I have communicated with my client via emails, and the first detailed reply I got is that he wants a database for a driving school. However, I have identified his needs and suggested him that he probably needs a spreadsheet instead in my reply.
Email History:
Ok, so say I have a driving school. I need a database where I can quickly input my students' name, number, type of class (refresh, car leasing, lessons) and other personal information. I would like all the information to be in one database, but also I would like tabs/filters that separates them in to groups. For example, class starting 2010/5/13 contains Amy, Abby and Bryan... class 2009/12/31 contains Mike, Kwan.... and other groups/filters like male vs female, age, etc, whatever a driving school may be interested finding out about their target market. And maybe a notification whenever a students birthday comes up, so we can remind them of us and hopefully they will spread words of us to their friends and family.
My reply:
My teacher said in your case what you want is really a spreadsheet but not database, because as I have told you, spreadsheets can form programs like booking systems used in cinemas, and seeing that you want tabs and filters to separate them into groups, using spreadsheet is perfect for that. In fact, we did actually construct something similar for a music school last term, where we can book lessons and input customer's information, etc. So in your case I suggest adding something else that a driving school may need such as coaches assigned to each class, how many people each class contains and how many people are required for each class to operate, etc.
So this is a list of things you might need in the spreadsheet:
Customers' information
Lookup function (searching each customers)
Notification for birthday?
Different classes
Booking function
classification of gender, age, etc.
Coaches detail and associated with which classes
etc. You may list them
