Designing System Components

Golden North is an Ice Cream making company located in Laura Australia. Currently, the company has not adopted the online presence is now selling the ice cream on their physical store. The company is considering implementing an e-commerce web application to enable its customers purchase the ice cream online and be able to make payments securely (Luo & Zhou, 2011). This paper discusses the system architecture, user interface design concepts applied, security threats and mitigation strategies, and deployment plan.

The system architecture deals with articulation of how the system should be designed and organized. System architecture is the initial stage in system design process and contains a critical relationship between requirements and design engineering because it determines the key structural elements and their relationship in a system (Belean, 2018). Golden North system architecture reflect the native e-commerce architecture. Decomposing the system architectural design is necessary because it helps in organizing and structuring the requirements specifications (Eckert & Jankovic, 2016). The diagram below represents the high-level system architecture for the proposed web application for Golden North Ice Cream company:

Figure 1: High-Level System Architecture

The main benefit of designing a system architecture is because it provides a high-level presentation to the stakeholders of how the system will operate. Secondly, it determines if the system will meet the critical requirements based on the analysis done on the system such as reliability, performance, and maintainability.

The proposed deployment or hosting environment is the cloud platform. This is because the cloud offers a more secure environment to host legacy systems especially through advanced backup and recovery strategies (Abdeen, 2017). Golden North will e able to enjoy numerous benefits offered by cloud computing including freedom and flexibility-by facilitating data syncing independently between several users. Secondly, hardware configuration is greatly reduced because the user will just need a platform to access the system (Mertens, 2018). Application integration is very easy in the cloud environment. Additionally, cloud platform provides the anywhere, anytime access to all the users regardless of their location as long as they are connected to the internet. Moreover, it is highly reliable because it facilitates users and employees to work in isolated environments. Finally, it is cost-effective because the company will only need to pay for what it uses and there is no need to set up hardware components within the business premises because the cloud provider takes care of all the hardware and storage requirements (Zhang, Cao, Chen & Mei, 2011).

User Interface Design

User interface are elements that users use to interact with the system are structured together to provide intuitive experience to the users (Bollini, 2017). Some of the design concepts applied in the design of the user interface for the web application for Golden North:

The first step that should be considered when designing a user interface is knowing the target users. It is important to focus with how and what the customers want to be captured in the interface (Roth, 2017). This will increase customer satisfaction by giving them a simple and easy to user interface.

Secondly, it is important to pay attention to design patterns so that to user interface patterns that are familiar to the users. By doing so, users will feel at home and find it easy to interact and navigate through the website (Wood, 2017). Consistency is another aspect so as to enable to repeatedly do the same activity using similar process and achieving the same results. A user interface which is consistent allow website users to have a better insight of how things are done on the web application thus enhancing their efficiency.  

Using visual hierarchy enable the web application designers to develop normalcy out of chaos so as to communicate ideas clearly through manipulation and organization of pictures and words. In essence, focusing on this aspect ensures that the interface enable users to concentrate on what is most relevant to them (Wilson, 2012). Also, the user interface should be able to notify the user on what is happening in the system, that is, provide feedback. The user interface should be able to prompt the user for any wrong entry, errors, or a wrong action and guide the user to making the correct choices and selections. Users tend to make mistakes while carrying out transactions or interacting with the system and thus the user interface should tolerate errors committed by the users and allow them to correct. Finally, it is important to keep the interface simple and let it speak the users’ language.

Storyboards

Storyboards give the users a high-level graphical representation of the system and how it works. The following diagram give a storyboard of six screen how the user will interact with the website:

Figure 2: Storyboard

Security Concerns and Mitigation Strategies

Security Risks and Concerns

Golden North wants to move to online presence and there exists numerous risks associated with e-commerce. It can be due to unauthorize access, accident, or human error (Goodman & Lin, 2014). Some of the security concerns include:

Security Concerns and Mitigation Strategies

Credit card fraud: hackers may use the e-commerce website to access customers credit card and personal information by accessing the e-commerce database using malicious tools (Pandey & Rastogi, 2010).

Denial of service attacks: this is one of the major threats that online retailers face. Attacker redirect a lot of traffic that cannot be handled by the servers providing the e-commerce services. Traffic often come from IP addresses that are untraceable and takes down the website cause unavailability of services both to the customers and business.

