The Canberra Disability Service Client Identification Form - Literature review Example

SYSTEMS ANALYSIS - FORMS TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents Users/Persona 3 Contents of the Client Identification Sheet/Form 4 Questions Protocol 5 The Canberra Disability Service Client Identification form (Registration Form) 7 Oral Presentation (summarised) 11 Electronic Forms on Portable Devices 13 Users/Persona The US Department of Health and Human Services (2014), informs that personas provide a near real-life profile of the expected user of the system. They are representative of the users in the group, expose needs and expectations of important user groups, show user expectations, and expose the universal functionality of the system. The Canberra Disability Service system has three intended users. These are; a) The project coordinator, in this case Kim Putnam - However, the system design does not consider her as a person, but as the current project coordinator. This is an administrative post so the persona would be; Title: Canberra Disability Service Project Cordinator. Fictional name A highly-educated Female above 39 years, a Parent. Highly-paid Employee Busy and Mobile Administrative Skills and work – Staff Management, perusing reports, decision-making. Mostly working from the system Tech-savvy Granted full system access b) Care-giving Qualified Assistant - This assistant will have system access authority in addition to care-giving. The persona would be; Title: Canberra Disability Service Administrative Assistant Fictional Name An Educated Individual Male or Female above 30 years. Partly Official partly Mobile Administrative duties, data handling and care giving. Middle-class Basic Computer Skills Granted full system access c) The Office Assistant – This assistant is responsible for data entry. Title: Canberra Disability Service Office Assistant. Female aged 25 years or older. College Diploma Holder Clerical and secretarial responsibilities – reception, data entry, report production. Basic Computer Skills Office-based System access restricted to data entry only. Contents of the Client Identification Sheet/Form According to Jarrett (2010), a question protocol is a tool used by a system analyst to determine the fields that need to appear in a form. The protocol ensures that all data needed to run the system is captured, and any data that is not required is left out. The client Identification Sheet (Lucas, 2010, p. 11 – 12) depicts the worst design. It is filled with clutter, a mixture of necessary data and large amounts of unnecessary data. The form attempts to capture all the data about a client on a single form which includes personal, financial, legal, medical, professional and family. The form assumes the system will store all this data on a single file. This is too much data and therefore it is not practical to use a single form to input it into modern computerised systems. A single form cannot have all these fields. The data is not normalised. This data needs to be broken down into the first normal form (FNF), then into the second normal form (SNF) and finally into the third normal form (TNF). The TNF will yield a set of tables and only the fields that need to appear in each field. However, in this case, only the client’s personal data needs to be captured so the first step would be to identify only the important fields, and then discard all the rest or at least use them in another form. Again, some important fields may be added. For example, a field that is useful for the unique identification of each record is important. This is the key field. It could be a client number, a social security number, an insurance policy number, a national ID card number, and so on. Questions Protocol Answer Who Needs It? For What? Date of Registration Canberra Office Historical data extraction Social Security Number Canberra Office Unique client identification Full Names Canberra Office Client Identification Physical Address Care Givers Visitation Telephone Number Canberra Office / Care givers Schedule appointments and visitations Consultation or visitation Birth Date Canberra Office Data extraction and reporting Gender Canberra office Care-giver allocation. Reporting Disability Group Canberra office Determination of level of care Reason for admission Canberra Office Initiation of care-giving services Guardian details Canberra office Emergencies / Billing Occupation Canberra Office Determine level of care giving (i) Date of Registration (Admission) - It is important to show when the client started interacting with Canberra Disability Service. A date enables the production of historical data. It also allows extraction and grouping of records using date as criteria. Most reports are based on dates. (ii) The social security number - This number is unique for every client. It will serve as the key field. Searching and retrieval of client records will depend on this number. (iii) Full Names (iv) Physical Address – The town/city, street, building and house number. This is very important for the purposes of visitation by Canberra Disability Service care givers. (v) Telephone number – It is important for fast, cheap and convenient communication between the client and Canberra Disability Service. (vi) Birth Date - Its use is in the computation of the client’s age. It is also useful as criteria on which to extract groups of patients and producing reports. (vii) Gender - This is either male (M) or female (F). It is useful for the purposes of allocating suitable care givers for each unique case. Gender is good for record filtering. (viii) Disability Group - This will help in classifying clients according to their needs, for example, blindness, immobility, limb impairment, dumbness, Spinal, and so on. (ix) Reason for Admission - The Canberra Disability Service does not assist all disabled persons. It has a criterion for admitting persons into its service. It is important to capture this reason at initiation. (x) Guardian Details – These include the name, social security number, telephone. The guardian’s telephone may also serve as the emergency telephone number. The guardian will be the person closest to the client, who takes care of the client, such as a spouse, a parent, a volunteer, a nurse, and so on. (xi) Occupation - Some disabled persons work. This information may be useful in determining the