Individual: Design and Security

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Individual: Design and Security

Or Benet
CMGT/555 Systems Analysis & Development
October 10, 2016
Professor Joseph Duer

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Introduction: School Simulator

School simulator (sSim) is a video game information system (VGIS) that designed for
Googles Android, and Apples iOS mobile operating systems. It is the system being developed
by Blind Dog Productions (BDp) after a brief feasibility stage. With many of the functionalities
of the system already implemented, BDp has chosen to focus its attention on the actual user
interaction with the system, and has designed a user interface (UI) based on accepted guidelines,
and future trends. A google query for importance of UI yields a result riddled with articles
(Importance of UI, 2016) related to the importance of a good user interface (UI). Also, statistics
show that if users are not pleased with the UI, a majority will not use the system; on mobile
devices, users are 5 times more likely to quit their intended task if the UI is unpleasing (Spillers,
2015). Based on these findings, BDp realized the importance of using a strict design process in
order to ensure the usability of sSim by end-users. (Valacich, 2012)
sSim: Game rules
The first step in designing a UI is defining the purpose of the UI to be designed. In this
case, there are many UIs to be designed. For the scope of this paper, the UIs designed are the
Main Menu UI, and an End of Level UI. I will not cover the Gameplay UI since I do not
wish to turn this paper into a novel. In order to understand the functionalities of the UIs
designed, a few rules pertaining to sSim are presented here. sSim is a rouge-like real time
strategy game that allows the user to take charge of a school. Game save data is stored on a
centralized server to prevent cheating. At the end of each level, a report page is presented that
offers the user statistics concerning their performance on a specific level. The report also
publishes their cumulative score on a World HighScore table which is also centralized and
displayed on the report. Buttons allowing the user to continue to the next level or quit to the main

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menu are also presented at this stage. Every section of the UIs presented contain social media
buttons that link to BDp website.
UI: Main Menu
After launching the application on their mobile device, the end-user will be introduced
with a quick splash screen. This will be followed by the Main Menu UI shown in figure 1.

Figure 1: Main Menu UI

Pressing the Start game sends the user to a form asking for the input of a name as seen in
figure 2. The forms accepts 8-12 alphanumeric characters and tests the given name against a
database of players to check for name availability. If the name is not available the user is asked
to input a different name. Users are identified by either an Apple ID or Google Play account.

Figure 2: New Game Form

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received from the device. The Help button sends the user to a dialogue report that organizes
the different aspects of the game in a friendly manner as shown in figure 3. Due to the amount of
information required to document gameplay aspects, the help menu is divided into sections that
can easily be browsed by the user using the provided arrows at the bottom of the help screen. A
back button is provided on the upper right corner of the help dialogue in order to return to the
main menu.

Figure 3: User Documentation/Help UI

UI: End of Level Report

At the end of each level, a report is generated and presented to the user in a manner that
correlates to the requirements identified in the game rules section and is shown in figure 4.

Figure 4: End of level report UI

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UI guidelines
The presented UI figures correlate to standard UI guidelines for UI design of form and
reports. The users using this system will be anyone who plays the game, with a focus on ages 1344. The simplicity of the main menu has the advantage of little to no knowledge requirement in
order to start playing the game providing much ease and control for users. The main menu is
delivered when the game starts or when the user requests it using the back to main menu button.
The end of level report contains only the information vital to the user: specifically, their level
progress, score, and message that confirms whether the level has been completed or not. A button
allowing the user to advance to the next level is clearly presented at the bottom of the report, and
the top five high scores are presented to the right of the report. The considerations for the amount
of information to put on the screen at one time come from the limited screen size of mobile
devices. Some guidelines are near impossible to follow when designing a mobile UI, and a focus
group to test the UIs should be arranged in order to effectively understand the strengths and
weaknesses of the current design. Titles for every screen are clear, and the accompanying
information is clear and spaced out to avoid user confusion or dissatisfaction. Although not
shown, pressing of any button rewards the user with a graphical particle effect, and sound to
reassure the user that their input has been received. Font differences are used to highlight specific
information. The help Text in the UI is displayed according to guidelines. Conventional
punctuation is used, and blank lines are used to separate different parts of information.
Abbreviations are avoided, and left justification is primarily used. The HighScore report is
formatted according to table guidelines. The two meaningful labels are Name and Score and
are sorted according to the score value. If the user is not connected to the internet, the HighScore

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changes to an error message informing the user that the device has no internet connectivity and
high scores will not be published nor will the game be able to be saved (Valacich, 2012).
Security Considerations
The major security risks involved with this system is users compromising the save game
data and posting falsified scores onto the HighScore table, or users gaining access to the player
database through bad security implementation. By encrypting the data sent to and from users,
and obscuring the send data (Example: data is not sent as clear text, nor is it formatted in a way
that would be understood by human eyes) the risk of cheating and compromising the database is
reduced. Since user data is not stored on the device, there is little risk of the user tampering with
files in order to cheat. All downloaded user data is stored on memory using address space layout
randomization (ASLR) to make it harder to decipher (Microsoft, n.d.), and is cleared between
levels (Valacich, 2012).
Conclusion
Since designing UI for mobile applications has no definite guidelines and is packed with
limitations, as compared to a personal computer application, the design stated here should be
heavily tested by focus groups. Information gained from these groups will help with the design
of a good UI for this mobile VGIS. Standard guidelines for any UI design were followed with
exceptions due to mobile screen size limitations.

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Bibliography
Importance of UI. (2016, 10 10). Retrieved from Google Search:
https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chromeinstant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#safe=off&q=importance+of+UI
Microsoft. (n.d.). Protecting Your Software. Retrieved from Microsoft Web Site:
https://www.microsoft.com/security/sir/strategy/default.aspx#!section_3_3
Spillers, F. (2015, March 18). 30 UX Statistics You Should Not Ignore! Retrieved from
Experience Dynamics:
https://www.experiencedynamics.com/blog/2015/03/30-ux-statistics-youshould-not-ignore-infographic
Valacich, J. S. (2012). Systems Planning and Selection. In J. S. Valacich, Essentials of
Systems Analysis and Design, 5e (pp. 232-271, 486-487). New york City:
Pearson Education, Inc.

Supplemental Information

Individual: Design and Security

Figure S1: Simple dialogue diagram for the VGIS sSim

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