Database information architecture

Database Design and Designing a Database About Everything

Quentin Christensenquentin.christensen@live.com

Requirements GatheringRelationship approach – gather information

requirements, organize into entities, form relations, and add desired fields

Data requirements approach – gather information requirements about individual fields, organize into entities, create relationships between the entities

What is a relation?Rank Country Population1 China 1,136,429,6382 India 849,638,0003 United States 258,115,7254 Indonesia 179,247,7835 Brazil 150,367,000

What is a relationship?Rank Country Population1 China 1,136,429,6382 India 849,638,0003 United States 258,115,7254 Indonesia 179,247,7835 Brazil 150,367,000

Country Province/StateChina AnhuiIndia AssamUnited States WashingtonCanada British ColumbiaBrazil Bahia

Normalization1st form – All cells are atomic2nd form – all rows in a relation have a unique

identifier and are dependent on a primary or candidate key

3rd form – no rows are transitively dependent – all attributes must rely on the primary key

Conceptual Modeling

Conceptual Modeling

Logical Modeling

Logical Modeling

Physical ModelingHow much data in each table?How many operations on each table?What type of operations will be performed?

PrototypingCreate the database tablesCreate the operations that will be performedPut in some sample dataTry it outAre the results what you expected?

RefinementGive users scenariosAsk them about the results that are returnedSee if there is additional information you

needDo performance testing

SSPiNCreating a data model for structuring

unstructured data about generic objects. + support for versioning, user evaluation of

content, and tagging

The Big IdeaA wiki that supports

structured properties about generic items

Post articles, reviews, comments about wikis

Rate user contentAssociate structured

properties (text) or ratings (numbers) that can be shared between different types of items

Project GoalsWiki – support user collaboration and

versioningGeneric content – support data about

different objectsUser ratings – allow users to rate content and

itemsDynamic submission – application changes as

the properties of items change

PersonaPam the NinjaHas trouble finding ninja movies and games

to enjoyDislikes regular review sites because they

may be biased or influenced by advertisersHates pirates

User Scenarios / TasksCreate a userLog inUpdate a wiki entryPost comments, reviews, and articlesRate a wiki entry by posting a reviewVote on quality of articles and reviewsView a users profileCreate a wiki entry

Conceptual Model

Logical Model

Physical ModelTable Rows Field Freq/day Type

article 1,000,000 predicate: pageId 50,000Read

join: articleBridge ON articleId predicate: pageId 50,000Read

predicate: articleId 30,000Read

predicate: userId 5,000Read

      300 Insert

articleBridge 1,200,000 join: article ON articleId predicate: pageId 50,000Read

300 Insert

articleType 10   500Read

articleVotes 3,000,000   2,000 Insert

predicate: userId 50,000Read

avgRating   predicate: pageId 10,000Read

join: avgRating on wikIEntry predicate: pageId 10,000Read

comments 5,000,000 predicate: pageId 50,000Read

predicate: userId 5,000Read

2,000 Insert

    predicate: commentId 50,000Read

hits 50,000,000 predicate: id, tableName, ip (index necessary) 150,000Read

100,000 Insert

Physical Model

admin

about

article

copyright

comment

browse

createreview

index

postarticle

postcomment processcomment

processarticle

processreview

createuser

createwiki

processuser

processwiki

processwikiediteditwiki

review

search support terms

updateuseruser

wikieditwikientry

blog

login

Usability TestingTwo usersTested on ability to complete

user tasks – register, login, create wiki entry, evaluate content etc.

Results:Both users successfully able to

complete all tasks

Shneiderman’s InfoVis TasksOverview – index pageFilter – by item type of the wiki (browse)Details on Demand – linking to wiki entryRelate – properties / tags

ConclusionGoals:Wiki – wiki entries, wiki editsGeneric content – item type categorizations,

text fields, propertiesUser ratings – reviews, ratingsDynamic submissions – forms for reviews,

articles, and wiki entries dynamically created based on current state of database