USER INTERFACE DESIGN Introduction:

User interface design is a subset of a field of study called humancomputer interaction(HCI). Human-computer interaction is the study, planning, and design of how people and computers work together so that a persons needs are satisfied in the most effective way. There are a variety of factors to consider: what people want and expect, what physical limitations and abilities people possess, how their perceptual and information processing systems work, and what people find enjoyable and attractive. Technical characteristics and limitations of the computer hardware and software must also be considered. The user interface is the part of a computer and its software that people can see, hear, touch, talk to, or otherwise understand or direct. The user interface has essentially two components: input and output. Input is how a person communicates his or her needs or desires to the computer. Some common input components are the keyboard, mouse, trackball, ones finger (for touch-sensitive screens), and ones voice (for spoken instructions). Output is how the computer conveys the results of its computations and requirements to the user. Today, the most common computer output mechanism is the display screen, followed by mechanisms that take advantage of a persons auditory capabilities: voice and sound.

The Graphical User Interface:

In brief, a graphical user interface can be defined as follows. A user interface, as recently described, is a collection of techniques and mechanisms to interact with something. In a graphical interface, the primary interaction mechanism is a pointing device of some kind. This device is the electronic equivalent to the human hand. What the user interacts with is a collection of elements referred to as objects. They can be seen, heard, touched, or otherwise perceived. Objects are always visible to the user and are used to perform tasks. They are interacted with as entities independent of all other objects. People perform operations, called actions, on objects. The operations include accessing and modifying objects by pointing, selecting, and manipulating. All objects have standard resulting behaviors.

The UID in college management involves many screens through which user (students, staffs, administrators) access, use, modify data in the system and database. Thus these forms have to be user friendly, transparent, simple, effectively convey the details. This is designed by considering who and what type of people use it at various stages. General log in form: User name: User name is entered Password: Password is entered On proper validation the access is granted. In addition to this thumb impression recognition and face recognition is used at appropriate places where more security is needed. Fields: The image after encoding is inserted which is tagged with the student/staff id. The memory chip in the ID card also carries the same details. Since the data must be mapped with proper IDs it involves high level of coupling. ADMISION MODULE Student registration form: It is used by administrators to register a student during admission process after proper verification and validation. It also involves usage of face recognition software in this stage, but the details are inputted into the database after proper encoding directly by the administrator as it is more complex. The various fields are: Form number: Unique number which easily identifies the student F_no: the unique id generated by face recognition software Name: Specifies name of student Personal information: Has several tabs and fields to input complete details of student Other information: Optional details Details about the degree and course of student are inputted. Scanned photograph of student is included. Buttons used:

Clear: Clears all inputted data. Edit: Edit a field Save: Saves a entry Cancel: Closes the form without saving Next button provides navigation through forms if form spans many pages. Student fee form: This form has fee details pertaining to a student and is easily stored with students admission number. At last View all students generates all admitted students for the year. Student ID card form: This is filled by admissioner when issuing ID card. It includes student name, enrollment number, validation period, address. Similar to this the employee registration form carries similar details. Additional details are: Experience, Salary, Designation, Fields of experience, Date of joining, Expertise LIBRARY MODULE The library software must be of ease to use and must be fast as it is one of the software that is run very frequently. To add a book: Add book tab provides facilities to add a new book. Fields: Book Title: Title of the book Book Publisher: Publisher of book Book price: Price Book author: author of the book Numbers of copies are specified and added As each book is issued the number of existing copies is deducted and as book is returned the number is increased. Remove book, Modify record has similar fields.

Issue and return tabs:

It includes the fine details also in addition to book name, author, and return date.

Administrator related functions:

He uses the attendance verification software to generate the list of eligible students which is reflected in the storage which in turn enables students to access it and view it. EXAM MODULE The results of exams are inputted through another form. Since it is difficult to map each result tuple with the appropriate student marks are entered with student id alone and mapping is done internally. This mapping is important for a student to view his/her result on-line. Fields are: Student id: Id or roll number of student Course id/name: Course name/id. Year/Sem: Specifies sem and year Marks: Marks obtained Grade: Corresponding grade (calculated automatically by machine) The marks and grades are repeatedly entered for a student for all subjects. Buttons: Clear marks: Clears all marks Insert marks: Inserts all entered data into the database. Find: finds a mark on page To view the results student simply enters his roll no and results are retrieved from database and are displayed either in a form or in a separate page. In case of re-evaluation or arrear results the form is not again used. Instead the admin can make changes in the database directly. The generation of results/ viewing a set of students who satisfy certain requirements are thus done with ease without providing many inputs through forms.

DEPARTMENT MODULE This module involves adding a course, deleting a course, assigning staffs. Etc The add course form has the following: Course id: Unique id(together with department) identifies it Course name: Name of the course Department to which it belongs Staffs assigned(optional) Once a course is added under a dept the students in students relation can be related to this by dept foreign key. This reduces the burden of entering a few fields. The remove course is done rarely and has similar fields for it. The department module is closely connected with the exam module through similar uses of foreign keys. EXAMPLE: If a student enters his id and dept the corresponding courses are identified for that student and results are outputted form exam module by using dept+id keys.

PLACEMENT MODULE Registration form: In addition to general registration form used, this involves on-line registration of students to involve themselves in placement related activities (as per SRS) Fields: Name of student, DOB , Sem, year, department Students can also upload their Resume in appropriate format specified. The student can then see two options View Recruiter details and View CV The ADD RECRUITER form is used by admin to add a new company details Fields: Company name, requirements, criteria, year, other info. These information can be viewed by students under the companys information and they could possibly prefer some by specifying their names. If the details about a particular company are changed then it is notified to the students. This is done when they log in(they see a notification). When they click on it they see all new added details pertaining to that company. This

keeps them updated. User interface plays a major role here which makes thing clear for the user. Since these activities are done online this may take help of new add-ons available. Ex: The College could add their own software 0for playing certain animations, videos etc to facilitate better interface for the current requirement.