Conclusions
The current status of the DUSC system is: incomplete.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> The backend database has been comp= letely developed, but the front-end currently consists only of the general scheme, privileged user pages, and the calendar interface. Some functionality remains to be implemented, such as the attendance hour list, the event sign-up buttons, a= nd event attendance list. Communication between the front-end and back-end is currently being established. The initial goal= s set by the DUSC team were too ambitious and took too long to implement, and so = had to be paired down accordingly. Progress on the task was fairly significant, and the implemented functions work well= . Work on the DUSC system is expecte= d to continue until the product is complete.
Once the product is complete, there is still room for future improvement. Forms can= be added to allow for non-service events such as meetings and fellowship event= s to be added to the calendar. Als= o, over time the users of the DUSC system may express interest in additional features that were not exposed during the informal usability testing. For example, the users may wish to= see the attendance for an entire event summarized on one page, or have today’s events summarized next to the calendar, as shown in the second prototype. Finally, the DUSC = system should be tested on all of the operating systems and web browsers that those tested in the usability tests use (so far, the device has been tested in Li= nux, MacOSX, and Windows, and in Internet Explorer, Mozilla, and Safari, but we = have not tested all combinations of these).&nbs= p; While Flash is designed to be platform independent, there may be som= e slight differences in the ways the plug-ins work for different browsers/OSs, and t= he DUSC team should be certain that the device does in fact work in each combination of these.
A primary suggestion for future development is the addition of more privileged roles, including specific permissions for creat= ing users, editing members, creating projects, etc., and a webmaster role that would have access to forms that allow updating of the various “static” pages (these forms would allow for text and images to = be added to the content of the website without any necessary training in Flash development). The backend dat= abase was, in fact, designed with this extension in mind, and hopefully it will become reality.
While the DUSC product is incomplete, the DUSC team is
committed to finishing the product so that a working, standalone Dynamically
Updating Service Calendar can be used by the Epsilon Mu Chapter. Additionally, other chapters of Al=
pha
Phi Omega can take advantage of this product by simply modifying the text a=
nd images
to suit their needs. In fact,
several chapters from