ONLINE AUCTION SYSTEM

Department of Computer & Information SciencesFaculty of Science & Technology

University of Macau, Macau

2008 NOV 15 at 10 am s300Team06 - CHEANG, Ka Wai

- CHIU, Chi Chong

- NG, Ka Kit

- LEE, Weng Lon

Introduction

Online auction system is a system that can perform those functions:

Accept products from merchants or customers for auction

Manage the bidding process autonomously

Customer bid price for products.

Flexible Solution

The online auction system is a flexible solution for supporting online auctions. The system has been designed to be highly-scalable and capable of supporting large numbers of bidders in an active auction. The auction takes place for all the items in the catalog over a fixed period of time.

The objective of online auction system is mainly to provide a different platform for people to purchase the needed thing by taking an online auction. People can just press some buttons and then they will open an online auction.

Stakeholder

Primary Stakeholder Secondary Stakeholder Facilitator Stakeholder Indirect Stakeholder

Primary Stakeholder

Context of use - Online auction system is embedded in a context that affects buyers and sellers. Buyers are people who want to buy things from the online auction system. Sellers are people who want to sell things from the online auction system.

Cognitive ability - A user's cognitive abilities affect the success of the auction system. Different cognitive abilities imply different result. The educational software background knowledge will also imply different result.

Physical ability - Users' physical abilities may play a large role in interaction design. The human condition includes wide ranges of abilities in all of the senses, of which the visual, auditory, and haptic senses are the most relevant for Online auction system design.

Individual profile - Different age of people may have different feeling about the online auction system. The position a person in should be the largest part to affect the use of online auction system.

Secondary Stakeholder

We want to construct a B2C Online Auction System. Firstly, it is the most essential factor, is that we need some buyers and sellers to start an event of auction inside this online auction environment. Therefore, the secondary stakeholder should be our buyers who receive output from the design and sellers who supplies input from the design.

Facilitator Stakeholder

This is quite obvious. Namely, the facilitator stakeholders are the programmers who are taking charge of this project. Actually, we four persons may belong to this category of stakeholders.

Indirect Stakeholder

Indirect stakeholders should be our supervisor, Vat Kam Hou, who also is our instructor of course sftw 300 – software psychology. In addition, the investors who are willing to invest their money inside this design would be our indirect stakeholders.

Architectural Design

Introduction of the System Planning the interview

Read background material Establish interviewing objectives Decide whom to interview Prepare the interviewee Decide on question types and structure

Summary of the interview Interviewer Interviewee Objectives of the interview Summary, may quote the important Q&A also

Context Diagram with explanation Needs and benefits of the System

Brainstorming

Risk and possible solution Who do what? How to define the interface? How to receive the deal (payment) from

the online environment? Report a schedule in this meeting.

Card Sorting

There are twenty-one cards during the discussion. They are “Design Flowcharts”, “Waterfall Model”, “Firewalls”, “Time”, “Banner”, “Cost”, “Security Algorithm”, “Wireframes”, “Low-Fidelity Prototypes”, “Security protected”, “Buyer Account”, “Interface”, “Seller Account”, “Online Auction Account”, “Menus”, “Software Engineering Management”, “Logic of the execution”, “Risk of Flowcharts”, “Human Resource”, “Flowcharts Construction”, and “anti-virus software”.

Card Sorting

Through selecting the category, we found that there are five groups for those twenty-one cards:

Secuity protected group: Security Algorithm, Anti-virus Software, FireWalls?.

Logic of the execution: Flow charts Construction, design flowcharts, Waterfall Model.

Interface: Low-Fidelity Prototypes, Wireframes, Menus, Banner.

Online Auction Account: Buyer Account, Seller Account.

Risk Flowcharts: Time, Cost, Human Resource, and Software Engineering Management.

Scenarios

Our project – Online Auction System can add an auction event by providing to the accounts. The accounts contain different types of buyers and sellers. The system should display entirely auction deal in the online environment. In addition, we should enhance the readability and comprehensibility to provide more clearly service when users are using this system.

Sellers can provide a product and establish an opened-auction event in the online system. Seller may initiate a minimum purchase price in order to let other buyers to purpose a new price.

Scenarios

Buyers have several functions in this system. There is one function to buyers to apply for a new price for a particular deal in the online environment. Each buyer should purpose a higher price than the previous transaction deal in order to continue the auction event and wait a range of time to let another person to purpose a new purchase price.

Finally, the deal will be successful only when that buyer has enough evidence to show that he has enough money to carry on the deal. Therefore, it is essentially to create an electronic-fund-payment account for the online-payment. Users need to put their money to that account before purposing a new purchasing price that is being excess.

Flowcharts

Step-wise flowchart

Flowcharts

Usability testing flowchart

Cognitive Walkthroughs

How to appeal other persons to come in our online auction system to become one of our members to buy or sell his or her product?Our current scheme is that firstly it is opened for everyone and only need to pay a little money to be one of our members inside the online auction system. Then users can be our members, say buyer account or seller account.

