Criteria A - Inquiring and Analysing

Introduction

The restaurant chain of Roti Hut in India is famous in the megacity of Mumbai. Run by an anonymous owner and managed by the head director; Mr. Mai Sanikantha. They have expanded to the UAE and are preparing to launch the first restaurant in Dubai in December. However, they are far from reaching full preparation and require assistance with various problems like employment of qualified staff in the new country, advertising, finding construction resources and decorations. In particular they are also having trouble finding someone who can help them put together an account for monitoring the dishes, items and working staff in the restaurant.

The Problem

I have been asked by the head director of Roti Hut Mr. Sanikantha to create a user friendly database detailing the various dishes in the menu, currently employed staff and restaurant items along with different related expenses. This is because for the past years, Roti Hut India used messy hand written data records that were troublesome to use and maintain for a long time. The records often had to be updated on a single paper, already cramped with cross outs and scribbles. The paper suppliers are quite unreliable in the original area of the restaurant so there wasn't much that could be done about the fact that the records had to very often be replaced due to numerous damages. This issue looks unprofessional on the restaurant's side and to resolve this issue, the manager of the restaurant decided to create a digital account of the dishes and staff. I have been hired for the job and I will be given a software to become familiar with and to use in the process of creation. I believe I will be using the software Microsoft Access. It seems like a reliable program to use as it has many helpful features for convenience of the user and unlike for example Microsoft Excel can create a Database through forms instead of simply recording the data and calculating the expenses and creating graphs.

Research Plan - What Information Needs to be Found?

What needs to be researched? What for?	Primary Research	Secondary Research
Experiment and explore features of the software Microsoft Access 2010 which I will be using to create the database for Rotihut.	I will play around with Microsoft Access 2010 and see what new features I can discover for future use.	I will watch YouTube tutorials on the internet to find out more about the capacities of Access.
What the database needs to look like so I can meet the expectations of the restaurant.	I will interview Mr. Sanikantha to find out if they have a particular theme or design in mind for the database, what audience group I am aiming to address, etc.	Look at examples of restaurant product accounts on the internet, find software I can use to implement designs on the front page.
Find out the content for the database itself to have a finished product.	I will interview the secretary of Roti Hut to find out the details about the numerous products, ingredients, expenses, etc.	I will look at the typical menu and expense tracker examples in restaurants over the internet.

Interview with Mr. Sanikantha - Primary Research

Mr. Sanikantha: Good morning, I'm Mai Sanikantha.
Me: Good morning.
Mr. Sanikantha: I understand you would like to interview me before we seal our deal.
Me: That is correct. Shall we get started?
Mr. Sanikantha: Yes.
Me: As you have hired me to create a database that keeps record of the products, staff and various items in your restaurant. I would like to know whether you have a particular theme or design in mind for me to work with?
Mr. Sanikantha: Well you see, we started off in India, gradually gaining popularity among the wealthier citizens. We decided to expand into a foreign country that would be conveniently close to fly to and transport items to. The UAE seemed like an ideal place but in such a well groomed city, having the data records we use at the moment is unacceptable. I would like you to use a software called Microsoft Access to create a digital database that would keep account of all the information about our products here. The designs are mostly up to you, however I want you to meet certain guidelines. I would prefer you put all 3 into one document.
Me: Interesting, could you give me more information?
Mr. Sanikantha: I would like you start by recording all the details within the menu. Then include the various expenses, profit, popularity among clients back in India, etc.This will be truly helpful for us as the digital version of the database will not require more materials. Updating it will be more efficient and will save time.
Me: Very interesting. Thank you for your time. If possible I would also like to interview your secretary Ms. Narleen, to find out the details of the content for the database I will be working on.
Mr. Sanikantha: Yes, feel free to book an appointment.
Me: Thank you, goodbye.
Mr. Sanikantha: Good luck with you work. Goodbye.

Interview with Ms. Narleen - Primary Research

Me: Good morning Ms. Narleen, how are you doing?

Ms. Narleen: All good, thank you.
Me: I would like to have a brief interview regarding the content of the database I will be producing soon.
Ms. Narleen: Go on.
Me: I will start by creating a main menu straight away to navigate through the database and forms, I will then proceed to create the forms that can be filled in with information regarding the employees, dishes and items in Roti Hut. I would be glad if you could provide me with the information I am to include in the forms.
Ms. Narleen: Well, you will initially have to talk about the general information regarding the dish. Name of the product, ingredients, short description that should appeal to the customer, price and maybe even popularity among regular visitors.
Me: I will make sure to include that. Anything else?
Ms. Narleen: Definitely. You will be required to include the cost of the ingredients, profit made from the product by deducting the cost of ingredients from the customer's price of the meal. I will give you my record sheet detailing the information about the employees in this restaurant and items owned.
Me: Thank you. Goodbye,
Ms. Narleen: Goodbye.

Learning How to Create a Login Screen - Secondary Research

I figured that this would be the hardest task of all during the creation since there would probably be more involved than meets the eye. Designing a security system that checks for the correct verification ID and password that would also notify you about a spelling error in your username or password would be harder than creating a form and choosing a background colour. I conducted some research on the internet, on YouTube to be exact and discovered a few tutorials. All the videos I came across required me to write a code. The authors of the tutorials taught me how to write up my own code while giving example of the one they were writing during the video. Many were quite confusing and included flaws in the code that the author pointed out in the description after posting the tutorial. One very informative and clear video stood out to me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=356ylQn6kkA

I believe this will come in very handy when I will be creating my database.

SWOT Analysis - Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats in Product

Strengths	Weaknesses
Neater and more professional. Easy to update Eco-friendly as no paper is used Innovative concept for the restaurant	Unfamiliar older employees may require being taught how the digital database functions
Opportunities	Threats
May help the restaurant acquire popularity and a reputation of being ‘modern’.	Small text on the screen may be bad for eyesight. May also cause headaches and other problems. May malfunction and fail to work May get hacked Data may be erased due to above reasons

Design Brief For Database

After researching the information I need with employees from Roti Hut Dubai and researching over the internet on my own, I have come up with the key criteria I will follow during creation of the database:

- All forms must be to the point and well organised.
- Forms must look appealing and be user friendly. Include some useful features like a calculator macro, buttons to create a new record, skip to the next, delete record and make the forms for convenience and make it appealing by adding visual effects to various elements like make the buttons change colour when hovered over with a mouse pointer.
- Must include titles and subtitles in each form for the sake of organisation.
- Must include restaurant logo and trademark colours.
- Along with descriptions, needs to include illustrations and pictures where possible to give the user a visual image of what they are reading about.