Re: Design Patterns for Database Maintenance Screens

> From: "Walden H. Leverich III" <WaldenL@TechSoftInc.com>
> I find the popup cool, but not many people know the interface, so
> if it's a defined group of people you can train ...

The defined group of people in this case would be staff and administration
working in K-12 schools and district offices.  But one of the reasons for
using a GUI would be to hopefully reduce the amount of training required.

On the other hand, these are people who would be using the software on a
daily basis to accomplish their assignments.  We need to help them work
efficiently (without frustration).

The prototype we've been given to work with is a program used in the
school's attendance office to update "reasons" for classroom absence.  It
would be used occasionally to enter new absence records, although teachers
would normally do that using a different interface.

We modified the scope of the program temporarily to include "district" and
"school" selection boxes.  I'm uncertain about the reason for that.

One interesting note is that we're formally evaluating both HTML and Java
Applet (SWING) user interface components for the presentation layer.
Eventually, we need to come up with some UI standards and patterns that can
be applied consistently across the board.

I agree that a small number of icons may be helpful.  The question is where
to draw the line.  Some user interfaces are animated and graphical to the
point of being annoying to those having to work with them every day.

Nathan M. Andelin
www.relational-data.com