Cognitive Walkthroughs

How to manage the deal so that each user that purposes a new purchase price has enough money to carry on the deal?As discussed before, each buyer account has money wealth inside. If a buyer has purposes a price that is already greater than the current balance of the account, then the system will show an error message to alert users need to install more money to carry on that deal.

Cognitive Walkthroughs

How can we develop powerful security protected software to coping with hackers and virus?We apply cryptographic algorithm inside this online auction system. Cryptographic algorithm standards are made public knowledge so that security depends upon secrecy of key. Applications of cryptography can give this system more confidentiality, more integrity, more authentication, non repudiation, and signatures and certificates.

Cognitive Walkthroughs

How are our current security strategies?Our current security strategies are based on Defense in Depth – do not depend on just one security mechanism, however strong it may seem to be; instead, install multiple mechanisms that back each other up.Defense in depth is to make the attempt too risky or too expensive for the attackers by adopting multiple mechanisms that provide backup and redundancy for each other; network security (a firewall), host security(bastion host), and human security (user education, careful system administration).

Cognitive Walkthroughs

Which types of firewall can we choose in order to apply those two security strategies in terms of firewall?We use packet filter firewall. Packet filter can provide a choke point, for instance, single point of entry to Internet. It can detect if an external packet is spoofing as an internal packet. It also can help to protect a whole network and be transparent to users. To deal with high traffic flows and restrict traffic to well known services such as online auction event, it is a good choice for select packet filters.

Cognitive Walkthroughs

How are the prevention strategies of virus infection inside our current topic?We can decide not to share executable code with an infected source. Executable code can be hidden in files (or in attachments in email) containing large data sets, such as pictures or read-only documents.

Cognitive Walkthroughs

What is a perfect security policy that we are willing to establish?Security policies are used for several purposes: recognizing sensitive information assets, clarifying security responsibilities, promoting awareness for existing employees, and guiding new employees. For users, security policies provide their expectation on confidentiality, integrity, and continuous availability. For owners, it should reflect the expectations and needs of owners.

Heuristic Evaluation

Pages Grouping Forms Icons Menus Color Formatting

Wireframe

Personas

Personas are archetypes of actual users, defined by the user’s goals and attributes.

A persona is a fictional person who represents a major user group for your site.(city by http://www.usability.gov/analyze/personas.html#whatis)

Personas - Story

WingWing is a normal teenager, and like collect Japan Robert model. But he is not burned in a rich family, so he can not buy some admire model in his childhood. When he grow up, and find a stable task, hw will always skill each auction web and bid some classic model to himself.Although he has try many time bid, but for some problem to make he shopping online is so little inconvenient .as he has not any ID card and he like in other country, so the paying and transition need he solve. Further, one seller has not any honest for his/her provide good, some say no this good‘s exist at the business‘s last confirm; some will sell other good whish is not the same of seller order. Now he fined some advertisement which can help him, the advertisement, they can substitute client to bid and transition the goods to their agency, but the price is not fixed and need pay extra money and honest degree is different ; but he think it is the price to merit because it can save time , convenient take and direct. ,

Personas - Story

StevenSteven is a year 4student who study SOFTWARE ENGINEER IN UMAC,he will face graduate and leave school quickly .but his part time job can not pay off college loan and need give family expense to his parent. he find there many text book and many computer component are use less ,and he find he utilize some apply program to latent client with auction system ;so he want start a auction account ,and publish some advertisement. But he is a new recruit’s he always have operate problem and trouble, such as how to connect payer and gain money etc.which people can help him ?how the auction web can service to and supple what tools to him?

Comprehensivibility

Comprehensivibility

The style of wireframe enhances our comprehensibility. It is very essential for us to build up a good quality for the online auction environment.

the style of a particular product is the key to create a brand name and hence increase the value of that product.

Learnability

Learnability is useful since even if an interface has high comprehensibility, it might still involve a learning curve.

Effectiveness/Usefulness

Effectiveness and usefulness must be considered as one of the most essential components during the design phase. Effectiveness service can earn a high reliability for the online auction system.

Safety

Flexibility

Proportion

Golden Ratio

Proportion

Fibonacci Series

Screen Complexity

What is screen complexity?The measure of complexity developed by Tullis (1984) can be used to calculate the relative complexity, and therefore the difficulty, of a design

And there is a formula to measure:

Resolution

What use for the resolution?When the user’s objective is satisfied, he or she will consider the task complete and move on to the next goalActually, the most use is when our finish the task and ready to leave, the interface will ask to do something complete to quiz or remind our to finish the process for move on to the next goal.For our auction system, when the user have finish transaction and ready to close the web, we will give a advice:

Summary

Our Online Auction System is designed by many principles which are described in the textbook.

Our design is comprehensive for the people no matter the client team and the developer team.

The process for doing this team assignment makes us know more about Problem Based Learning, which is suggested by Mr.Vat.

Summary

The quality of a product or a design can be better after applying different types of the techniques introduced by the text book.