designing business information systems apps websites and more

Designing Business Information Systems Apps, Websites, and More v 1.0 This is the book Designing Business Information Systems: Apps, Websites, and More (v 1.0) This book is licensed under a Creative Commons by-nc-sa 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/ 3.0/) license See the license for more details, but that basically means you can share this book as long as you credit the author (but see below), don't make money from it, and make it available to everyone else under the same terms This book was accessible as of December 29, 2012, and it was downloaded then by Andy Schmitz (http://lardbucket.org) in an effort to preserve the availability of this book Normally, the author and publisher would be credited here However, the publisher has asked for the customary Creative Commons attribution to the original publisher, authors, title, and book URI to be removed Additionally, per the publisher's request, their name has been removed in some passages More information is available on this project's attribution page (http://2012books.lardbucket.org/attribution.html?utm_source=header) For more information on the source of this book, or why it is available for free, please see the project's home page (http://2012books.lardbucket.org/) You can browse or download additional books there ii Table of Contents About the Authors Acknowledgements Dedication Preface Chapter 1: Information Systems in Your Life: Types of Systems and Careers 11 What Are Information Systems? 12 Designing Information Systems 18 The Big Picture 23 Chapter 2: Information Systems to Enhance Business: Business Process Redesign 26 What Is a Business Process? 27 Diagramming a Business Process 33 Chapter 3: Professionalism in Deliverables: Principles of Graphic Design 40 C.R.A.P Principles of Graphic Design 41 Chapter 4: User Centered Design: Design an iPhone App 65 MIS and Marketing 66 Laws of Branding 73 Icon Design 76 Plan and Design Your App 79 Chapter 5: Planning Usable Websites: Design a Website to Market the App 92 Top Ten Guidelines for Site Usability 93 Chapter 6: Build, Buy, or Reuse Solutions: Develop a Website to Market the App 104 Development Considerations 105 Google Sites 112 Database Integration 119 Chapter 7: Knowledge with Information Systems: Forecast Revenues and Expenses for the App 126 Development Options and Costs 127 Spreadsheets to Estimate Costs 135 iii Chapter 8: Decision Support: Determine Feasibility of a Business Loan for the App 148 Calculate the Terms of a Loan 149 Chapter 9: Industry Analysis: Smartphone Apps 161 Big Picture: Industry Analysis 162 Representing Industry Information Using Graphs 167 Chapter 10: Business Intelligence: Analysis of App Sales Data 182 Business Intelligence 183 Databases 190 Chapter 11: Writing the Business Case: Design a Report for the App 201 Pros and Cons of PowerPoint 202 Schematic Report 213 Template for the Report 218 Chapter 12: Presenting the Business Case: Design a Presentation for the App 224 Designing Presentations 225 Chapter 13: Establishing Credentials: Networking and Placement 242 Cover Letters, Resumes, Interviews 243 Chapter 14: Microsoft PowerPoint Techniques 260 Chapter 15: Cloud Computing Techniques 271 Dropbox 272 Chapter 16: Microsoft Excel Techniques 286 Chapter 17: Microsoft Access Techniques 299 Chapter 18: Microsoft Word Techniques 304 Appendix A: Fonts 310 Additional Font Categories 311 Combining Fonts and Effects 312 Font Categories in Detail 313 iv About the Authors Raymond D Frost Raymond D Frost is a Professor of Management Information Systems department at Ohio University He is also the Director of Studies for College of Business students in the Honors Tutorial College (HTC) Frost joined the College of Business in 1999 His primary research areas are instructional pedagogy, information design, and database design He was named 2010 Computer Educator of the Year by the International Association for Computer Information Systems He has also received multiple teaching awards at both the College and University level and holds the title of O’Bleness Teaching Chair Frost earned a doctorate in business administration and an M.S in computer science at the University of Miami (Florida), and received his B.A in philosophy at Swarthmore College He lives in Athens, Ohio with his wife, Tere, and two boys, Raymond and Luke Jacqueline C Pike Jacqueline C Pike is an Assistant Professor of Information Systems Management in the PalumboDonahue School of Business at Duquesne University She earned her B.B.A from the Honors Tutorial College and College of Business at Ohio University and her Ph.D from the Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh Her research interests include behavior in public online communities and social computing environments, the utilization of public online communities by organizations, human-computer interaction, and the visual display of information in a systems context About the Authors Lauren N Kenyo Lauren N Kenyo is an instructor in the Management Information Systems at Ohio University After graduating from Ohio University’s College of Business she went on to graduate from Ohio’s Masters of Business Administration Program In 2004 Kenyo came back to join the faculty as in instructor in the Management Information Systems department Kenyo currently resides in Streetsboro, Ohio with her husband, Eugene, and daughter, Katelyn Sarah E Pels Sarah E Pels is an Honors Tutorial College student in the College of Business at Ohio University Her research interests include creating diagrams to aid in software instruction Acknowledgements Faculty Contributions We are blessed to work with colleagues that value teaching and are truly concerned with the welfare of our students A number of our colleagues have made excellent suggestions and contributions to the course We give special thanks to Hao Lou, Vic Matta, Scott Wright, Justin Davis, Corrine Brown, Hala Annabi, Mike Martel, Sean McGann, Wayne Huang, Tod Brokaw, Ken Hartung, Jane Sojka, David Kirch, Susie Freeland, David Payne, Mira Straska, Dave Matthews, Craig Evans, Wanda Weinberg, Monica Cueto, and Nancy Matolak We give special thanks to Jeff Shelstad and Pam Hersperger of Unnamed Publisher who believed in our vision and shepherded us through this process We would also like to thank Alisa Alering, Brad Felix, and the many other employees at Unnamed Publisher that helped improve the text We would also like to thank members of the business community who reviewed and/or made contributions to the text In particular we thank Eugene Kenyo, IT College Recruiter for Progressive Insurance, Tom Starr of Tom Starr Live, and Ralph Riedel, Management Consultant, for their helpful suggestions Student Contributions We believe that Ohio University students are second to none They work hard, play hard, and have good values Our students are genuinely grateful for the effort we put into this course A few of them have helped critique, edit and proofread this text