Design of the Human-Computer Interface for a Computer Aided Design Tool for the Normalization of Relations

摘要

The project involved the design and implementation of the human-computer interface of a computer aided design tool used in conjunction with a relational database. The tool gives a database administrator an interactive means of specifying functional dependencies for a given relation. It then executes a nonloss decomposition, normalizing the original relation to third normal form. Background information is provided on the fundamentals of a relational database and on the concept of functional dependencies. An understanding of the term user-friendly system is developed, together with a summary of state-of-the-art techniques and guidelines meant to help the system designer create more friendly interfaces. The program development process used in the project is described in detail. Major design issues of the project are described, with emphasis placed on areas impacting the system's human-computer interface. A tool is developed to measure and quantify the extent of user satisfaction in the software system. The measurement tool is implemented by a test group asked to evaluate the normalization tool interface. Results of the evaluation are presented. Keywords: Theses.