generally:

• There is less ’space’ available than there is for hard copy reporting, but many of the guidelines above still apply.
• Some texts suggest that there should be up to 80% `white' space
  i.e. only 20% of the available display area should be used for data, and rest should be blank.
• The big danger in the design of screen output, is that it is crowded and difficult to interpret.

6. Grouping (Control Breaks) in a report:

The following 3 reports are basically equivalent:

Report#1: Flat report in columnar format is crowded, contains duplication etc.

Date: 14/08/01 Page: 1  THE RACER'S WAREHOUSE WEEKLY PAYROLL REPORT  DEPT LOCATION EMPLOYEE DATE OF PAY WEEKLY NUMBER NAME BIRTH RATE HOURS PAY Top Fuel Calder Park REE1 Reed, Jim 07/19/64 8.25 40.0 330.00 Top Fuel Calder Park DIF1 DiFillipo, Darren 09/30/66 6.75 40.0 270.00 Top Fuel Calder Park REE2 Reed, Steve 01/18/65 6.00 35.0 210.00 Top Fuel Calder Park SPL1 Splatt, Rachel 08/08/71 9.00 10.0 90.00 Top Fuel Calder Park KIR1 Kirby, Robin 10/03/58 7.50 40.0 300.00 Funny Car Willowbank DOB4 Dosbon, Wayne 07/19/64 9.10 30.0 273.00 Funny Car Willowbank RUS3 Russo, Peter 04/23/64 11.00 20.0 220.00 Funny Car Willowbank DEN5 Densham, Gary 04/16/60 8.60 30.0 258.00

Report#2 with suppressed duplication on DEPT and LOCATION columns, plus subtotals:

Date: 14-Sep-2006 Page: 1  THE RACERS WAREHOUSE WEEKLY PAYROLL REPORT  DEPT LOCATION EMPLOYEE DATE OF PAY WEEKLY NUMBER NAME BIRTH RATE HOURS PAY Top Fuel Calder Park REE1 Reed, Jim 07/19/64 8.25 40.0 330.00 DIF1 DiFillipo, Darren 09/30/66 6.75 40.0 270.00 REE2 Reed, Steve 01/18/65 6.00 35.0 210.00 SPL1 Splatt, Rachel 08/08/71 9.00 10.0 90.00 KIR1 Kirby, Robin 10/03/58 7.50 40.0 300.00 ========  Total: $1200.00  ========  Funny Car Willowbank DOB4 Dobson, Wayne 07/19/64 9.10 30.0 273.00 RUS3 Russo, Peter 04/23/64 11.00 20.0 220.00 DEN5 Densham, Gary 04/16/60 8.60 30.0 258.00 ========  $751.00  ========

Report#3 using report grouping, subheadings and subtotals:

Date: 14-Sep-2006 Page: 1  THE RACERS WAREHOUSE WEEKLY PAYROLL REPORT  Department : Top Fuel  Location : Calder Park  EMPLOYEE DATE OF PAY WEEKLY NUMBER NAME BIRTH RATE HOURS PAY REE1 Reed, Jim 07/19/64 8.25 40.0 330.00 DIF1 DiFillipo, Darren 09/30/66 6.75 40.0 270.00 REE2 Reed, Steve 01/18/65 6.00 35.0 210.00 SPL1 Splatt, Rachel 08/08/71 9.00 10.0 90.00 KIR1 Kirby, Robin 10/03/58 7.50 40.0 300.00 ==============  165.0 $1200.00  ==============  Department : Funny Car  Location : Willowbank  EMPLOYEE DATE OF PAY WEEKLY NUMBER NAME BIRTH RATE HOURS PAY DOB4 Dobson, Wayne 07/19/64 9.10 30.0 274.00 RUS3 Russo, Peter 04/23/64 11.00 20.0 220.00 DEN5 Densham, Gary 04/16/60 8.60 30.0 258.00 ==============  80.0 $751.00  ==============

For the last report:

• there are less columns, but what data fields are required?
• what field(s) is the report grouped by?
• how would the data be sorted?
• where are the column headings placed?
• The last column should be calculated - either by the report writer or the query that collates the data

7. Report Design Guidelines:

• Specify report introduction page and any images used
• specify page heading and footer and any images used
• specify group headings and footers
• Specify column headings
• specify tables, lines and rectangles
• Show where record data will be placed using a template:
  • XXX   for characters
  • 999 for numeric
  • or just use MS Access input mask characters
  • one line of repeated data rows is enough, but indicate that it does repeat
• Examples:
  

Date: dd-Mmm-yyyy Page: 999  THE RACERS WAREHOUSE WEEKLY PAYROLL REPORT  DEPT LOCATION EMPLOYEE DATE OF PAY WEEKLY NUMBER NAME BIRTH RATE HOURS PAY XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXX XXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX dd/mm/yy Z9.99 Z9.9 ZZ9.99 XXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX dd/mm/yy Z9.99 Z9.9 ZZ9.99 : : : : : : ========  Total: $ZZ,ZZ9.99  ========  XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXX XXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX dd/mm/yy Z9.99 Z9.9 ZZ9.99 XXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX dd/mm/yy Z9.99 Z9.9 ZZ9.99 : : : : : : ========  Total: $ZZ,ZZ9.99  ========

 

Date: dd-Mmm-yyyy Page: 999  THE RACERS WAREHOUSE WEEKLY PAYROLL REPORT  Department : XXXXXXXXXXXXX  Location : XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX EMPLOYEE DATE OF PAY WEEKLY NUMBER NAME BIRTH RATE HOURS PAY XXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX dd/mm/yy Z9.99 Z9.9 ZZZ9.99 : : : : : : ===============  ZZ9.9 $Z,ZZ9.99  ===============  Department : XXXXXXXXXXXXX  Location : XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX EMPLOYEE DATE OF PAY WEEKLY NUMBER NAME BIRTH RATE HOURS PAY XXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX dd/mm/yy Z9.99 Z9.9 ZZZ9.99 : : : : : : ===============  ZZ9.9 $Z,ZZ9.99  ===============  Grand Totals: Hours: Z,ZZ9.9 Pay: $ZZ,ZZ9.99

References:

• Shelly, Cashman & Rosenblatt, Systems Analysis and Design, 6th Edition,  Course Technology, 2006.

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