severity of the disability and the level of care-giving needed. The Canberra Disability Service Client Identification form (Registration Form) Form Usability The user will not type the details for the date fields, the disability group field, and the gender field. Instead they will be selected from a date selector, a drop down list, and a combo box respectively. The intention is to reduce the typing effort and thus make the form user-friendly and easy to use. It also minimizes errors. Some fields such as date require a specific format such as DD-MM-YYYY, which means two digits for the day, two digits for the month and four digits for the year, all separated by the hyphen character. Such dates may be confusing to input, and require a lot of time in typing. A date selector will remove the typing work, remove the need to pay particular attention to the date formats, ensure a date is selected (no blank date) and effectively remove typing and formatting errors. The system developer will embed the options for disability group field into the software so that the user does not have to keep on typing words such as “limb impairment”, “blindness”, and so on. Again, the gender field provides only two options, (M)ale or (F)emale so there is no room for anything else. All the fields that require direct user input through a keyboard have a description on the left and a textbox on the right. This is to enable the user to collect the correct data from the client and feed it into the correct field on the form. There will be underlying instructions to validate the data coming from the user. The form utilises only two colours, black and white, although it includes some variations on the same for rich aesthetic. This form looks appealing and will not hurt the user’s eyes. The fields are well spaced out and labelled so there is no room for confusion. The large ‘save’ button provide an easy way to store the captured data into the master file. The close button allows the user to exit the form when they are through with data entry, and discard any unsaved data in case of erroneous entry. The minimise button improves on user-friendliness so that the user does not keep closing and opening the form every time. Finally, a client cannot be registered more than once. Any attempt to input an existing social security number will automatically retrieve and display the complete record in a non-editable format. Evidential Data According to the Australian legal Information Institute (ALII) (2014), evidential data comprises of data held in electronic form in a computer, or on storage devices in a computer network, deemed “relevant in an indictable offence”. The Canberra Disability Service computer system would be a medical system. Although it does not provide expert services in terms of providing computerised diagnosis and treatment, still it stores important personal data and medical disability records. From the inputs in the form above, the fields that provide evidential data include; i) The date of admission (indicated as Today’s date on the form). This provides the starting point for all the records that pertain to a particular client. ii) The Social security number. This is a unique identifier ensuring that the data targeted belongs to a particular client. iii) Full Names for the purposes of identification. iv) Telephone number for the purposes of direct contact. v) The Reasons for Admission. This will provide the state of the client. It will provide a justification for giving services to this client and thus provide a link between the Canberra Disability Service and the client. Advantage using electronic forms on office PCs Raosoft Inc. (2011), a US-government-sanctioned survey software provider, provides several advantages of using electronic forms; i) They save time by avoiding manual writing and filing. ii) They are more cost effective because they avoid stationery, and require less labour. iii) Validation results to data integrity. iv) Forms provide instant feedback thus providing timeliness, increased response rate and user satisfaction. v) Developers can improve them easily and fast, sometimes even without affecting the system. vi) Filling them is easier and faster, hence efficient and friendly to users. vii) They are more secure as they limit access only to authorised personnel. viii) They provide global availability or access for as long as the system is online. Disadvantage using electronic forms on office PCs Luxenberg et al (1997) presents several disadvantages to the use of electronic forms; (i) They are solely dependent on computerised systems. In the absence of the computer due to fault or power blackout, the electronic form is unavailable and thus the system will automatically grind to a halt. (ii) They expose data to risks such as data theft, data deletion, data corruption, and so on through hacking, eavesdropping, and such other cyber attacks. (iii) Data validation may result to bottlenecks where users are unable to respond to system prompts correctly. (iv) Input of garbage data is possible. Fields such as names required input of alphabetical characters. If a user inputs nonsense data such as “xcxcxcxcxcx” for a name, the system will still accept it. (v) They are not usable by computer-illiterate people. Users must have basic computer skills. (vi) Their initial cost is high. The development of the underlying software and the purchase of hardware is an expensive affair. Oral Presentation (summarised) Systems Analysis and Design is a set of logical steps through which a system analyst working together with users, the management, and system developers, develops a blue-print of a new information system from system specifications. This blueprint becomes the basis on which the functional units of the system will develop. These include software modules, forms, files, reports, and acquisition of the hardware. In order to create effective user interfaces on information systems, system analysts study the status and the behaviour of intended users. From this study, they create fictitious users who have realistic features who represent the real users who will use the system. These fictitious users go by the name “personas”. System developers use these personas to develop a user-friendly system, especially interfaces, that real users (human) will appreciate and thus enhance their productivity. One salient feature of user