Development of Graphical User Interface Standards and Prototype for the Student Services Department of the Marine Corps Institute

Abstract

This research supports a year long Marine Corps Institute project initiated to migrate from a closed non-relational legacy system to an open client/server system architecture in response to many identified shortcomings of the current information system used by the Student Services Department. The objectives of this thesis are: (1) to identify a set of Graphical User Interface (GUI) guidelines for application development, (2) design and develop a proof-of-concept prototype that demonstrates the functionality of a relational database management system, and (3) exercise usability testing to validate the prototype functionality. Additionally, an object oriented visual development tool is used to develop the prototype application based on process and data modeling constructs. Implementation recommendations include: (1) adopting a continuous application development strategy based on modern concurrent process and di-ta modeling constructs, (2) utilizing an object oriented visual development tool that compliments the target relational database management system, (3) utilizing the GUI guidelines identified during this research for future application development, and (4) applying usability testing to validate application functionality prior to implementation.