Website/Database Integration System Specification Team 5: Sitaram Chowdary Omkar Gadgil Shweta Joshi Navya Karyappa Benjamin Larson Mahalakshmi Venkataraman Sumanth Yajamanyam October 22, 2014
Table of Contents 1. What Is Needed (The Problem)... 2 1.1 Mission Statement 1.2 Problem Statement 1.3 Deficiencies of Current System 1.4 Contraints 1.3 Vision & Goals 2. Why It Is Needed (Relevance)... 4 2.1 Education 2.2 Accreditation 2.3 Local Community 3. Who Will Use It (Deployment Environment)... 5 3.1 BBG Staff/Researchers 3.2 Website/Database Administrator 3.3 General Visitors 3.4 Members 3.5 Scholars/Institutions 4. How It Should Work (Functional Requirements)... 7 4.1 Requirements for the Website 4.2 Requirements for the Plant List Library 4.3 Specific Requirements for a Software Team 1 of 9
1. What Is Needed (The Problem) 1.1 Mission Statement The Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens is a living museum dedicated to advancing appreciation for and knowledge of plant life and its connection to people and cultures through its documented living plant collection, historic conservatory, education, research and exhibits (1). 1.2 Problem Statement The Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens (herein referred to as BBG) has a large database of existing plant information that is not available to outsiders and is not easily maintained by the staff. We are looking for a software development team to work as part of a larger, integrated team of BBG staff, visual media producers and marketing experts to redesign our website to further advance the overall vision and goals of the BBG (see 1.5). The software developer(s) will need to be able to exchange ideas with team members across these different areas of expertise in order to create a system that is optimized to fulfill that mission. 1.3 Deficiencies of Current System The Gardens has amassed a database of over 20,000 plant species, however it is not easily accessible to the public or maintainable by the workers at the BBG. The current implementation does not do a good job of reflecting one of our main objectives, which is to make the Gardens (and by extension the website) a learning experience rather than just a display purpose. Our current website gives some information about current news and events as well as basic information like hours and location, but does little to educate users in plant life, preservation or propagation. 1. Plant database is not publically available and difficult to maintain. 2. Items from gift shop are not available to purchase online. 3. There is no interface for staff to update their respect pages on the website. 2 of 9
This project seeks to transform the static webpage of information into a more interactive learning experience. 1.4 Constraints Budget The botanical gardens are not well funded. Revenue depends heavily on donations and sales in the online shop so the web application and any related or future extensions should be very cost effective. Technical As the target audience is predominately non-technical, the website should be easy to learn and understand. It should be easy to navigate and kids should be able to use the website without much assistance. The website and database entries should largely be intuitive and simple enough to be maintained by the existing BBG staff. 1.5 Vision & Goals Vision We are moving toward a future where the lives of people of all ages are enriched by living plants of all kinds, and they are committed to sustaining the wonders of Earth s natural systems to ensure diverse plant life for future generations (1). To that end, our goal is to create an improved website where the appearance, content and feature are a true extension of the Gardens and leave first time users with a positive impression. Current Objectives: (these objectives will be further detailed in section 4) 1. Our main priority is to integrate our database into an improved website. A system needs to be implemented to provide our staff with the ability to easily make changes to the database but also provide accountability to ensure accuracy of our inventory. 2. To have an interactive and informative website that provides all the details about plants and their uses to this society in ways that would be relevant and educational to our varying audience of visitors, staff, scholars and students. 3. Optimize the website to make it more accessible for the blind and visually impaired. Provide alternative text for images and videos to aid screen readers as well as explicit labels for any information that might be visually acquired, like indentation or bold text. 3 of 9
4. Work with a diverse team of software engineers, marketing experts, graphic designers and video producers to create content that would encourage participation from new demographics to discover what we have to offer. Future Plans and Expandability: 1. Conduct a market research and visitor feedback program to receive input from users to improve the existing solution and maximize customer satisfaction. 2. Extend the web application to mobile phones and tablets which allows people to take self-guided tours of the gardens and utilizes QR codes in order to lookup information about each plant and save them to a personal plant list. 3. An online application to design your own garden/landscape, with recommendations based on plants from the BBG database. 2. Why It Is Needed (Relevance) 2.1 Education The Gardens inspires people to connect with the natural world, understand the relationship between plants and people and appreciate the harmony it creates to sustain life and lift spirits (1). We want our website to be an extension of that philosophy by creating awareness about the importance of the plant life and the role people can play in sustaining it. By offering our extensive database of plants as well as: 1. Expert advice through online blogs 2. Interactive educational games for children 3. Online tutorials and classes and things like home gardening and cooking 4. Question and answer forums 5. Video and photo galleries to capture the beauty of the Gardens We need software engineers to help us utilize the countless ways technology can be used to teach our community how to protect our environment, live healthier lives and enjoy the beauty of the world around them. 2.2 Accreditation 4 of 9
The BBG is in the process of pursuing accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums (AAM). One of the eligibility requirements is that The museum demonstrates a commitment to providing the public with physical and intellectual access to the museum and its resources. Making our database available to the public, along with asserting the BBG as a valuable educational resource, are some of the major hurdles to overcome in achieving accreditation. Accreditation would give us more credibility, accountability and recognition, all of which would lead to greater credibility with stakeholders, funding agencies and donors. 2.3 Local Community The Botanical Gardens strives to take its rightful place as an essential community cultural institution -- the horticultural hub of Western New York, perceived by all as the primary reference center for everything botanical. Through a broad array of attractions, programs and services, we will be relevant to the interests and lives of an ever-expanding audience (1). The new website will be a major connection point to attract and new visitors from the community as well as be a great resource for our returning members. The website should provide local guests with: 1. An online retail shop enabling users to buy souvenirs and plants. 2. A calendar of events like new exhibits or classes to help users plan trips and activities that will be of interest. 3. A map of the gardens, including a virtual tour. 4. An online forum for having you questions answered by the experts at BBG and in the community. 3. Who Will Use It (Deployment Environment) The website and database will require different permission levels, via a typical user login system, for the purposes of security, privacy and accountability. A private interface will need to be developed to allow BBG staff members and select other groups to easily modify the database and content on the site. The public interface should obviously be user-friendly and easy to navigate. We will need the help of software experts to design an interface that makes information that is complex, both in content and organization, simple in its presentation and searchability all while accommodating the different needs of our users, according to the following user profiles: 5 of 9