We are happy to say that they are not shy about voicing their opinions Their contributions have been invaluable In particular, Tucker Barlow and Chelsea Smith (diagrams), Julianne Shasteen (editing), Kaitlin Bolling (design), John Letsky (business intelligence), and Alex Minrisky (typesetting) Dedication To Isabel Maria Teresa Frost It is as if heaven had a special band of angels, whose office it was to sojourn for a season here, and endear to them the wayward human heart, that they might bear it upward with them in their homeward flight When you see that deep, spiritual light in the eye… hope not to retain that child; for the seal of heaven is on it, and the light of immortality looks out from its eyes —Harriet Beecher Stowe Preface Book Design Problem We set out to design an introductory course governed by four themes: Give students a good idea of what a career in MIS looks like by doing MIS Enhance the professionalism of deliverables by teaching design and usability concepts Promote creativity by assigning projects that demand it Teach students about cloud computing by having them cloud computing Students in an introductory Management Information Systems (MIS) course often ask what a career in MIS looks like Lacking a clear vision, they make their own assumptions Often they assume the career involves programming with little human interaction That MIS is a technical field could not be further from the truth MIS job descriptions typically require candidates to be able to collaborate, communicate, analyze needs and gather requirements They also list the need for excellent written and communication skills In other words, MIS workers are constantly interacting with other people both inside and outside the organization They are coming up with creative solutions to business problems This course is designed to help students get a feel for what a career in MIS would be like Our students report that they learn more about information systems from their internships than from their IS courses Consequently, we designed a course that looks very much like an internship—an introduction to the field followed by a substantial project Chapter begins by introducing the information systems landscape Here we discuss all the usual suspects: the information systems triangle, the systems development life cycle, transaction systems (ERP, SCM, CRM), collaboration systems, and business intelligence systems Other aspects of the landscape such as usability, outsourcing, database concepts and so forth are introduced throughout chapter in Chapter where they fit in naturally with the flow of the project Chapter is the substantial project which runs over a number of chapters Over the course of the semester, students plan, build, and develop a proposal for an iPhone Preface application They develop a very realistic mockup They also build a website to help market and support the app Students are engaged because the project is fun and feels real However, they are simultaneously learning business concepts and MIS skills Prior to the existence of this course, we were only able to give such an interesting project at the senior level Now, even as freshmen, students have a real experience of MIS in operation A by product of creating an engaging course is increased enrollment in the MIS major Even students who have never heard of MIS become excited about the major and either switch majors or add it as a double major or minor Many other books have students study tools and then a case By contrast, most of this book is a case Much like the real world, we introduce tools when needed, and only to the extent needed, to get at each part of the case Constraints The design team embraced a number of constraints in creating the book We acknowledged that this is a support course in terms of skills development for the other business disciplines—accounting, finance, management, and marketing Students should walk away with skills that they can take into the other disciplines The course requires mastery of a number of software skills—primarily from the Microsoft Office suite These include skills in PowerPoint, Word, and Excel We assumed no prior background knowledge on the part of the students Our experience is that students entering college have exposure to software skills, but not a mastery of applying those skills to solve business problems A number of skills are also learned about cloud computing These include Web site design and development (Google Sites, Google Gadgets, Google Docs), Color Management (Adobe Kuler Color), iPhone App mockups (MockApp), and online polls (PollEverywhere) The book was designed for both in class and online delivery and for small and large section sizes The non-traditional student population is a growing sector and many of those students choose to learn online Finally, the book needed to appeal to the business side of information systems We accentuate the creative aspects of the field rather than casting MIS as an overly technical, nerdy, machine-oriented discipline Chapter 17 Microsoft Access Techniques 300 Chapter 17 Microsoft Access Techniques 301 Chapter 17 Microsoft Access Techniques 302 Chapter 17 Microsoft Access Techniques 303 Chapter 18 Microsoft Word Techniques 304 Chapter 18 Microsoft Word Techniques 305 Chapter 18 Microsoft Word Techniques 306 Chapter 18 Microsoft Word Techniques 307 Chapter 18 Microsoft Word Techniques 308 Chapter 18 Microsoft Word Techniques 309 Chapter 19 Appendix A: Fonts 310 Chapter 19 Appendix A: Fonts 19.1 Additional Font Categories There are several font categories in addition to serif and sans serif fonts that may be utilized In earlier chapters, we discussed the difference between serif and sans serif fonts However, as you might imagine, the story is far more complex than that There are many more specific font categories These categories are based on fonts that share certain characteristics We consider five basic font classifications though there are more To create contrast, mix fonts from different classifications Never mix two fonts from the same category—it will look like a mistake The classifications are adapted from Robin Williams and are shown here enlarged to highlight the differences 311 Chapter 19 Appendix A: Fonts 19.2 Combining Fonts and Effects Combining fonts and effects can also be used to create different looks for fonts Normally, this is done to create contrast and visual interest The rule for combining fonts is very simple—you may combine fonts in a document as long as each font comes from a different category For example any of the combinations on the opposing page will work Want even more drama? Contrasting techniques may also be used in combination for dramatic effect See examples on opposite page Examples of Combining Fonts Examples of Combining Contrasting Techniques 312 Chapter 19 Appendix A: Fonts 19.3 Font Categories in Detail Here is a list of categorized fonts that may be available on a Microsoft Office machine: 313 Chapter 19 Appendix A: Fonts 19.3 Font Categories in Detail 314