interfaces is the form. A form is an input document where users supply answers to preset questions. A form is a source document or data origination. These answers constitute the source of the data that the organisation will store. i.e. they provide data for the master files. The process of determining the fields that are necessary in a form is an intricate affair that analysts resolve through normalisation and question protocols. Normalisation is the process of breaking down large chunks of data into meaningful and manageable units devoid of repetitions and redundancies. When the analyst identifies all the data that the system will store, that is the point at which he or she will employ normalisation. The end result of normalisation is a well organised database made up of several tables, where each table has its own set of fields, including a key field. The analyst may create relationships between the relations at this point. On the other hand, question protocols assist the analyst to scale down on a broad number of questions, and narrow down to only the necessary fields in a form. The end result of question protocols is a small, well-organised and manageable form. Such small and manageable forms provide user-friendliness, remove ambiguities, and minimise data entry errors. They enable the user to understand and provide only the correct data. They also encourage users to work with them because of their ease of use. The benefit of good forms is in data integrity. System developers then design electronic forms for use within the finished product. All the data captured in the fields in a form do not have the same importance. Some data plays major roles while others play minor roles. Evidential data is important because existing legislation recognises it as admissible in a court of law. Some personal data such as social security number, medical records, and so on constitute evidential data. Electronic forms have major benefits such as cost-effectiveness, time saving, offer high security, user friendliness and global availability. However, they also present some challenges such as exposure to cyber attacks, dependence on computers, high initial cost, and unsuitability for use by computer illiterate people. Electronic Forms on Portable Devices This is not just a possibility it is a necessity for the Canberra Disability Service system. The organisation mobilizes over twenty care givers to work at the organisations premises, and also to visit clients at their place of residence. When dealing with disables persons, common sense demands that the care giver visits the disabled person at their place of residence, especially due to the difficulties a disabled person may encounter in mobility. The 20 care givers would be attending to about 300 clients, which translate to about 15 clients per care-giver. That means a care-giver will make at least 15 trips per month to clients’ homes, assuming that each client requires their services once a month. If the frequency is higher, then the care-givers would be making between 20 and 30 trips per month to clients’ homes to offer their services. The scenario here is that care givers will be working mostly away from the office. Some of the data may be recorded on manual forms to be fed later into the system at the office, when the care givers get the opportunity to visit the office. During the visits, they would want to access the system either to retrieve some information about a client, or update the same after offering their services. That means they need to be able to access the system from their portable devices. Kulkarni et al (2011) suggests that web applications designed for PCs need down-scaling to adapt them to mobile devices. He suggests the development of a duplicate website having the same content as a PC website, but scaled down to the weakest mobile device such as a WAP-enabled mobile phone. This would allow any mobile device to access the web content and the form. Again, he suggests the development of device-specific web applications that would serve the many types of popular mobile devices in the market. However, due to the rapidly changing technology, these two approaches may not be sustainable because the sites would need constant overhaul. He suggests a permanent solution of developing software solutions that study a web page, automatically downgrade it for mobile viewing, and present the same through the screen of a mobile device. Koehl et al (2014) cites an example of this software called “m.Site”. This tool install as a plugin on a web browser. When that browser receives a request from a mobile device, the application uses an inbuilt framework to downscale, render and present the page to the mobile device. References Australian Legal Information Institute. (2014). Crimes Act 1914 – Section 3C. Commonwealth Consolidated Acts. Retrieved 24 March 2014, from, http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ca191482/s3c.html Jarrett, C. (2010, June 7). The Question Protocol: How to Make Sure Each Form Field is Necessary. Retrieved 22 March 2014, from, http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2010/06/the-question-protocol-how-to-make- sure-every-form-field-is-necessary.php Koehl, A., Wang, H. (2014). M.Site: Efficient Content Adaptation for Mobile Devices. Retrieved 24 March 2014, from, http://www.cs.wm.edu/~hnw/paper/middleware12.pdf Kulkarni, C., Klemmer, S. (2011, May 7). Automatically Adapting Web Pages to Heterogenous Devices. Retrieved 24 March 2014, from, http://hci.stanford.edu/publications/2011/MobileAdaptation/CHI2011-MobileAdaptation- WIP.pdf Lucas, R. (2010). A Practical Guide and Case Study for Systems Analysis. Systems Analysis Practical Guide. SAaM 2010: University of Caniberra. Luxenburg, S.N., DuBois, D.D., Fraley, C.G., Hamburg, R.R., Huang, X.L., Clayton, P.D. (1997). Electronic Forms: Benefits and Drawbacks to a World Wide Web-based Approach to Data Entry. Retrieved 24 March 2014, from, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2233373/pdf/procamiaafs00001-0838.pdf Raosoft Inc. (2011). Advantages of Online Forms. Retrieved 24 March 2014, from, http://www.raosoft.com/products/research/advantages/ US Department of Health and Human Services. (2014, March 23). Personas. What & Why of Usability. Retrieved 22 March 2014, from, http://www.usability.gov/how-to-and- tools/methods/personas.html Read More