Expert answer:Write a report of a design which is SOLAR HOME MAN
Solved by verified expert:I am already providing a rough report and exam report. just follow that rough report without any plagiarism. Your design has been a success and you have been asked to write a paper that describes how you developed that design and why you chose that particular interface. You will need to discuss how your design meets the user requirements and enhances their experience. You should mention what factors influenced your design, how they influenced it and why. You should discuss similar interfaces that have given you ideas or elements that you have used in your design. You will also need to discuss the reasoning behind your design and why YOU think that this design is the best solution to this particular problem. Your discussion should not exceed three (3) pages in length, excluding references. You will need to reference all literature, applications or websites mentioned using the APA 6th edition referencing style.
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STAR SOLAR HOME MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Assessment – Reflection
Task
Your design has been a success and you have been asked to write a paper that describes
how you developed that design and why you chose that particular interface. You will need to
discuss how your design meets the user requirements and enhances their experience. You
should mention what factors influenced your design, how they influenced it and why. You
should discuss similar interfaces that have given you ideas or elements that you have used in
your design. You will also need to discuss the reasoning behind your design and why YOU
think that this design is the best solution to this particular problem.
Your discussion should not exceed three (3) pages in length, excluding references. You will
need to reference all literature, applications or websites mentioned using the APA 6th edition
referencing style.
Rationale
The rationale of this assignment is to assess a student’s ability to discuss the reasoning behind
an interface in terms of principles of design, principles of usability and the user experience.
Marking criteria
Question
Design
discussion
HD
DI
CR
PS
FL
Comprehensive Very detailed Thorough
Adequate
Inadequate or
design
design
design
design
incomplete
discussion with discussion
discussion
discussion
design
excellent
with very good with suitable with good
discussion with
discussion of discussion of discussion of discussion of little or no
requirements, requirements, requirements, requirements, discussion of
influences,
influences,
influences,
influences,
requirements,
reasoning,
reasoning,
reasoning,
reasoning,
influences,
design &
design &
design &
design &
reasoning,
usability
usability
usability
usability
design &
principles, with principles,
principles,
principles,
usability
references
with references with references with references principles, with
few or no
references
Presentation, Up to 5 marks may be deducted for poor presentation, spelling and grammar
spelling and
Grammar (5 marks)
Your paper should include:
Page 1 of 9
Title – give a suitable title based on your design of the Home Solar Panel
Author(s) – give your full name
Author’s contact details (postal address and e-mail address) – your contact details,
refer to the university address
Abstract (refer to writing an executive summary)
1. Introduction – introduce your work and any other similar work of others found in
research papers. Include in text and end text references.
2. Reflection of the Interface Designs
a. User interface design for the Home Solar Panel–
Tell briefly, reasoning behind your design and why YOU think that this design
is the best solution to this particular problem, how your design adheres to
useability principles.
b. How my design meets the users requirements and enhances their experience
First mention what are the user requirements of this system and then justify
how your design meets them.
c. What factors influenced my design, how they influenced it and why
You may discuss different factors – ex: user requirements, any restrictions,
design principles, business/organisational requirements, competitors, etc.
d. Discussion on similar interfaces that have given you ideas or elements that you have used in your design
3. Conclusion
4. References
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Discussions about my project
This design is selected because of the following benefits:
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The design is simple and elegant
It has all the functionalities required for this project.
The screens are user friendly, and flexible
The user can update their settings
the graphs are user friendly and easy to understand
expansion of the menu items is easy and flexible
Users can easily operate this display
Weather report is also displayed using the control panel
The following are the design decisions:
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There will be graphs for power consumption for every type available like solar, grid
and battery:
The power consumption can be filtered based on daily, weekly and monthly.
the weather display will get the weather information through API calls which are
refreshed every hour, so that up to date information is available.
The weather can be sourced from various pre listed websites, which can be set
through the settings tab.
the control panel needs access to the internet for accessing this information.
The battery tab displays the following:
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Time of power available (if available)
time to recharge the battery
% of battery charge available
the total power produced by solar panels will be updated every 10 minutes, so that user will
have the update to date information of the power generation
the system also displays the power used based on settings of off peak and peak hours. The
users will have flexibility of setting the peak period and off peak period settings in the
control panel
payments to the power consumption can be done through payment tab which will be
developed in future.
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The Help functions will help the users to understand and study the existing features of the
control panel
The system functionality is simple and elegant and it follows the usability principles
the layout is user friendly, and user can navigate from one screen to another very quickly and
easily.
The control panel will display time on the screen. using the time functionality the control
panel will display:
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power consumed from grid till now for the day
power generated from solar panels till now for the day
power consumed from solar panels till now for the day
power saved to the battery till now for the day
power consumed from the battery till now for the day
The consumption will be displayed a down arrow to resemble the downward
the exporting will be displayed by a up arrow to resemble the uploading of power to grid or to
battery
The following are some of the design decisions taken in our team meeting:
It would easy to understand for the users if they can have each category in each section. so it
was decided to split the info into 6 screens
Each screen tab contains a name which is relevant to the functionality it displays, as it would
be easier for users to understand it.
