UX, Data & Research
Reconstructing an online bookstore database.
Drawn & Quarterly (D&Q) is an independent, Montreal-based publisher and bookseller specializing in comic books, graphic novels and comic strip anthologies for children and adults. Their catalogue, which also includes novels, poetry, non-fiction works and fine art books, is sold online and in two nearby brick and mortar stores located in the Mile-End neighbourhood. One of the stores, which contains the children’s collection, is also used to host D&Q events such as book launches and book clubs.
The Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) shown above was created as an exercise to understand customers and staff’s needs for the D&Q online bookstore database. What follows are the identified needs:
- Keep track of inventory that supports of D&Q’s retail activities, e.g. titles, authors, genres, date of publication. [Staff]
- Allow users to search and retrieve book titles in order to select items for or purchase. [Customers]
- Maintain records of D&Q registered online customers’ accounts, including their name, e-mail, date-of-birth and phone number. [Staff and Customers]
- Maintain and access records of all online orders made by D&Q customers, including shipping addresses, order client, items within the order. [Staff and Customers]
- Maintain information relevant to sales at D&Q’s physical stores, such as items in purchases and receipt information. [Staff]
- Maintain records of D&Q’s suppliers and their contact information [Staff]
- Maintain records of book purchases by D&Q from suppliers, including prices, date of purchase, items and quantity. [Staff]
- Provide users with access to the list of recurrent or one-time events held at D&Q and information related to these events: hours, personnel, summaries. [Staff and Customers]
Note that these do not include the publishing needs of the bookstore and focus only on the bookselling side of the business. This exercise was conducted with fellow McGill students Kevin Laloche-Morin, Maria Osorio Oliveros and Spyros Caragiannis.