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298 Part 4 • the essentials of Design

COnsUlting OppORtUnity 11.1

Your Cage or Mine?

“Why can’t they get this right? It’s driving me to distraction. Annie replies, “We have to go to Ella’s office to access the
The zoo in Colombia is writing to me about a tiger that has been on database. Mostly, the other employees who need to know just
loan from our place since 2008. They should be writing to Tulsa,” use her computer.”
trumpets Ella Fant, waving a letter in the air. Ella is general curator Mona gets into the swing of the discussion and says,
in charge of the animal breeding program at the nonprofit Gotham “Some information on the current state of the budget would
Zoo. be divine, too. I’ll go bananas with new expenditures until we
She is talking with members of the zoo’s five-person commit- at least have a summary of what we’re spending. I bet it’s a
tee about the proposals before them. The committee meets every bunch.”
month to decide which animals to loan to other zoos and which Ty answers, “We don’t mean to monkey around, but
animals to get on loan so as to breed them. The committee is com- frankly we feel trapped. Costs of reproducing all the financial
posed of Ella Fant, the general curator; Ty Garr, the zoo’s director; data seem high to us. We’d rather put our money into repro-
two zoo employees, Annie Malle and Mona Key; and a layperson, ducing rare and endangered species! Paperwork multiplies on
Rex Lyon, who is in business in the community. its own.”
Ty paces in front of the group and continues the meeting, say- The group laughs nervously together, but there is an air
ing, “We have the possibility of loaning out two of our golden of expectancy in the room. The consensus is that the commit-
tamarins, and we have the opportunity to play matchmaker for two tee members need more internal information about the zoo’s
lesser pandas. Because three of you are new to the committee, I’ll financial status and the prospective loan animals.
briefly discuss your responsibilities. As you know, Ella and I would Ella, aware that the group cannot be tamed in the way the
pounce on any chance to lure animals in for the breeding program. previous one was, says, “The old committee preferred to get
Your duties are to assess the zoo’s financial resources and to look their information informally, through chatting with us. Let’s
at our zoo’s immediate demands. You also must consider the sea- spend this first meeting discovering what kinds of information
son and our shipping capability, as well as that of the zoos we’re you think you need to do your work as a committee. Financial
considering. The other zoos charge us nothing for the loan of their data are stored on a laptop that our financial director uses. It’s
animals for the breeding program. We pay the shipping for any his baby, of course.”
animal being loaned to us and then maintain them, and that gets What are some of the problems related to output that the
expensive.” committee is experiencing? What suggestions do you have for
“There is a special database on the Web that we subscribe to improving output to the committee? How can the budget con-
that includes selected species with 164 other zoos,” says Ella as straints of the zoo be met while still allowing the committee
she picks up the story from Ty. “I have the password for the data- to receive the output it needs to function? Comment on the
base stored on my computer. I can access the records of all captive adequacy of the output technology that is currently in use at
animals in the system, including those from the two zoos we are the zoo. Suggest alternatives or modifications to output and
negotiating with right now.” output technology that would enhance what is being done.
As the committee members work, they begin asking questions. (Hint: Consider ways in which the committee can leverage
“I need to read some information, get some meat to sink my teeth its use of the Web—to get the output that it needs and that
into, before I’m ready to decide whether the loan of the lesser pan- it needs to share.) Analyze both internal and external output
das is a good idea. Where are the data on the animals we’re consid- requirements.
ering?” growls Rex.

of colors, includes a variety of sale signs in a mixture of lettering, and even incorporates a video
that provides new layers of color and action. Colloquial language is used throughout the site.
Notice that the company’s catchphrase is “purveyor of good stuff.” The Web designer has
carried out a nautical metaphor throughout the site. The user is invited to “search the Bay” for
merchandise. In addition, the company’s logo includes a wave and a sun on the horizon, and an
icon of a ship’s steering wheel is placed above a column that invites the user to “navigate” for
products, services, and customer service.
To complete a transaction on the site, a customer has an opportunity to accept the “Captain’s
price” as posted or to submit a bid. If the bid submitted is too low according to the stored nego-
tiation algorithm, a natural language response is returned in a pop-up window stating: “Thanks
for your offer, mate. You don’t like to part with your money if you don’t have to, heh? Yet hey, I
like ya, mate. Please try again by offering a better price or by ordering a larger quantity.” In this
way, the bid is rejected in a friendly, humorous way, and bidders are even given two hints on how