CHAPTER FOUR -DESIGN PHASE

4.0 Introduction:

Having successfully gone through the existing system, and fully understood how it operates. The
next step is to design the proposed system. Systems design is the process of defining the
architecture, components, modules, interfaces, and data for a system to satisfy specified
requirements. Systems design is the application of systems theory to product development. The
operating environment is established, major subsystems and their inputs and outputs are defined
and processes are allocated to resources. This entails how the proposed system is going to be
developed, coded and deployed.

4.1 Context diagram of online sales and quotation

Whitten, J. L. et al. (2001) says that a context diagram is an illustration that provides information
on the way a system works or the general operations that a system takes. The following diagram
is a context diagram of the current system.

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 (ADMIN)

FIG 4.1 context

diagram-online sales

4.2 Data Flow Diagram

A data flow diagram (DFD) illustrates how data are processed by the system in terms of inputs
and outputs. As its name indicates its focus is on the flow of information, where data comes
from, where it goes and how it gets stored.

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 FIG 4.2 Data
Flow Diagram

4.3 System flow chart of online sales

It shows a better understanding of proposed methods and procedures of the system. The
importance of the system flow chart is to represent a series of events diagrammatically as shown
in the fig overleaf.

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 REGISTERED USER NEW USER
LOG IN REGISTRATION

ENTER USERNAME ENTER

AND PASSWORD DETAILS

PROMPT FOR RETRY

Incorrect
CONFIRM CONFIRM

VIEW PRODUCT

QUOTE PRODUCT

CUSTOMER PLACES Out of order

AND WAITS FOR GIVE
ORDER QUOTE

PURCHASE

RECEIVE
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

RECEIVE DELIVERY

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FIG 4.3 system flow chart of online sales
 4.3 Use Case diagram

Customer
Admin
(Management)

Teller

FIG 4.4
Use case diagram of online sales

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4.5 Class diagram

The diagram shows the classes of a sales system and how they are related. Whitten, J. L. et al.
(2001)

Customer Admin

▪ Name ▪ Name

▪ Password ▪ Password
Teller
▪ Town ▪ Email
▪ Name
▪ Email login()
▪ Password
login() add user()
▪ Email
register() remove user()
login()
change password() change password()
change password()
request quote() quote()
quote()
buy() invoicing()
invoicing()
submit() view payment()
view payment()
reset() add product()
add product()
view product()
view product()
edit product()
edit product()

FIG 4.5
Class diagram of the
online sales system

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4.6 Database design

Dennis and Wixon (1997) are of the view that the success of the project in meeting the
information requirements is going to depend on the structure and functionality of the database.
The database should ensure data integrity, consistency and reduce data redundancy. It also has to
be efficient in processing.

A database is an overall collection of related data on a computer system in the bid to support
multi-users in different locations. Data storage depends on database containing tables of the
various attributes normalised in accordance to the various transactions.

The system is going to use a database management rather than a file based system because of the
following reasons;

 A database supports multi-user

 A database ensures data security and availability
 The database can cope with the needs of the users and support efficient retrieval of data.
 MySQL is going to be used for the database design

4.6.1 Database architecture design

This shows how data is organised in a database environment in the form of layers known as
schemas. The layers involved are Conceptual and Application. The diagram below shows the
database architecture of the proposed system. Figure 4.6 shows database architecture.

4.6.2 Database security

The Manager is the only one who will have access rights to the database. The users will have
right to post details to the database without right of modification.

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Database Architecture design

FIG 4.6 database architecture design

4.6.3 Entity Relation Diagram

The analyst is going to use Entity relationship diagrams to visualize objects, physical and logical
structure of the database. These are going also to show the relationship between the entities.

The elements of an ER diagram are:

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 FIG 4.7
E R diagram
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4.6.4 Database storage

The following are the view of database tables of the system

TABLE 4.1 ADMIN LOG IN

ATTRIBUTES DATA TYPE DESRIPTION

USERNAME VARCHAR(30) ADMIN USERNAME

PASSWORD VARCHAR(30) UNIQUE PASSWORD

TABLE 4.2 SELLER LOG IN

ATTRIBUTES DATA TYPE DESRIPTION

USERNAME VARCHAR(30) SELLER USER NAME

PASSWORD VARCHAR(30) UNIQUE PASSWORD

TABLE 4.3 CUSTOMER LOG IN

ATTRIBUTES DATA TYPE DESRIPTION

CUSTOMER NAME/ID INT(11) USER NAME

PASSWORD VARCHAR(30) UNIQUE PASSWORD

TABLE 4.4 ADD SELLER

ATTRIBUTES DATA TYPE DESRIPTION

NAME VARCHAR(30) ADMIN NAME

SURNAME VARCHAR(30) ADMIN NAME

USER ID VARCHAR(30) ADMIN USER ID

PASSWORD VARCHAR(30) UNIQUE PASSWORD

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TABLE 4.5 CUSTOMER REGISTRATION

