CMSC434:  Introduction to Human-Computer Interaction

 

Visual Basic Project #1

Designing a Doctor’s Appointment Scheduling Interface

Due September 23, 2004 at 9:30am

 

This first project is designed to give you experience designing a user interface in Visual Studio.  You may use any programming language in Visual Studio .Net 2003.  Keeping with the course theme of medical-related applications, this assignment will allow you to design you own doctor’s appointment scheduling interface.

 

Interface Requirements

 

As part of the interface, there is a minimum amount of information you need to collect from the patient in order to schedule the appointment.  You can decide how to collect this information in any manner you wish, provided that the interface is designed in accordance with the standards presented in the course text, Designing the User Interface, 4th Edition.  The information you should gather is:

Patient Information

·        Patient’s name

·        Patient’s insurance

·        Patient’s primary doctor

 

Appointment Information

·        Doctor to be seen

·        Date of appointment

·        Beginning time of appointment (office hours are from 8am-5pm, the last appointment must end by 5pm)

·        Type of appointment

o       First time visit (45 minutes)

o       Physical (1 hour)

o       Consultation (10 minutes)

o       Regular Visit (30 minutes)

o       Follow-up (15 minutes)

o       Emergency (what ever slot is available)

·        If it is a regular or emergency, a description of the reason for the visit

·        Does the patient want a phone call a day in advance of the appointment? (yes/no)

 

Other

·        There must be a button to enter the appointment into the program

·        There must be a button to clear out the information and reset the screen

·        There must be a button to give the user help

·        There must be a header for the name of the clinic.  E.g. Terrapin Torturers

 

Project Guidelines

• This is an introduction to the VB design environment.  So basically just drag-and-drop controls to enhance your interface and set a few options here and there (in the properties dialog).  No coding is required.  However, some obvious restrictions should be enforced when appropriate.   E.g.  if you use groups of radio boxes, there should be one and only one item in each group that is selected.  (Still, no coding is needed in this case.)
• You should use only a single form.  Your form should be no larger than 800x600.
• The focus is on the interface, and the grading criterion is centered on your interface design.  Use command-buttons, check boxes, images, color, labels, etc.  wherever and whichever way you feel would make an effective user interface.
• You must do this project individually.
• You should only use Microsoft Visual .NET 2003 for this assignment.  The programming languages supported are Visual Basic, Visual C++, Visual C#, Visual J#

 

Grading Criteria

 

The grading for this assignment will be based on three criteria:

1. Completeness:  Did you do everything that was listed in the interface requirements?  Did you create a screenshot of your interface with the correct name?  Did you email your assignment with the correct subject?
2. Graphic Design:  Did you make good use of concepts such as alignment, group, consistency, etc?
3. Aesthetics:  Did you use an appealing interface by using appropriate fonts, colors, images, etc?

 

Submission Instruction

 

You will submit your assignments electronically.  All that is required is a JPEG screenshot of the interface you designed.  You should name your screenshot

‘<lastname>-<first-initial>-VB1.jpg’.

 

(Refer to Appendix 1 for information on how to create a screenshot in Windows and detailed instructions on naming your file)

 

Once you have created your screenshot, you should email it as an attachment to the TA .  The subject to the email should be:

CMSC434-<lastname>-<first-initial>-VB1

 

The email must be received by 9:30am on September 23, 2004.

 

Appendix 1:  Capturing a Screenshot in Windows

 

Capturing a screenshot in Windows is easy.  First, run your Visual Studio project.  Select the window of the Visual Studio project running  then hit the alt key and the ‘Print Screen’ key on your keyboard.  (This should copy only the current window on top) Open up a graphics program, such as Paint or Photoshop, and select Paste from the Edit menu.  This should paste an entire screenshot of your desktop.  Finally, save this image as a JPEG with the following name:

‘<lastname>-<first-initial>-VB1.jpg’

(Replace ‘<first-initial>’ with your first initial and ‘<lastname>’ with your last name.  So if your name was John Doe, you should submit a file named doe-j-VB1.jpg)