Chapter 5:

System Design
Wassihun Beyene
System Design
 System design is the most critical phase in the developments of a system.
o Based on the user requirements and the detailed analysis of the existing
system, the new system must be designed.  by system analyst
o The goal of the system design process is to produce a model or representation
of a system, which can be used later to build that system.
 System design is a combination of System and Design.
o System: Assembling of different components for the specified requirements
o Design: How efficiently the assembly of different components is done.
 System design includes the design of application, network, databases, user
interfaces, and system interfaces.
 In this phase transform the SRS document converted into logical structure,
which contains detailed and complete set of specifications that can be
implemented in a programming language.
System Design
 Systems design indicates a systematic approach to the design of a system. It may
take a bottom-up or top-down approach.

o Top-down approach goes from the general to the specific.

o Bottom-up approach begins at the specific and moves to the general.

 Systems design considerations include both the business and technical
requirements of customers with the goal of providing a quality product that meets
the user requirements.
 Successful systems design is dependent upon project management, that is,
 Being able to control costs,
 Control develop timelines,
 Control secure resources, and manage risks.
The Scope of System Design
 Scope of system design is a bridges the gap between the domain of the problem
and the existing system

How?
1) Identify design goals
2) Model the new system design as a set of subsystems
3) Address the major design goals.

System Design
 Reduce gap between problem and an existing machine
 Decomposes the overall system into manageable parts
 Uses the principles of cohesion and coherence
Properties of System Design
The best possible system designs should have the following properties;
1. Practicality
o The quality of the design able to provide effective solutions to problems.

2. Correctness
o The design should be correct as per the requirements.
3. Completeness
o The design should have all the components like data structures, modules, external
interfaces etc.
4. Efficiency
o Expensive & scarce resources should be used efficiently by the system.
5. Flexibility
o The system should be modifiable depending on the changing needs of the user.
Objective of System Design
 The main objectives of system design are the following
o Satisfy the user requirements
o Satisfy the customer
o Reduce development costs
o Provide reliability
o Support maintainability
o Plan for future modifications
Types of System Design
 There are two basic types of system design.
o Such as logical and physical System designs

1. Logical System Design

o It is the abstract representation of the data flow, inputs, and outputs of the
system.
o It describes the inputs (source), output (destination), database (data stores),
procedures (data flows) all in a format that meets the user requirements.
o The most common describe tool for logical design are:
 ER Diagram,
 Data Flow Diagram,
 Gantt chart
o Logical design concerns with the specifications of major features of the system
that would meet the objectives
Logical design includes
1.Reviews the current system
Its data flows, file content, volume, frequencies. etc.
2.Prepare output Specification
Format, content & frequency of reports. input specifications
3.Prepare input Specifications
Format, content & most of the input functions.
4.File Specification
The input data is generally stored in files in a logical manner.
5.Procedure Specification
This involves specifications of how processing will be performed.
Cont..
2. Physical Design
o The physical design which follows the logical designs produce actual program
software, files & a working system.
o The process of actual input and output of system is related to physical design.

The physical design includes

o Specify the Input/output Media

o Database design

o User Interface design

o System Interface design

o Programs design, Data design

o Specify back up procedures and make a test plan

Physical design includes
o Specify the Input/output Media

o Database design

o User Interface design

o System Interface design

o Programs design, Data design

o Specify back up procedures and make a test plan

Criteria for System Design Goals
1. Performance Criteria

o Response time -- how quickly are user requests acknowledged?

o Throughput -- how many tasks can the system accomplish in a certain amount of time?

o Memory requirements -- How much space is required?

2. Cost Criteria -- initial system development cost

o Deployment cost -- installation and training

o Upgrade cost -- translating data from previous system, backwards compatibility requirements?

o Maintenance cost -- bug fixes and future enhancements

o Administration cost -- cost of running the system

Cont..
3. Dependability Criteria

o Availability -- percentage of time the system can be used to accomplish normal user tasks

o Robustness -- how does the system manage with invalid user input?

o Reliability -- difference between specified and observed behavior

o Fault tolerance -- how does it handle erroneous conditions?

o Security -- how does it survive malicious attacks?

o Safety -- ability to avoid risking human lives, even through errors and failures

 This one is very important!

