This document, Prototype Version 3, is available to download from DropBox. In case of any modification, please update all the versions. You have to update word document, PDF document in DropBox Folder and Also this post.
By Boton Li
Posted By Amir Sezavar Keshavarz
This document, Idea Development Version 2, is available to download from DropBox. In case of any modification, please update all the versions. You have to update word document, PDF document in DropBox Folder and Also this post.
After our meetings with our mentor and different group meetings, we agree upon the problem domain and what we are going to do exactly. We did all the review literature and we checked some relevant similar project in order to see how they propose a solution and whether we can any weakness there.
After that, we started working on different sections such as Questionnaire, Prototype Design, Use Case, and Database Design. At this stage, we have a good overview of the structure of the system. The following diagram depicted our first general architectural diagram:
Architecture Diagram
The first thing we did and agreed was the distinction between 3-Tier and 3-Layer Architecture. Tiers indicate a physical separation of components on the same server or multiple servers, but layers refers to a logical separation of components, such as having distinct namespaces and classes for the Database Access Layer (DAL), Business Logic Layer (BLL) and User Interface Layer (UIL). Therefore, tier is about physical separation and units of deployment, and layers are about logical separation and units of design. Due to estimated future use of this system, we decided to develop our system in different tiers so later load balancing, request-response management and database transaction would not be a problem.
We have three different tiers here:
In next diagram, and in the next Idea Development document, we will be more specific about the details of this architecture so later we have a bright road map. We will be also more specific about the future technologies that we are going to utilize in this project.
This document, Prototype Version 2, is available to download from DropBox. In case of any modification, please update all the versions. You have to update word document, PDF document in DropBox Folder and Also this post.
This artefact is aimed to discuss different aspects and rationale of the proposed GUI prototype for the SOTON Student Connect application.
There are three part of explanation.
Main page, Personal profile and Accommodation,
Main page is the only we can see before we logged in. and the others are similar page but following which option we choose after log in.
Main
From the top, There is a logo but it has not been chosen the placement. Possibly left side or middle side, But not good for right side.
Main menu bar has 6 menu which we discussed before,
Main login page is placed on the left side. If we are connected with School Database then we do not need join button in Login form otherwise, we will need.
Notice board page is placed on the right side.
This will construct with frameworks so after coding, We just need to modify the middle section
Where Login page and notice page.
Personal Profile
As you can read above in main page. Top side is same as before.
After login, You could see personal information on the Left side. You can log out,
Read a message, possibly can see the friends.
The right side is more detail for Personal Profile, Name, Hobbies, Introducing.
The thing is if we are conneced with school database it will come up automatically, and we will modify or add information on our projcect site.
Accommodation
Features
This is another page of menu.
Left side is same as the other page.(of course if we need to modify this page, easily re coding fot only this side)
Right side is information about accommodation.
As you can see, if we choose one of the option of menu then we could see where we are through between menu and main section. This is same as other option of menu.
The strengths of the proposed prototype can be listed as follows:
1. Taking advantage of the rich user interface design
2. Easy to use.
3. Easy to coding because of separated page with frameworks
4. quick and instant access to the most important features of the system
A number of weaknesses can be listed for the offered prototypes as below:
1. Design cannot be changed by user.
2. Administrator should be mange at least a day
This document, Prototype Version 1, is available to download from DropBox. In case of any modification, please update all the versions. You have to update word document, PDF document in DropBox Folder and Also this post.
This artefact is aimed to discuss different aspects and rationale of the proposed GUI prototype for the SOTON Student Connect application.
The document will start by including the main screen shots of the prototype along with a full discussion on the rationale for each section and then proceeds to offer the rationale of the design by discussing a number of typical user stories. Finally the strengths and weaknesses of the design will be listed.
Index
Figure 1
Figure 1 depicts the starting page of the system. The design includes a three column paradigm with a banner at the top and a footer to indicate the end of the page. The banner includes the system’s logo, application’s name and the status of the user currently viewing the page. From the status bar user can see whether she has signed in to the system or if the user has not created a account for herself, the system indicates that the current user is viewing the site as a guest and offers her the option to sign up to the system.
The body of the page consists of three columns. The left most column illustrates a picture to graphically indicate the purpose of the system. The middle column offers a textual description of the site highlighting the features and benefits of the system. Finally the right hand side column provides the login facility for users who have already created an account in the system.
The main page follows the traditional page based Web application’s paradigm as it does not include high degrees of interaction and in addition, the conventional types provides more security regarding users sensitive data such as login credential compared to rich technologies for which security remains an unsolved concern.
User Main Page
Figure 2
Figure 2 depicts a registered user’s home page which acts as a portal giving access to all the features and facilities of the site in a single page. This page is essentially a mix of rich and traditional user interface paradigm in that the main and frequently used features of the application has been included as widgets which update dynamically upon user’s interactions which does not require the page to be refreshed. This way the performance of the system will be highly improved and the interface would be more compact and user friendly.
