Chapter 8 - Designing the Systems Output

A) Producing High-Quality Information for Making Decisions

executives only look at 3% of delivered computer printouts

Information needs to be:

• Acessible
• Timely
• Relevant
• Accurate
• Useable(Fig. 8.2)

B) Creating Reports that Condense Data for Different Management Levels

• Hierarchical Reports
• Filter Reports (Fig. 8.3)
• Responsibility Reports (Fig. 8.4)

C) Creating Reports that Compare Data

• Horizontal Report (Fig. 8.5)
• Vertical Report (Fig. 8.6)
• Counterbalance Report (Fig. 8.7)

D) Creating Reports that Monitor Variances in Data

• Variance Report - usually at the end of a process (Fig. 8.8)
• Exception Report - usually when exception occurs

E) Fundamentals of Designing Display Screens

captions & data fields:

• captions - spelled out fully in caps (1 font) in normal intensity
• for single data fields - left of data field (use :)
• for multiple data fields - caption above column of data
• data - left-justify text, right-justify numbers
• headings - above data fields; captions indented >5 spaces
• row headings - separate with >> and spaces
• spacing - at least 5 spaces if no headings; 3 spaces if headings

color

• < 2-3 colors widely spaced on color spectrum & white
• bright colors - emphasize, dull - deemphasize
• contrasting colors - emphasize separation
• red, yellow, orange - force attention
• green, blue, violet - background information
• blue good for background
• consistency, contrast

F) Creating Graphs to Illustrate Numeric Data Quickly

• scatter graphs
• line graphs - use a moderate amount of grid lines
• bar graphs - horizontal & vertical; stacked; 3-D
• sectographs - pie charts (labels, exploding wedge);
• layer charts (area graph)
• picturegraphs - use meaningful pictures

G) Creating Tables and Matrices that Highlight, Compare, and Instruct

• Tables (Fig. 8.19)
• Matrices (Fig. 8.20)

Exercises: look over 1-11; turn in 8.12, 8.19, 8.22, 8.22, 8.24, 8.25