 Ex: onboard system of an airplane, software running an x-ray machine, etc

Cont..
4. Maintenance criteria

o Extensibility -- how easy to add functionality

o Modifiability -- how easy to change functionality

o Adaptability -- how easy to adapt to different application domain

o Portability -- how easy to port to a different computer platform

o Readability -- how easy to understand the coed

o Tractability of requirements -- mapping of code to requirements

5. End-user criteria

o Utility -- how well does it support the end user's work?

o Usability -- how easy is it to use?

1. User Interface Design
 User interface design or UI design generally refers to the visual layout of the elements that a
user might interact with in a website, or technological product.

 It is focuses on do in advance what users might need to do and ensuring that the interface
has elements that are easy to access, understand, and use to facilitate those actions.
 User interfaces are the access points where users interact with designs.

 They come in the following three formats:  it depending upon the underlying
hardware and software combination.

o Graphical user interfaces (GUIs)— It is a form of user interface that allows users to interact
with electronics devices through graphical icons and audio indicator.
o Voice-controlled interfaces (VUIs)— makes spoken human interaction with computers
possible, using speech recognition to understand spoken commands and answer question
o Gesture-based interfaces— gesture recognition uses computer sensors to detect and
understand human gestures and movements.
 Characteristics of Good UI design
 Characteristics of good user interface design
o It should be clear and concise
o It should be simple to use Features of Good UIs
o It should be reliability  Increased efficiency
o It should be familiar  Improved productivity
o It should be attractive  Reduce errors
o It should be efficient  Reduce Training
o It should be error free  Improved Acceptance

 Error-free.
 Easy to use.
 Easy to understand.  Top golden rules for UI design will be the following 4E
 Effective for the end goal or product.
Characteristics of Poor UI design
 Characteristics of poor user interface design
o Unnecessary complexity
o Lack of contact information
o Inconsistent UI elements
 Font styles for title, paragraph, links, etc.
 Line thickness
Consequences of poor UIs design
o Lack of text hierarchy
 Decreased revenue,
o Unaligned elements
 Decrease efficiency
o Low contrast
 Decrease retention rate
o Confusing forms
 Negative effect on productivity
o Using irrelevant and low quality images
 Reduced development cost
User Interface Design process
 To increase the chances of success when creating user interfaces, most designers
follow this interface design principles/process.
2. Database design
 Database is “a usually large collection of data organized especially for rapid search
and retrieval.
 Database design is the organization of data according to a database model.
o The designer determines what data must be stored and how the data elements
interconnect. With this information, they can begin to fit the data to the database
model.
 Properly designed database are easy to maintain, improves data reliability and are
cost effective in terms of disk storage space.
 The database designer decides how the data elements correlate and what data must
be stored.
 The database design activity focuses on the design of the structure of databases and
files to be used by a proposed information system.
Cont..
 Database design includes
o Logical database design Modeling
 It refer to an abstract representation of the data flow, inputs, and outputs of the
system.
 Logical modeling involves gathering information about business processes,
business entities (categories of data), and organizational units.
 It describes the inputs (sources), outputs (destinations), databases (data stores),
procedures (data flows) all in a format that meets the user requirements.

o Physical database design modeling

 Physical modeling relates to the actual input and output processes of the system.
 It focuses on how data is entered into a system, verified, processed, and displayed
as output.
Why database design is important?
 A good database design is important in ensuring
o Consistent data,
o Elimination of data redundancy,
o Efficient execution of queries and
o High performance application.

 Taking the time to design a database

o Saves time and prevention during development, and
o A well-designed database ensures comfort of access and retrieval of information.

 Database design is the structure a database uses to plan, store and manage data.
o Data consistency is achieved when a database is designed to store only useful
and required data.
Physical Database Design Process
 Physical database design process
o Normalized relations
o Volume estimates
o Attribute definitions
o Response time expectations
o Data security needs
o Backup/recovery needs
o Integrity expectations
o DBMS technology used
Database development life cycle
 The Database Life Cycle (DBLC) contains six phases, as shown in the following Figure:
o database initial study,
o database design,
o implementation and loading,
o testing and evaluation,
o operation, and maintenance and evolution.
 Reading Assignment 2
 Discuss the following three user interface types
1. Graphical user interfaces (GUIs)
2. Voice-Controlled interfaces (VCIs)
3. Gesture-based interfaces (GBIs)

 Not more than two pages

 Submission date  Final Exam date (before exam start)!!!
Thank you!!