VISIO

RESULT :

Appendix 1

WHAT ADVANTAGE USE SOFTWARE VISIO

Visio is a part of the Microsoft Office suite of applications that is designed for making complex diagrams, such as flow charts or in the context of Information Architecture wireframes for planning the structure of a website. It uses vector graphics which means that any diagrams created should be scalable without any loss of quality, perfect for giving presentations, for example, which gives it an advantage over using other graphics software such as Adobe Photoshop or Fireworks, and has many more specific functions. One of the main advantages of using Visio as opposed to other diagramming software is that is shares a common interface with the other applications in the Microsoft Office Suite, and therefore much less of a learning curve is required to start using the software, if one is familiar with Office, which is generally the case, given the suite's ubiquity within most organisations. This is a major advantage where collaboration is essential, for example, where an Information Architect must share receive input from clients, designers, creaters of content to be placed on the site and so on, since it really only requires that a version of Office that includes Visio is installed, rather than specialised software that the other contributors wouldn't neccessarily need. Other important features that are of use to the Information Architect are the project planning elements, meaning timelines and dates for implementation for features planned in the wireframes are integrated neatly into the project. Visio will also aid the analysis of existing sites, by listing links and identifying broken ones, and identifying changes in the site since it was last diagrammed by Visio. Visio also aids with databases, in that it can reverse engineer a database and diagram a model of the database, thus aiding two important elements in Information Architecture, structure of information on a website and structure of information within a database. Visio should be considered an important tool in the initial planning stages of a website, which is clearly highly important to the Information Architect, and its interoperability with other products is a key point that puts it at an advantage over some other diagramming tools.

2.    List 10 category of drawing type in Visio.

·                         Business

·                         Engineering

·                         Flowchart

·                         General

·                         Maps and Floor Plan

·                         Network 

·                         Schedule

·                         Software and Database

3.  Get Familiar with the Visio Interface. Describe A,B,C and D

         A : the tool bars across the top of the screen are similar to other Microsoft programs such as Word and PowerPoint. If you have used these programs before, you may notice a few different function alities, which we will explore later.

·         Selecting Help >> Diagram Gallery is a good way to become familiar with the types of drawing sand diagrams that can be created in Visio.

·         B : the left side of the screen shows the menus specific to the type of diagram you are creating.In this case we see:

        

·         Arrow Shapes

        

·         Backgrounds

        

·         Basic Flowchart Shapes

       

·         Borders and Titles

·         C : the center of the screen shows the diagram works pace, which includes the actual diagram page as well as some blank space adjacent to the page. 

         

·         D : the right side of the screen shows some help functions. Some people may choose to closethis window to increase the area for diagram workspace, and re-open the help functions whennecessary