Summary - Briefly summarize the DriverPass project. Who was the client? What type of system did they want you to design?
DriverPass sought to address the issue of subpar driving education. According to their research, more than 65% of people fail their driving tests at the DMV. The purpose of this project was to provide better driver training through online courses and live instruction.
I felt that overall, I did well at identifying user needs and ultimately translating those needs into design documentation that would help describe the system in a detailed orientation.
If you could choose one part of your work on these documents to revise, what would you pick? How would you improve it?
If I were to choose one part, I would need to improve my UML Diagram designs to better incorporate more detailed visualizations. I felt that while my diagrams were detailed enough, there were spots that I could be more detailed about to better showcase the goal of that design/feature.
How did you interpret the user’s needs and implement them into your system design? Why is it so important to consider the user’s needs when designing?
Considering User needs is very important as they are the reason as to why the system is being designed in the first place. The user needs helped guide my decisions and ultimately helped guide how I would approach the design. First, I started by understanding the user needs and documenting them for reference back to them at a later time. Once I had the needs written down and understood, I then went into planning through diagrams that would depict various features that would meet each need. Through this procees, having the needs written down kept my thoughts well organized and focused on what the main goals were for the design.
How do you approach designing software? What techniques or strategies would you use in the future to analyze and design a system?
One major approach that I learned was the idea of iterative designing and developing. By utilizing this approach, it allowed me to slow down, understand each detail, and focus on slowing understanding each requirement as they became more and more detailed throughout the process. Starting off with a high-level overview of the needs and slowing iterating over each detail helped me focus and keep me on track. This is a skill I will continue to utilize throughout my academic and professional career.