Macro – I made four macros in the page ‘Find area’. There function is to perform a recorded set of keystrokes and to repeat these when initiated by the end user. One purpose of using a Macro in my first sheet is to intuitively navigate between pages. For example, if you’d like to proceed in your order, you’d press the action button named ‘select order’ which would initiate a macro to take you to the sheet ‘order sheet’.
IF statement – I used an IF statement in my sheet ‘Find area’ in cell E10. Its purpose was to inform the user what category their window size fell into. The reason this is important is because our company doesn’t specialise in industrial windows, and we will charge extortionate prices. This is outlined in our separate copy of the terms and conditions.
DATE – I have included the DATE function in my sheet ‘Find area’ in cell A1. Its purpose was to inform the user of what date it was. Therefore, they could realise if it was a public holiday and their order wouldn’t process until the following working day. For example, if they ordered a window on a bank holiday, delivery would take 3 days to arrive instead of 2.This has also been outlined in our separate copy of the terms and conditions. If the user does not understand this, they may complain about late arrival. Also, the second use of including this function is to know when your order shall arrive. For example, if the user orders on the 18th and they need their window to arrive the next day, they will know the order ‘Express delivery’.
VLOOKUP – I used the VLOOKUP function in my sheet ‘Order sheet’ in cell D10. Its purpose was to collect prices of the individual window styles from the sheet ‘Tutorial’. The advantage of this is that you can select styles of window frames, and it will automatically update the price. This makes it easy for the user to change things such as window frames and quantity very easily and quickly. Also, as the Window prices are stored in a table, we can easily alter the prices in one location. With manual methods, you’d have to change the price of products in several places, taking a long time.
SUM – In the’ Order sheet’ I used the SUM function. The purpose of this was that it multiplied cells D10 (Price of the window per mm), F10 (The area of the window) and F13 (The quantity of Windows the individual is purchasing). The advantage of this function was that it easily performs complex calculations quickly and gives the end user Information within seconds. Often, for an uneducated user they may not have known how to calculate the finished price of a window, size and quantity, so this system does if conveniently.
Graph – On the sheet ‘Order Sheet’ I included a graph for the user. The purpose of this was that they can easily compare prices of different window frames.
ROUND - On my sheet ‘Order Placed’ I used the ROUND function. The purpose of this was to round the finished price. This was a method of validation as the user can quickly check the price without having to pay too much attention to detail.
MAX – On the sheet ‘Order Placed’ in cell D16, I used the MAX function so that the user can quickly assess what was the maximum price for a product they purchased. For example, if a member sees that they spent over £2000 pounds on a product they can return to previous page and alter it. It ensures that the data is reasonable and sensible.
MIN – On the sheet ‘Order Placed’ in cell D17, I used the MIN function so that the user can quickly assess what was the minimum price for a product they purchased. For example they can see what the minimum price is that they purchased. For example, if the cell D17, if it says the minimum price was £1, they’d realise that they accidentally selected the cheapest delivery method as this was the cheapest option on the whole system. Therefore they can return to the previous page and alter the delivery type.
