Forms and Reports

Instruction:
Provide a paragraph with the context introducing the concept(s), followed by a question that either be interesting, controversial, or both (make your question attractive for others to reply to your question and initiate a conversation)
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Activity:
focuses on the design of forms, reports, and dialogues. Chapter 10 introduces students to the process of designing forms and reports. Form and report design is a key ingredient for successful systems because users often equate the quality of a system to the quality of its input and output methods. A key to designing usable forms and reports is consistency. The deliverable from this design process is a specification that has three sections: a narrative overview explaining the need for and use of the form or report, a sample design, and all testing and usability assessment information. Understanding that individuals who design a form or report may not be the individuals responsible for implementing it underscores the need for complete design specifications.

Next, chapter 11 introduces students to the process of designing interfaces and dialogues. The content of this chapter naturally extends the topics presented in Chapter 10, which means that the guidelines for designing forms and reports also apply to the design of human-computer interfaces. Additionally, form and report design and interface and dialogue design have similar processes and deliverables. Chapter 11 provides a review of human-computer interaction methods and devices. Menu and device interaction, designing layouts, structuring data entry, controlling data input, providing feedback, and providing user help are discussed.