Each screen elements and buttons placement are based on the usability principles and they
background colour is appealing.
The screen design is simple and flexible for the user to choose between the options they
would like to choose. The control panel displays a tab called weather which displays the
weather forecast for 7 days period, the customers will know if they can expect solar power
can be generated in a week time or not.
There is also a tab for Help functions, which explains each tab usage and what content it will
display.
All the tab screens were designed using the heuristic evaluation principles and there design is
user friendly.
Help users recognize, diagnose and recover from errors
This is the technique used in our system where User interface will provide error message,
cause of error, and suggestions for avoiding such errors. Errors are inadvertent in the user
journey. So we made an easy way where a check needs to be made if those errors are being
explained to the user in understandable language. . These error messages can be expressed in
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plain language (no codes), precisely indicated some problems, but constructively they are
resolved. This system is safe to use.
Flexibility and efficiency of use
The system should incorporate accelerators for speeding up inexperienced and experienced
user interactions .This feature request highlights the frustration of an advanced user not being
able to customize default features. In this feature Accelerators – unseen by the novice user
may often speed up the interaction for the expert user such that the system can cater to both
inexperienced and experienced users. Allow users to tailor frequent actions. In this particular
system, the user interface is easier for usage already; therefore, this aspect is maintained and
no issue is found regarding the same. There are no advanced option which keeps the interface
simple.
We have done the evaluation based on the heuristics of interface usability proposed by
NEILSEN. We do the assessment we carried out on the interface design created by group
number 23. There are 10 heuristics on which we assessed out of wich I am discussing the
following heuristics:
1. Flexibility and efficiency of use
2. Help users recognize, diagnose and recover from errors.
3. Help and documentation.
Help and documentation
Even though it is better if the system can be used without documentation, it may be necessary
to provide help and documentation. Any such information should be easy to search, focused
on the user’s task, list concrete steps to be carried out, and not be too large. Our design we
have included a feedback section and a chat search as the system should include feedback
section so that user can freely interact with the administration authority and chat section to
contact the admin or the assistance people from where they can get help. This makes our
system so simple to use and very convenient for the users. . The chat-box feature in the
system considers messaging the individuals without serving feedback to the operating
administration. From this contextual help like chat box service user need to go through the
manual contextual book to resolve the issue and the no need to consume more time. The get
explanation when ever and where ever they are needed most frequently.
There are several components we have used in our new design namely,
1. Buttons
2. Combo boxes
3. Text input boxes
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3. Graphs and images
4. Splitters
5. Line of text and Big titles for editing
6. Status messages(Alert Boxes)
7. Number steppers.
8. Date-pickers and Calendars
9. Multi line comment boxes and iOS displays panels.
10. Link bars
Each one of these have their own functionality as they increase the scope of usability and
making the system reliable for the user. In most real world applications small components
greatly affect the usability experience of the user . Maintaining Consistency and Standards is
one big task to handle and it should be apt to the users expectations. In our design all the
components and features have been designed in accordance with the 10 Usability Heuristics
of Nielsen.
In our old design we created a single screen that had links to all other screens which is placed
at the bottom of every screen. We had the same pattern for all other screens which made it
easy for the users. But the idea given by team-23 is to design individual screens with links to
other screens in the form of a link bar which would look more attractive. Also adding few
essential features made the design reliable in terms of accessibility and usability. The scope
for usability has increased when compared to the previous design, our previous design didn’t
have any functionalities specific to interface components but in this we have included
components that a user cn perform actions on. We included a screen called “More
Information” which is an extension for the Solar panel tab, it has information about ho much
power is being stored in the battery hourly, and to the current time. It also contains export
details meaning how much power is being exported to the grid along with battery status
details as shown in the figures.
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The user has freedom of control as he can use the RESET button to reset everything which
will take the system to the previous state if the user wishes to do so. All components used in
this screen resemble real world ones which the user can understand very easily and
comfortably use them as he would be familiar with the functionality of that icon.
Documentation which includes help and documentation all the description of all the modules
are clearly explained in the documentation page, user can have clear understanding of what is
solar panel, what is power panel and what is grid panel, in a very first step user can have a
overall description and understanding of all the modules which helps users to solve the
problems in early stage.
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In the presented interface and design the help option is most important for the user which
helps in many ways, while collecting the data from the data centre if any error occurred the
user definetly choose help option which has many options to choose, user can find the
support for the service using the help option. In any point of time user can urge for help and
support option which will directly connect to the customer service centre and can expect
service at earliest. In the help option all the three modules are described for the user
convenience nd are explained clearly, at first there is a facility like user can know all the
information about all the three modules like solar, power and grid modules.
