Topic 1.2: System Design Basics

Question 1

What is ergonomics?

Answer 1

The scientific discipline concerned with the understanding of interactions among humans and other elements of a system, and the profession that applies theory, principles, data and methods to design in order to optimize human well-being and overall system performance.

Simply put: How well the form fits the function

Question 2

What is accessibility?

Answer 2

Refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities or specific needs.

Includes specialist peripherals/software like:
* Braille keyboards
* Eye-typers
* Accessible controllers
* Screen readers
* Voice synthesizers

Question 3

What is usability?

Answer 3

The ease of use and learnability of a human-made object. The object of use can be a software application, website, machine, process, or anything a human interacts with.

Accessibility + ergonomics = usability

Question 4

Some examples of usability problems with commonly used digital devices

Answer 4

• Difficult to handle/fiddly hardware
• Difficult to understand software
• Complex user interface
• Need to have lots of prior knowledge
• Specialist support needed to use device
• Each device is different to other similar devices (no standards)

Question 5

What are ways to improve the accessibility of a system?

Answer 5

• Touch screens
• Voice recognition
• Text-to-speech
• Braille keyboard

Question 6

What is a stakeholder?

Answer 6

• A person, group or organization that has interest or concern in an organization.
• Some examples of key stakeholders are creditors, directors, employees, government (and its agencies), owners (shareholders), suppliers, unions, and the community from which the business draws its resources.
• Not all stakeholders are equal. A company’s customers are entitled to fair trading practices but they are not entitled to the same consideration as the company’s employees.

Question 7

Methods of obtaining requirements from stakeholders

Answer 7

Surveys: Involves handing out questionnaires for people to fill out.

Interviews: Involves the interviewing key people within the system to find out how it works.

Direct observation: Involves walking around the organisation watching how things are done with his/her own eyes.

Collecting documents: Involves looking in the documents currently being used in the system to try to find out how the present system works

Question 8

Pros and cons of surveys

Answer 8

Advantages:
* Large amount of data from a large group can be gathered
* Takes little time to analyse (if done electronically)
* Simple

Disadvantages:
* It is hard to ask the ‘right question’
* Information gathered is limited by questionnaire, can be biased
* Quality of responses not ensured

Question 9

Pros and cons of interviews

Answer 9

Advantages:
* Allows a lot of very detailed information to be gathered
* People can be asked about what they don’t like on the system

Disadvantages:
* Takes a long time

Question 10

Pros and cons of direct observation

Answer 10

Advantages:
* Possibility of gathering first-hand, unbiased information

Disadvantages:
* Often people might not work the way they normally do when being observed

Question 11

Techniques for gathering the information needed to arrive at a workable solution

Answer 11

Examining current systems: Before you do anything new, see what is currently being done.

Looking at competing products: Have a look at what the competitors are doing. The aim is not copy them, but to get an idea of what is possible/being done at the moment.

Organizational capabilities: Determining what the organisation would be capable of. Can they afford a new system/new equipment? Can the staff use the new system Training needed? Can they have any ‘downtime’ to upgrade?

Literature searches: Consulting literature to see what else might be out there (in IB terms, the term “literature” refers to book, magazines, web sites, journals, videos, academic papers…).

Question 12

What are prototypes

Answer 12

Prototypes are abstract representations of the system, often focusing on only one or two key aspects of the system.

They are important in testing as each component of the system can be tested before implementing, and to illustrate the working of the future system to the client.

Question 13

Purposes of a prototype

Answer 13

Fail early and inexpensively: by building a prototype, you can quickly weed out the approaches that don’t work to focus on the ones that do.
Gather more accurate requirements: interviews and focus groups can fall short because many people find it difficult to conceptualize a product before they see it. By developing a working prototype, you can demonstrate the functionality to help solidify requirements for the final design.
Technically understand the problem: by developing a functional prototype, you are forced to address both the foreseen and the unforeseen technical challenges of a device’s design.

Question 14

What is iteration

Answer 14

Meaning 1: a procedure in which repetition of a sequence of operations yields results successively closer to a desired result (linked to prototyping)

Meaning 2: the repetition of a sequence of computer instructions a specified number of times or until a condition is met (links to loops, an alternative to recursion)

Question 15

Why does failing to involve the end-user in the design process mean trouble?

Answer 15

• User may be unsatisfied with system
• System may be unsuited for user’s problem, affecting productivity

Question 16

Define hardware

Answer 16

• Computer hardware refers to the physical parts of a computer and related devices.
• Internal hardware devices include motherboards, hard drives, and RAM.
• External hardware devices include monitors, keyboards, mice, printers, and scanners.
• The internal hardware parts of a computer are often referred to as components, while external hardware devices are usually called peripherals.

Question 17

Define peripherals

Answer 17

• A computer peripheral is any external device that provides input and output for the computer.
• For example, a keyboard and mouse are input peripherals, while a monitor and printer are output peripherals.

Question 18

Define network

Answer 18

• A network consists of multiple devices that communicate with one another using a transmission medium.
• It can be as small as two computers or as large as billions of devices.
• While a traditional network is comprised of desktop computers, modern networks may include laptops, tablets, smartphones, televisions, gaming consoles, smart appliances, and other electronics.

Question 19

Define software

Answer 19

• A general term that describes computer programs or sets of instructions.
• Consists of lines of code that have been compiled into a computer program.
• Stored as binary.

Question 20

Define human resources

Answer 20

• Human resources is used to describe both the people who work for a company or organization and the department responsible for managing resources related to employees.
• They are often referred to as the end-users of a system.

Question 21

What is a client?

Answer 21

• In the real world, businesses have clients.
• In the computer world, servers have clients (e.g., if an office has a server that stores the company’s database on it, the other computers in the office that can access the database are “clients” of the server)

Question 22

What is a server?

Answer 22

• A server is a computer that provides data to other computers.
• Many types of servers exist, including web servers, mail servers, and file servers.
• Each type runs software specific to the purpose of the server.

Question 23

What is a DNS (domain name system) server?

Answer 23

• Domain names serve as memorisable names for websites and other services on the Internet.
• However, computers access Internet devices by their IP addresses, not domain names (also called web addresses).
• DNS translates domain names into IP addresses, allowing you to access an Internet location by its domain name.

Question 24

What is a router?

Answer 24

• A router is a hardware device that routes data (hence the name) from a local area network (LAN) to another network connection.
• It can be a separate hardware device or software loaded onto a server.

Question 25

What is a firewall?

Answer 25

• A firewall acts as a barrier between a trusted system or network and outside connections, such as the Internet.
• It is more of a filter than a wall, allowing trusted data to flow through it.

Question 26

What is the client-server model?

Answer 26

• The client-server model describes how a server provides resources and services to one or more clients.
• Most servers have a one-to-many relationship with clients, meaning a single server can provide resources to multiple clients at one time.
• When a client requests a connection to a server, the server can either accept or reject the connection.
• If the connection is accepted, the server establishes and maintains a connection with the client over a specific protocol.

Question 27

Pros and cons of collecting documents

Answer 27

Advantages:
* Detailed information about the present system can be gathered
* It can be seen where the old system has problems

Disadvantages:
* Time consuming
* Just looking at the forms/outputs may be confusing