Appendix A - Paper prototype - Low fidelity prototype

This project describes how an address book might be implemented. It is supposed to be run on a Notebook that will be equipped so that it can communicate with the university network. The application will be integrated into the electronic and voice mail systems and will, apart from being a student address book, be used for the university telephone directory.

Below you will find a list of all the features in the address book. Their functions will also be described. In the appendix you will find pictures of the different views that the user will find in this address book.

Search/Edit-group

This will be a group of components for doing a search in the address book and will also include editing tools. When searching for a person the user must fill in either the name fields or the e-mail field. The address book will be sorted by last name and the application will do last name matching letter by letter as the user fills in the last name field. This means that when the users types for example "M" as the first letter in the last name the application "jumps" to mark the first name with last name beginning with "M". When the user then types an "a" the application "jumps" to the first last name beginning with "Ma" and so on. The user will also be able to do a first name search by only filling in the first name field. When the first name field contains the name to be searched for the user will have to press the search button to do the search. The application then looks for the first match with that first name, by pressing search ones more the next match is shown. When there are no more matches, a pop up window will alert the user. If there after a name search isn’t a match the user can choose to add the new name. A person can of course also be added after a match, as there can be multiple persons with the same name. If there is a match the user also got the options to remove or modify the selected persons information. The currently selected person when doing a search will be marked with blue. When add or modify is chosen the information field that information are to be put in will be highlighted one by one.

There will also be a group of components that will add the feature to do a search by e-mail. This information is supposed to be the primary key when searching the address book as the university telephone directory. As there will always only be a one-match situation. When searching on e-mail within the university the user will have the option to download the rest of the person's information from a database server at the university. Filling in the e-mail and selecting the search option makes the search. If there is a match in the address book that person get marked and if there isn't the user got the option to add that person by downloading info. When the search is made the user will have the options for editing mentioned in the Search/Edit group. Here follows a summary of the components in the Search/Edit group:

Contact group

There will also be functions to send mail or make a call to one or multiple people. Sending mail or making a call to a group of users is done by first adding them to a "send list" by using "Add to contact list" button, which is located by the tabs, and then choosing the "Send Mail" or "Make Call" option. The Sending and calling procedure is done by the electronic and voice mail systems that the address book is integrated to. The "Clear" button will be used to clear the send list.

File menu

There will be a File menu with the options to save or open an address book. The address book will use a special address book format saved as address. This can be used to keep different address books for different purposes. The File-menu will also include an option to exit the application.

Edit menu

The Edit menu will contain options for cut/copy/paste text between the address book and other applications and a Preferences choice. In Preferences the user will be able to fill in information about the network for downloading information and perhaps also some layout features for the user to customize his/hers address book layout.

Name-window to write with stylus

This will be the pop up window that appears when the user selects the name fields using a stylus. The use of a pop up window is to give the user the space needed to fill in name information with a stylus. The window will by default don’t cover the people information set in the address book so that the user can get feedback when filling in letter by letter. The window will also contain buttons "Ok", "Cancel" and "Clear", which operates as the default window manipulation functions as in other applications. When the optional keyboard is used there will be no pop up window; instead the user will be able to print the text directly into the text fields. The text field will then have the same formatting functions as the URL-field in Netscape Communicator on a PC platform. That is when the user selects a field that is filled with text all that text gets selected for changing the current text. By clicking again in the selected text field the text gets unmarked for editing. The name-window will include the following components.

E-mail-window to write with stylus

This pop up window will have the same principal functions as the Name-window to write with stylus with the exception that the e-mail is what is supposed to be filled in.

Address field with flaps for the alphabet

The address fields where the people in the book are shown is ordered by last name and there are tabs for navigating a normal sized address book. Each tab consists of three to four letters and each letter responds to the first letter in the last name. In the address-, telephone- and e-mail fields there will be a triangle to the left of the information if that person has more than one address, telephone number or e-mail address. If the user clicks on the triangle a pull down menu shows the multiple information. The information about a certain person consists of the following fields:

Information-window to write with stylus

When adding or modifying a person's information the information fields got to be filled. A pop up window accomplishes doing this with a stylus in the same way as in Name-window to write with stylus" stated above. The pop-up window will contain the following components.

When using the optional keyboard there will be no pop up window, instead the user will fill in the information into the fields directly.

Pop-up menu in the address fields

There will be a pop up menu by doing a pup-up select (push - release - push - hold) with the stylus on a selected person in the address fields. This pop up menu contains shortcuts to the following functions.

Extra features

Some buttons will be shaded when they can't be used, for example the user will not be able to remove a person from the address book if that person isn't marked. The other buttons that will operate like this are "Modify", "Send Mail", "Make Call" and "Add to Contact list".

When the user clicks "Open" or "Save As" in the file menu a pop up window will appear. These windows will look like ordinary Open and Save as windows in other applications.

There will be shortcuts when using the optional keyboard. For example the user may open an address book busing ALT + O.

Messages/Alerts

There will be some alerts when the user tries to do an action that the application can't handle. Some examples of such actions are:

The user will encounter a pop up window with the text: "The chosen person does not have a telephone number. Do you want to add a telephone number to this person?" Along with this message there will be two buttons: Yes and No.

The user will encounter a pop up window with the text: "The chosen person does not have an e-mail address. Do you want to add an e-mail address to this person?" Along with this message there will be two buttons: Yes and No.

The user will encounter a pop up window with the text: "The selected e-mail address could not be found in the address book. Would you like to download info from server?" Along with this message there will be two buttons: Yes and No.

The user will encounter a pop up window with the text: "The selected first name could not be found in the address book". Along with this message there will be one button, Ok.

The user will encounter a pop up window with the text: "Are you really sure you want to remove/modify this person?". Along with this message there will be two buttons: Yes and No.


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