ATTRIBUTES DATA TYPE DESRIPTION

FIRSTNAME VARCHAR(30) CUSTOMER NAME

SURNAME VARCHAR(30) CUSTOMER SURNAME

NATIONAL ID VARCHAR(30) NATIONAL ID

E MAIL VARCHAR(30) E MAIL ADDRESS

CELL NUMBER VARCHAR(10) CELLPHONE NUMBER

ADDRESS VARCHAR(50) PHYSICAL ADDRESS

USERNAME/ ID VARCHAR(30) CUSTOMER USER NAME

PASSWORD VARCHAR(30) UNIQUE PASSWORD

TABLE 4.6 UPDATE PARTS

ATTRIBUTES DATA TYPE DESRIPTION

CAR MODEL VARCHAR(30) CAR MODEL

PART NAME VARCHAR(30) PART NAME

SIZE/TYPE VARCHAR(30) PART SIZE

NEW/OLD
DESCRIPTION VARCHAR(3)
PRICE OF PART
PRICE INT(20)

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TABLE 4.7 PARTS REGISTRATION

ATTRIBUTES DATA TYPE DESRIPTION

CAR MODEL VARCHAR(30) THE CAR’SMODEL TYPE

PART NAME VARCHAR(30) NAME OF PART

SIZE/TYPE VARCHAR(30) PART SIZE

DESCRIPTION VARCHAR(30) NEW/OLD

PRICE TAG INT(20) SELLING PRICE

TABLE 4.8 UPDATE SELLERS

ATTRIBUTES DATA TYPE DESRIPTION

ID INT(20) UNQUE

NAME VARCHAR(30) SELLER NAME

SURNAME VARCHAR(30) SELLER SURNAME

USER ID VARCHAR(30) USER NAME

PASSWORD VARCHAR(30) UNIQUE PASSWORD

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TABLE 4.9 VIEW PARTS

ATTRIBUTE DATA TYPE DESRIPTION

ID INT(20) PARTS ID
CAR MODEL
VARCHAR(30) THE CAR’S MODEL TYPE
SPARE PART
VARCHAR(30) NAME OF PART
SIZE/TYPE
VARCHAR(20) SIZE OF PART

DESCRIPTION VARCHAR(30) NEW/OLD

PRICE INT(30) PRICE OF PART

4.7 Interface/forms design:

The following principles of user interface design were used.

4.7.1 Layout
The forms and reports are going to have the following nature. A header section which identifies the
section the user is at that moment when that form is open, the details section which contains the data
the user will be working with and the footer which contains normally the controls of the form.

4.7.2 Content awareness

The interfaces are to be designed in such a way that the user will be aware where to find the different
controls on the form such that with much use he will get used to the form that he will be aware were
to find which control on each interface.

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4.7.3 User experience
Simplicity in designing input, output forms and reports was my goal of interface design. Forms
which are difficult for the user to use will result in the project becoming a failure at implementation
as they will resort to old system which they are used to because they can’t use the new system. It
should be taken into account that the interfaces should be easy to get used to, even with people with
low computer skills.

4.7.4 Effort

Minimum effort is needed in using the system. Simple clicks of the mouse on icons and buttons is
used and entering data through the key board is minimised. Once data has been captured it is used
over and over again, there is no need to recapture the same data at different levels of processing. Also
the entering of data is controlled to ensure correct data is captured before it is updated to the
database.

4.8 Home page

The following diagram shows the home page of the online sales system. All the other forms have
links from this home page.

FIG 4.8 HOME PAGE FORM

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4.9 Admin Login

4.10 Add Seller

FIG 4.8 HOME PAGE FORM

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4.11 Update Sellers

4.12 Seller Login

FIG 4.9 SELLER LOG IN FORM

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4.13 Update Parts

FIG 4.10 UPDATE PARTS FORM

4.14 Buy Parts

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 FIG 4.11 BUY PARTS FORM

4.15 Register Parts

FIG 4.11 REGISTER PARTS FORM

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4.16 View parts

4.17 SearchFIG 4.12 VIEW PARTS FORM

sales

FIG 4.13 SEARCH SALES FORM

4.12 Customer Registration forms

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 FIG 4.14
4.13 CUSTOMER
Output REGISTRATION FORM
forms.

The following output form shows that he has successfully bought

parts.

LOGO WELCOME TO DYNAMIC SPARE PARTS

Your successful transactions

Nat Full Cell Acc Item Item Item Item Qnty Date

ID name No No model size descr price Of

transaction
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Fig 4.15 Output form

4.13 Recommendations

The design phase has converted the logical design of the system into a physical design. With the
physical aspect of the system provided, the management had an appreciation of what the system
is and how it is going to work. Therefore, it had been recommended that the project must
continue

4.14 Conclusion

The design phase outlined how the system is going to work in an actual environment. This has
been achieved by listing all the processes, showing input and output forms and listing the
hardware and software requirements. Now there it is safe to implement and test the system, and
this will be discussed in the next chapter.

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