The top banner remain enact to maintain the consistency of the system. The status bar however will be updated to show the status of the user as logged in and providing a sign out facility. The footer also still present the indicate the end of the page.
The left hand side navigation bar contain the profile picture of the user along with a list of links to less frequently used features of the system or to pages which should be opened in a new window or as a front layer to the current page.
The main content pane includes a number of widgets which could be managed, closed, minimised or being replaced by other widgets available. Default widgets includes the user’s calender which is one of the most important and most frequently used feature of the system, enrolled modules list which present to the user the full list of the modules she has currently enrolled and contains links to each module’s resources and discussion pages. The notifications and actions widget lists all the recent activities, post, tags, friend’s statuses etc which are relevant to the user. The finder widget offer the facility for the user to search for people, friends, groups, events and activities through the system. The suggestion menu offers friend suggestions which is based on the system’s recommender system. Other widgets which can be included to the system would be accommodation section widget, each of the enrolled groups or activities widget, rss feed of subscribed friends, events or groups widget and so forth.
Please note that these are only the two so called landing pages of the system. If the design is accepted in the prototype review sessions, the prototype will be extended to cover the full details of the system.
The strengths of the proposed prototype can be listed as follows:
A number of weaknesses can be listed for the offered prototypes as below:
Prototype to be expanded upon acceptance
This document, Finalized Use Cases, is available to download from DropBox. In case of any modification, please update all the versions. You have to update word document, PDF document in DropBox Folder and Also this post.
This is the finalize version of our use case diagram. Some changes have been made to the use case diagram:
SOTON Student Connect Finalise Use Case Diagram
The general outline of this use case has been accepted by the team. In the next phase, I will write a documentation explaining all the use cases as our use case document.
This document, Database Design Version 1, is available to download from DropBox. In case of any modification, please update all the versions. You have to update word document, PDF document in DropBox Folder and Also this post.
After some works on database design, as our first version, I came up with the following schema. I tried to consider all aspects of the work and all the requirements and needs. With the helps of questionnaire (the result will be published in near future), the requirement analysis (the document can be found in this blog) and domain analysis (the document can be found in this blog), this is the general schema of the database.
SOTON Student Connect Database Design Version 1
Upon acceptance, a document explaining all the tables, relationships, and properties will be provided.
This document, Use Case Version 2, is available to download from DropBox. In case of any modification, please update all the versions. You have to update word document, PDF document in DropBox Folder and Also this post.
This is the second version of our use case diagram. In this use case, I add the System and Admin role and made some modifications to use cases.
SOTON Student Connect Use Case Diagram Version 2
Upon acceptance, a document explaining all the use cases will be provided.
This document, Use Case Version 1, is available to download from DropBox. In case of any modification, please update all the versions. You have to update word document, PDF document in DropBox Folder and Also this post.
This is the first version of our use case diagram. For the next phase, we have to add use cases for system and admin actor and make any necessary modifications to this one as well.
SOTON Student Connect Use Case Diagram Version 1
Upon acceptance, a document explaining all the use cases will be provided.
This document, Tools and Technologies, is available to download from DropBox. In case of any modification, please update all the versions. You have to update word document, PDF document in DropBox Folder and Also this post.
DropBox has both web and desktop access.
Another tool that we use almost every day is Facebook. We created a group in Facebook and in this group we share our thoughts and any problems that we encounter. Besides all the meetings with our mentor and other meetings with each other, this group in Facebook helps us a lot in improving the project.
This document, Justification Rationale and Benefits – Advantages – Effects, is available to download from DropBox. In case of any modification, please update all the versions. You have to update word document, PDF document in DropBox Folder and Also this post.
This document discusses justification of project regarding advantages, benefits, and effects on social life of students.
This document is a work in progress.
Provide a social network website for students of the University of Southampton to facilitate their life and their education
We are going to design and develop a web-based social network website which provides various services.
Our main goal in this project is to facilitate the life and help newcomers when they start their journey to Southampton. Currently there are many portals and applications developed by the University of Southampton and students in different platforms such as PCs and iPhones. However they are not centralized and most of students are not aware of all of them and how they can help them.
We identified the very first needs of newcomers and other requirements through their studies and try to design and develop a web-based social network site. At first, students do not know each other and they do not know about others’ preferences and interests so it might be hard for them to find friends. Especially this is the case for shy people. So, we thought of a website to assist everyone in finding friends.
These are a brief summary of all the benefits that we are expecting from this system. Basically, we are going to facilitate living and socializing for all students of the University of Southampton and specially newcomers. The current student portal is sussed which does not meet all the students needs and specially there is nothing related to socializing in sussed account.
The vision for this project is very ambitious however in the first phase we limit ourselves to those important features.
In progress
In progress
This system will be designed and developed taking students into consideration. We are going to analyse user needs based on questionnaire and interviews, design a website which they prefer, and provide sections which satisfy students’ needs. By using this application, students can find new or existing friends and make the most out of their education.