3.1 BBG Staff and Researchers All staff members and researchers need to have access to the part of the database that is respective of their area and level of responsibility. Staff of the gift shop should be able to lookup orders and add new items to the store. The gift shop manager should be able give/revoke staff permissions, apply unadvertised discounts, etc. These setup principles should be extended to all areas encompassed by the BBG website. Depending on the role of each employee, the system will be further categorized into sublevels to provide assistance in accomplishing the required task. 3.2 Website/Database Administrator Once the system is able to be deployed, we will need to hire an administrator to oversee all aspects of the website to ensure there are no problems as well as update graphical elements and pages that are not managed by a specific staff member / department. This person would have full access to the database, web server and domain. Ideally this could be a part-time employee. 3.3 General Visitors General visitors should have the least access, although it should include full access to the plant database; they should not be able to modify content on any part of the website. They will not have access to areas that are restricted to those who have purchased annual memberships. General visitors should be able to register an account for the BBG Online Gift Shop. 3.4 Members This should be an area restricted to those who have purchased an annual membership to the BBG (as well as administrators and BBG staff). It will include things like video workshops, exhibit previews and other special content. 3.5 Scholars/Researchers We would like a system in place wherein those parties we have formed a partnership or collaboration will have the ability to add select items to our website like guest blog entries or flag an error in our plant database. Researchers from outside organizations should be able to have temporary access to the allocated research and findings only. There should also be a way for scholars and researchers to view more detailed information about our plant database that may not be of interest to the general public, though it should still be publically viewable. 6 of 9
4. How It Should Work (Functional Requirements) 4.1 Requirements for the Website 1. The website should be available 24/7/365 and be able to handle several users at one time. 2. The system should be reliable and have a way to be restored if something is done in error or there is a system failure. 3. It should utilize modern coding standards and technologies to properly display across all browsers and varying screen resolutions. It should be a responsive website with a mobile-friendly interface. 4. The website should contain updated pages to reflect the information that is currently available on the existing site. 5. It should be a database-driven website that can be predominantly managed by those with minimal computing knowledge. This extends to all areas of the website including (but not limited to): the plant library, gift shop, calendar, programs/classes, scheduling of private events. 6. A blogging system for staff and guest writers to educate, inform or recommend anything related to botany or horticulture. 7. An online gift shop, with the ability to view and purchase all the available products. This should be integrated with the physical gift shop staff to flag them of orders and inquiries. 8. A way for people and sponsors to donate money/plant species to the BBG. 9. A way for potential volunteers to get signed up and for existing volunteers to schedule times to help. 10. A forum where people can ask questions that can be answered by the staff or community. 11. The website should have interactive games for children that would be both fun and informative. 12. There should be a way to buy tickets online for exhibits, admission, or special events. 13. There should be a way to schedule a private party or wedding. 14. The website should include a map of the gardens with directions as well as a virtual tour. There should also be photo galleries for the gardens as well as past exhibits. 15. Measures should be taken to make the website as accessible as possible for disabled individuals. 7 of 9
16. There should be private sections for members that gives special access to videos of online classes/instruction, exhibit previews and other special content to entice guests to buy annual memberships. 4.2 Requirements for the Plant List Library 1. BBG staff and researchers should be able to easily maintain the system which includes options to add new plant species or edit existing species. 2. The website should provide the functionality of displaying the details of any plant species present in the database (with pictures, scientific names, where it can be found, medicinal values, family tree, its role in reducing the carbon foot print etc.). 3. The content on the web site needs to dynamically change based on the role of the user accessing it. The default view should be for guests who would be unfamiliar with more scientific information, and it should highlight things like applications to home gardening, cooking or other interesting facts. Researchers should be able to obtain the scientific data of desire plants, lab results from testing or similar plant specimens that could help their research. 4. Needs to be easily searched and discovered, implementing modern technologies for search querying, filtering results and suggesting alternatives. Scientists should be able to easily locate a specific plant and general visitors should be offered guided options to find relevant plants based on several criteria like: seasons, cooking, health, complimentary plants, climate, etc. Engineers will have to work with our horticulture team to determine creative ways to introduce newcomers to the vast array of plants and their uses. The system should not be intimidating to first time guests. 5. Users should have a way to make a profile and save plants to a personal plant list. 4.3 Specific Requirements for a Software Team 1. Work with a graphic designer to create a professional and updated look for the website that is welcoming to visitors. 2. Work with a graphic designer and marketing consultant to create attractive graphics that will entice the user to check out more features on the website 3. Work in tandem with a professional photographer, graphic designer and marketing consultant to create attractive graphics that will entice guests and users to check out more features on the website. Representatives from each area of expertise will need to 8 of 9
collaborate to figure out what will be needed from the others in order to produce visual media for all parts of the website and for their layout on the website. 4. Work with a video producer and BBG staff/partners to create video demonstrations/classes, exhibit previews, garden walkthroughs and other special content for annual members. References: (1) Buffalo & Erie Botanical Gardens Society, Inc. Strategic Plan 2012-2014. http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0149/6008/files/2011_becbg_strategic_plan final_11_30 _11.pdf?1232 9 of 9