Sunset Sailboats

Sunset Sailboats offers new and used sail and power boats. The company has a dealer network, but also maintains a Web site where prospective buyers and sellers can browse through the inventory of new and used boats. This company has grown, and needs a new information system to manage the inventory, dealer operations, and information about prospective customers. Maria Gonzalez, the owner, asked you to design sample computer screens and reports that the new system might produce.

Tasks:

1. Design a switchboard that includes the following functions: Obtain information about new sail and powerboats, obtain information about used boats, send an inquiry e-mail to Sunset Sailboats, learn more about the company, and review links to other boat-related sites. (See Figure 8-8 for an example of a Switchboard).

2. Prospective buyers might want to search for boats by class (sail/power/etc), length, year, price range, or manufacturer. Develop a screen design that would permit those choices.

3. Suggest reports that might be useful to Sunset Sailboats management.

4. Suggest the general layout for a Web-based source document that prospective sellers could use to describe their boats. The information should include key features, manufacturer, year, length, asking price, and a field to upload photos. (You need to provide the design of this source document, that will be accessed by the prospective seller over the web).