Final Design

Functionality | Workflow | Unimplemented | Tools

Functionality

The final prototype is designed to mimic the most important functionality of the editor: creating a syllabus and editing the schedule. As it is not actually tied to a database, getting the appropriate feedback in terms of entered content requires that a tester adhere to our tasks. A user can experience how she would log on and create a new syllabus. Once the syllabus has been created, the user can then try editing the schedule by adding and moving readings and resources, and editing topics and classes. The user can also preview what the syllabus would look like on the SylViA viewer, and then save changes made to the schedule as a draft.

Workflow

The workflow diagrams can be viewed here

Login

The login page will be linked to from the SylViA viewer.

  • If user has a log in, they are taken to the mySylViA home page.
  • If they don’t, they can register for a login.
    • If they have a SIMS email account, they are registered and taken to their mySylViA home
    • If they do not have SIMS email account, they are taken to a notification/rejection page

Create Syllabus

From the mySylViA home, the user is taken through the Set Up Syllabus wizard. The four steps of the wizard are:

  • Choosing to create a new syllabus or to reuse an old
  • Entering course information
  • Entering class information
  • Entering teaching team members

The final page of the wizard is a confirmation page. The user can choose between:

  • Returning to the mySylViA home
  • Going to the Administrivia, Assignments or Exams pages
  • Entering the Topic Set Up wizard

Edit Syllabus

Once the syllabus has been created, the user can edit the syllabus by selecting that option in the mySylViA home.

  • If the user has not gone through the Set Up Topic wizard, the user is taken to that wizard.
  • If the user has gone through that wizard, the user is taken to the Schedule page

The user can then choose to edit the Schedule, Administrivia, Exams or Assignments pages.

Each piece of information, such as classes, readings, topics or office hours, has its own edit page. Once changes are submitted, the user is taken back to the originating page.

  • If the user tries to move a class to a date where class information has already been entered the user is taken to a conflict notification page where they are given four options.
    • If they decide to cancel the move, they are taken back to the class edit page
    • If they decide to bump, swap or merge classes, they are taken back to the Schedule page.

The user can preview what the syllabus would look like in the SylViA viewer

Once the user is finished, they are taken to a page that gives them the option of publishing their changes, or saving them as a draft for later review.

Set Up Topic Wizard

The user is taken to the Set Up Topic wizard under three different conditions

  • The user has completed the Set Up Syllabus wizard and chooses to edit the schedule
  • The user clicks on the syllabus edit link on the mySylViA home, but has not used the Set Up Topic wizard
  • The user clicks on the Schedule tab from the Assignments, Exams or Administrivia pages, but has not used the Set Up Topic wizard

The three steps of the wizard are:

  • Choosing if the user wants to group classes by topic
    • If they do not they are taken directly to the Schedule page
    • If they do, they are taken to the next step of the wizard
  • Choosing how many topics they want to group classes by
  • Defining the topics, including date span and name

The user is then taken to the Schedule page.

Managing Editors

The user can access editor management from the mySylViA home page

All management is done on a single page. Users can delete or add users, and transfer management.

Once management is done, the user can return to the mySylViA home page.

Unimplemented

Between the second and third interactive prototypes, we began focusing on developing features for the final working version of the editor for Lisa and Carolyn's master project. Most importantly, we have been writing code to connect the prototype to our Oracle database. Since this version is still under development and still somewhat buggy, and since it does not completely support our tasks, we have chosen not to present it for this assignment. If you would like to play around with this truly interactive prototype you can go to http://rosetta.sims.berkeley.edu:8085/MySylviaDev/login.jsp and login with the email "carolyn@faludi.com" and the password "firefly". You will then see a partially entered Document Engineering syllabus in which the classes, readings, and resources can truly be edited and moved around at will. New functionality is also added every day.

Several features that are not implemented in the prototype are under development for the working version. These include adding and editing administrivia, adding assignments and exams, and the Manage Editors functionality.

Tools

As we were creating an interface that was part of a final project, we designed our interactive prototypes so that they could be used as the final interface. This meant that we used a HTML to create the layout, and JSP to fake the interactions. Javascript was used to dynamically construct edit pages depending upon menu selections. The final version will use also JSP to interact with a database. The final editor will be served on Tomcat, as were our prototypes. Lisa and Carolyn already had a Tomcat development environment set up and the prototypes were added as new web applications. Each of us used our own development tools to write the HTML and javascript, and Carolyn was in charge of writing JSP.

Working with Tomcat would normally be difficult, but since Lisa and Carolyn had been working with their installation for several semesters it had been stabilized and the prototypes could be added easily. As we each used development tools with which we were previously comfortable, there were no issues learning new tools. And since Sarai has an Apple, we were able to test in both Windows and Macintosh environments.