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rÊ It is easy to explain to the user

rÊ che Stages and activities involved are well defined
rÊ It helps to plan and schedule the project appropriately
rÊ It enables verification at each stage to ensure early detection of errors and
misunderstanding within the project.

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chis chapter describes the process of system designing, tools and techniques that
were used, building the template of the user interface, various prototypes that
were used in the system design and the benefit of using software prototyping, also
the chapter analyses the use and importance of Graphical User Interface (GUI).

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che outcome of this project is design an Electronic Point of Sale (EPOS) system
prototype which should comply to set of requirements. (Sommerville, 2007)
distinguishes between user and system requirements which could be also divided
into functional, non -functional and domain ones. c he system design development
starts from system requirements which describe system behaviour (Sommerville,
2007). It is necessary to consider the user requirements while designing a system
because it helps to specify the design of programme interface. High level user
requirements are merely intended to provide a guide to the major issues and which
also support simple narrative explanations of system purposes. High level
functional requirements capture the intended behaviour of the system. chis
behaviour may be expressed as services, tasks or functions the system is required
to perform and advanced features the system should have. chroughout the design
stage some high level requirements were detailed and presented by use case
diagram demonstrated on Figure 3. 1
à use case diagram shows the behaviour or functionality of the system, it consists
of a set of possible sequences of interactions between a system and a user in a
particular environment that is related to a particular goal (Hoffer, à, et al, p.225).
In general, the purpose of using a use case diagram in the system design prototype
is that it is very useful for presentations to management and project stakeholders
so that it can have an overview on how the system would function in the real
world.

àdd/Update
Product

Visit V Web

Login

Sales assistant Ê

Process Database
Order

Calculate
Sales Figure

Search
Product
 Figure 4: EPOS use case diagram

che following are the system functional requirements of the system.

F1. che system should be able to save new product in the database.
F2. che program should allow users to login on the system.
F3. che system should be able to add and update new product.
F4. che system should be able to print ou t sales receipt for customers.
F5. che system should be able to calculate for sale figures in days.
F6. che system should be able to search for a particular product.
F7. che system should be able to calculate for item sold.
F8. che system should have a hel p button which will guide users.
F9. che system should be able to display the Naira in currency.
F10. che program should have a main menu where users can specify options
F11. che system should have a web page which will link to the main menu.

Login request Login

àccess system

EPOS SYScEM
Sales Perform
assistant sales Process
Order

àccess
inventory
Check Out
Inventory

Management
Receipt

View sales

cransactions
General
Sales
Product Customer
Details Details
Figure 5: Overview of the entire system

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à context diagram is a data flow diagram, with only one massive central process
that subsumes everything inside the scope of the system. It shows how the syst em
will receive and send data flows to the external entities involved. Figure 5
illustrates how users can access the system, process order; access the inventory
management that stores product details, transactions and customer details. che
context diagram is useful because it analyses the system in a graphically and some
means of interaction within the system.

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Based on the graphic user interface (GUI) design of the system some considerations
were taken which lead to the success of achieving the user requirement. Basically
before designing of the system two types of prototyping tools were considered
which are: the paper prototyping and the software prototyping.
GUI design is interested with producing a representation of the required
appearance and behaviour of the entire user interface and the prototyping is
interested with building a subnet of the user interface (system functionality) and
examine its properties by interacting with it ( Redmond and Moore 2008 p.218).

- . ".'

Paper prototyping is a variation of usability testing where representative users
perform realistic tasks by interacting with a paper version of the interface that is
manipulated (Paperprototyping 2003). che paper prototype was used in the first
design of the system because it is cheaper, easy to use and helps to provide idea
on how the system is going to look like on paper sketch (See àppendix E)

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à software prototyping is a system that actually works, which is not an idea or a
drawing, it is built quickly and cheaper, also which will not have a generalised
lifetime, thereby at one end of the spectrum it may be thrown away immediately
 after use, at the other end it may eventually evolve into the final system ( Preece
et al. 1994, p.538).

Making use of the paper prototype and software prototype was very useful, it
provides guidelines on how the system will be designed and structured, on the
other hand, software prototyping was necessary because interface can be designed
with it and changes can be made immediately, while the paper prototyping is easy
to make design sketches and idea how the system would be implemented in the
next stage.

Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 and Microsoft access 2007 software was used as a
software prototype to design the system.

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Prototyping is important when designing a system because it allows developer to
deliver successive, executable versions of the GUI moving. chis provides the
following benefits:

rÊ Better communication with user

rÊ Reduced risk
rÊ User education
rÊ Improved design through feedback and iteration

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 Figure 6: GUI Prototyping inputs and outputs

*2.## 
che purpose of a software design specification (SDS) is to define the software that
is to meet the functional requirements for the project ( Urswriter nd).
chis design specification document describes the functions and design for an
Electronic Point of Sale (EPOS) Prototype System. che software prototype system is
needed to support sales accuracy, improve time and storage of products in the
database system.
chere are different types of specification these are as follow:
Functional specification
che Functional Design Specification (FDS) details the solution to be provided to
meet the Users and Functional Requirements.
It should be approved by the User and should form the basis of the design for both
Hardware and Software, also Functional specifications (functional specs) in the
end, are the blueprint for how an application would look and functions, however,
the details is required, what the finished product will do, how a user will interact
with it, and what it will look like ( mojofat).

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che User interface specification is the result of the user interface design stage.
User interface specification is a model of the software that analyses what the
designed software looks like and it·s behaviours.

che purpose of the user interface specification is that it provides an illustrative

requirement specification for the system (interacta).

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à technical specification outlines the software, hardware and interface
requirements needed to process and mainta in the information on system (cni
2002).
In general, it is necessary to identify the design specification when developing a
software system, the design specification could also act as a guide to the users,
with the details and how the system operates (See àppendix F)

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Human computer interaction is basically about designing computer systems that
support people so that it can carry out their activities productively and safe
(Preece et al. 1994, p.1)
che fact that today·s system should be more efficient, reliable and useful in the
way it interacts with users, Users should be able to pass mostly only the most
important information and allowing the system to act in a more independent way.
cherefore the Human-Computer Interaction mechanisms will be investigated and
applied. ´Human computer interaction (HCI) is concerned with many areas such as
interaction between people and computers. Successful computer systems are
building with understanding of the interaction between people and computers.
chis is the vital part of the system·s designµ (Macaulay, 1995).
With the use of Visual basic and àccess database for the design implementation
there will be a need to consider for human computer interaction.