There is lot of difference when compared to old design.new design is created by following all
the ten heuristics many changes have made in the new design lot of options have been
included.the visibility of the system is so clear to the user with easy options to underacstand
the options and design has been created according to real world phenmenon.the user can take
control over the system because of the easy options.the consistency and standards of the
design are so high which meet all the requirements of the ten heuristics.
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ABSTRACT:
Designing a “Control Panel” for Solar Home Management System was our primary goal and
as expected we have designed it keeping in mind all the requirements stated by the user and
also took special care while incorporating additional features, as they shouldn’t be a burden
to customers but instead they should assist the customers for carrying out their actions
efficiently and serve a specific purpose for which it is intended to. Most of the screens we
have used for the design have similar components with same functionality which makes the
design “Consistent”. Reliability is one important feature which makes the user to get things
done easily without facing any issues while operating the system. So, for making the system
reliable we have used simpler interface components and included only necessary features that
would enhance the usability experience in a great extent. The main features of the system
range from displaying the Battery, Power and Grid usage details, allowing the customers to
change the system settings, view the weather information etc. The design is gripping because
of its appearance and inclusion of all other additional features making it efficient, reliable and
productive for the users. We have revised similar interfaces of this kind and drawn out some
recommendations on the possible features that could be included into our system which
would enhance the user interface to a great extent. (Andrian, 2016). Apart from these 10
Heuristics there are other usability principles that re to be considered like “Less is Better”,
“Test”, “Help Users Decide” etc. We have tried to implement some of features which are
created based on these rules. (“15 Timeless Rules for Creating Intuitive Web Apps”, 2017)
INTRODUCTION:
Our design consists of three modules namely Solar Panel, Battery Panel and Grid Panel. They
are further divided into screens with interface components included in it with specific
functionality. All screens are normal displays that would be showing data about power being
generated and consumed from different contexts. Likewise the Battery Panel screen has data
about Battery details like Charge and discharge statistics with graphical options for creating
ease of use to the customers. In our design as per the user’s requirements we have included
all the features that a solar power system contains, using solar power which they can power
up their house and appliances as well. The other additional features provided consists of a
“Settings” screen that lets the users change or customize the options and see the change by
just hitting the button provided. Another most important thing to be noticed in the design is
the inclusion of error messages and status messages that will assist the users to be sure of
their actions. For this to happen we have used a certain set of interface components and
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screens that would better demonstrate the processes. We have also used Nielsen’s 10
Usability Heuristics which helped in getting an idea about design principles that guided us in
designing the interface according to the user’s requirements.
REFLECTION OF THE INTERFACE DESIGNS:
Reasons for this design:
a. The reason we have considered this as the best design is “The interface is designed in
accordance with the 10 Usability Heuristics which acts like rules for designing any
interface efficiently.” Also we have included additional features that would increase
the scope of usability and create the best usability experience for the user. Most of the
interface components used are close to real world components that will help the users
avoid confusion while using the system and increase approachability to a great extent.
There are lots of options in this system which creates a feel of reliability for the users
and help them achieve their tasks easily when they start using the system. We have
designed the system according to the users requirements and it is a big aspect that
made us to design all the necessary controls to be incorporated into the system.
Our design adheres to each and every Usability Heuristics that acts as rules for
interface design. This ensures standards and quality of work in our design as we have
included all necessary features that a user would tend to use more frequently in a solar
powered system. Our design has only screens that are required by the user and we tried to
minimize the design so that the user would feel comfortable using it by curbing complexities
to almost zero. One more reason we can say this is best design because we have designed it
using apt controls in the sense the Colour gradients, Fonts, Font Sizes, Screen Layout, Images
and dimensions used served as best fit to the system. We have satisfied all the user
requirements accordingly and came out with the best design as mentioned above. The system
gives the user Freedom and Control while he is operating it; inclusion of UNDO AND
RESET options which makes him reset and undo any operation performed previously. Also
Consistency has been maintained like same colours, Fonts and sizes, icons have been used
which is another reason for this system to be a best fit. Status messages and Error messages is
one of the best features we have provided for user ease of use and also to adhere to Usability
principles.
b. User’s Requirements and Design Justification:
User’s requested a series of requirements to be included in the system and they are,
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Ability to determine actual usage of electricity at any particular time and
this is further extended to show the power being supplied from the solar
panels, battery storage and grid pane.
Justification: In order to justify the above requirement we have included set of options into
different screens that will display data when the user wishes it to be displayed. The
components we have used include Buttons, Text Input and Output boxes and Line of Text.
We have actually tried to design a single button without any text boxes but that would make
the interface look ugly and incomplete so we came up with the previous set of components.
The functionality of these would be Buttons for clicking; which when clicked performs a
specific action related to it. Text Input and Output Boxes for displaying and Line of Text for
setting up titles for the requirements. When the user clicks on the “VIEW” button the system
would instantly display the data into the Text Boxes provided. This process is pretty
traditional and can be found in many systems but pr …
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