Man in the middle attacks: due to technology advent, cyber criminals are getting smarter each day and continuously find vulnerable points in the e-commerce website. The attackers trick the e-commerce customers into connecting to public networks then accessing their devices once connected, view credit card numbers, browsing history, usernames, and passwords especially if the websites the users accessed had weak encryptions.

Malware: these are malicious programs that cybercriminals inject on webpages to allow them access e-commerce websites. Attackers can easily insert the malware in to the online retail store database through SQL injections.

Phishing: this is a common threat that attackers send emails to people which look genuine. The criminals target essential information such as login details and credit card numbers. Attackers use social engineering to trick online customers to provide their personal details. Attackers often send emails that look legit but has a malicious like that prompts the user to enter his/her details.

To address the security threats identified above merchants, e-commerce retailers, and companies that provide payment gateways must come up with reliable and effective strategies collaboratively (Hartley, 2009). Despite these attacks becoming intensive every other day, the e-commerce companies can implement the strategies and solutions without compromising the experience of the users using the website. The following strategies can be adopted to address the security threats and concerns:

Select a Hosting provider who is PCI compliant because they have strict policies and procedures to guaranteed secure payment process. Additionally, they make sure that online customers can conveniently and securely use credit and debit cards to pay for the products.

Use address verification system to offer retailers with a secure and reliable credit card processing. This strategy compares the details stored on the file provided by credit card issues with the billing address and then block the transaction process if the details do not match (Singh, 2016).

Employ the use of stronger passwords: weak passwords make it easier for hackers to get login details of the users. The online retail store can create password policies to ensure that users mix the user of special characters, numbers, uppercase, and lowercase characters to formulate passwords.

Implement SSL certificates to enable secure connections for users, securing checkout information, and validating the identity of the e-commerce business. Additionally, it ensures that the online shoppers are secured from information loss and financial fraud.

Before deploying the system, it is important to plan how it will be implemented. This involve approval and awareness from the organization where key top management and other key stakeholders approve the need to implement the system. Secondly, come up with training schedule and materials so as to train the users on how to use the system. The training materials should be available all through toe ensure that users can refer to them whenever they need to refer (Sommerville, 2016). Ensure that the top management and the senior IT personal continuously and consistently provide support for the project by regularly reviewing project status to avoid implementation barriers. Customization of the software during implementation should be minimal and this can be achieved by having the correct design process. During implementation put more focus on configuration to ensure that every user level have all the privileges and right to carry out roles and responsibilities. Have a project manager in place to oversee the project implementation and make the crucial decisions that will ensure that the implementation process is smooth.

System Testing

Testing is a very critical step in system development and deployment. It provides a series of steps for checking if the application runs smoothly, fully functional, and secure (Leonard & Riemenschneider, 2013). This is the last step that is carried out on the web application before being released for use by the target users. The following are some of the steps for testing the web application for Golden North:

Functional testing: this test is considered as a quality assurance as it tests if the system has met all the functional requirements. This is carried out by the developer. Common functional tests include identifying the requirements of the application, data entry, execution of test case, and examining the results (Homs, 2013).

Usability testing: this test aims a testing the user experience together with the functional requirements. Usability testing is different from user acceptance testing and should be distinguished. It involves if the system is able to give desired results given numerous test cases.

Interface testing: this test is performed to ensure that the UI elements provided are familiar to the users and they can interpret what the various navigation components mean (Kankanamge, 2012). This included ensuring that the user get error feedbacks, and notifications of the tasks he/she is carrying out.

Security and performance testing are conducted to test on the ability of the system to process users request quickly and securely.

System Deployment

After the system has been fully tested and approved to be deployed, the deployment can begin. The following steps can be taken to ensure successful deployment of the system:

• Have the right infrastructure in place
• Implement security measures
• Have reliable connection both local area network and internet
• Deploy the system- Go live

Provide continuous support to ensure that any user with difficulties in using the system is assisted. Also, it is important to monitor system performance and security to facilitate smooth flow of business operations. Additionally, a help desk should be set up dedicated to assisting online shoppers for any difficulty that they may experience while buying ice cream from the website.

Conclusion

When developing a web application, it is important to focus on what the user needs and predict their future preference so as to develop a system that will be able to address the changing customer preferences and market trends. User interface design is very crucial to ensure that the users are able to interact with the system with minimum support. Additionally, online retailers, what Golden North want to venture in should ensure that thorough analysis and research is done to identify system vulnerabilities and develop mitigation strategies to counter them. Finally, it is important to have a system implementation plan to ensure that it is implemented smoothly and with minimal barriers.

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