Multi-Way Reminder System: A Solution towards Ubiquitous and Effective Communication

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1 Multi-Way Reminder System: A Solution towards Ubiquitous and Effective Communication TAN SHIANG-YEN, MOHD AZAM OSMAN, GENEVIE LOO SHIM SHENG HOOI, ABDULLAH ZAWAWI TALIB School of Computer Science Universiti Sains Malaysia USM Penang. Malaysia. tsy09_com036@student.usm.my, azam@cs.usm.my, azht@cs.usm.my Abstract: - Information overload is an overwhelming phenomenon in this era of information explosion. One of the solutions to overcome the situation is to delegate less critical tasks to the information system in order to alleviate the cognitive load of human. With this regard, this study proposes and evaluates a multi-way reminder system that assists the users to remember and notify them on important events or tasks. The proposed system aims to provide a solution that is easy-to-use, require minimal setup and configuration, low system requirement, and low cost. More importantly, the system is an effective communication means to disseminate information about any events. It is more than a personal reminder system, but a reminder system that allows multiple users to engage in two-ways communication and collaboration. The ultimate goal of the proposed system is to enable effective reminder with event management, while reducing the cognitive stress of users. Key-Words: - Reminder System, 1 Introduction In this era of information explosion, human are overwhelmed by the unmanageable amount of information in their daily live. In contrast to the literately infinite amount of information, human s cognitive capability has its limitations for storing and manipulating information. With the advent of information and communications technology, it is possible for human to leverage on the technology in order to reduce the cognitive load while allowing them to focus on more critical information or task. As such, we can rely on information technology in remembering events, important dates, and tasks. By taking benefits of the technology, it allows us to focus our attention on more critical tasks. In addition, it reduces the chance of errors due to the cognitive limitations of human such as forgetting the importance events. Thus, this study proposes and evaluates a multi-way reminder system (MRS) in assisting people in remembering and reminding about important events and tasks. The main idea of the proposed method is to enable the users to be notified about upcoming events regardless of the user s location. This implies that users are not required to be online or to have computer in order to receive the notification or reminder. The goal here is to minimize the occurrence where users miss out the notification due to unavailability of equipment. In this case, MRS is developed for the academic and administrative staff in a local university. This is the preliminary step to put the proposed system in the action. With this, the actual implications of the proposed system can be assessed and feedbacks from the users can be obtained to further improve the maturity of the system. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to introduce the proposed multi-way reminder system (MRS) and to assess the feedbacks from existing users. In the next section, a brief description of the multi-way reminder system (MRS) and its design architecture is presented. Section 3 provides an overview of the methodology of the evaluation of the proposed system. Section 5 presents the analysis of data and feedbacks collected from users while section 6 provides detailed discussion on the results of data analysis. Conclusion of this study is given in Section 9. ISBN:

2 2 Multi-way Reminder System Multi-ways Reminder System (MRS) features multi-reminder channel such as SMS (Short Message Service), social networking integration and notifications. 2.1 Applications of the Proposed System Currently the system is initially deployed in a university as a communication tool. The administrative staff members of the university utilize the system to disseminate information on important events to the members of the university. The system has the capability to send out the reminder to multiple recipients at one time. One valuable implication of the system is to enable the information to be accessed by the recipients in real time. As soon as the reminder is dispatched from the system, the information will reach the recipients through multiple channels. The real time capability is enabled by using SMS. Since most of the recipients tend to read the message immediately upon receiving it or once their free, the information can reach out to the recipients faster than other methods such as and social networking website notification. With this respect, urgent information can be sent using the proposed system. Figure 1 shows the overall system architecture design of the multi-way reminder system. 2.2 Technical Aspect This system is designed to provide a simple plug-play concept to users by using Extensible Markup Language (XML) as the main data storage method. In addition, the system combines Java and XML in order to supports across different operating systems such as Microsoft Windows, Mac, and Linux. Moreover, this feature of the system reduces complicated installation process. More importantly, the system therefore can be run on most of the devices as the system requirements are minimal. With these features of the system, the proposed reminder system can be easily run from any devices and minimal setup time, and thus achieve the goal of portability. Besides, this system adopts Global Service for Mobile communication (GSM) as a medium to send SMS message from the system. This enables the user to receive messages at anywhere and anytime. It is an imperative feature of the system as nowadays almost everyone owns a mobile device. With the GSM feature, the reminder can even sent to another person who does not install the software on their mobile device. In addition, GSM signals are stronger in most of the area compared to other wireless channels. Hence, it is to point out that the proposed system has catered the goal of having ubiquitous information. Figure 1. Overall System Architecture Design ISBN:

3 2.3 Interface Design of System Basically, there are five main functionalities of the system which shown as given in Table 1. Table 1. Main Functionalities Functionality Purpose Calendar Display events on the corresponding date in order to provide insightful overview to the users. Events Provides a list view of the events Contacts Provides a list of the contacts in the database and allow the users to edit the details of the contacts Groups Enables the user to assign contact to one or more groups. This feature enable the reminder to be sent in batch to the predefined group of contacts Setting Various settings to configure the system Figure 2 illustrates the main menu of the multi-way reminder system. The tabs on the top of the system are the main functions as introduced in Table 1. Figure 2. Main Interface 3 Methodology In order to collect both in-depth feedbacks and generalizable data related to the proposed system, this study adopts both qualitative and quantitative approaches of data collection. First, the researchers interview the users. Next, data are collected from larger group of users based on survey questionnaire. The purpose here is to identify important trends or patterns from their feedbacks or opinions for further improvement of the system 4 Result of Interview Researchers have interviewed administrative staff of the university. They are the early users of the proposed system. Open ended questions are adopted to obtain opinions and suggestions from the interviewees. The staffs are non-technical person like other general users. They form good representative of the users in general. In contrast, technical personnel or advanced users may not be good subjects in this case because they possess of better computer skills than other general users. The interviewees have indicated that the proposed system is easy to use. The interfaces of the system are intuitive and straightforward, and thus the users are able to get use the system with minimal learning efforts. Moreover, the users found that much more convenient than those conventional communications methods such as or phone call. This is because some recipient may found that phone call is rather disruptive, especially when they are in a situation that is not convenient to answer the phone call. In addition, with the SMS functionality, the SMS can reach the recipients almost in real time and they can choose to read the message when it is convenient for them to do so[1]. Interviewees have identified a beneficial application of the system, which is to inform the examination board regarding the dissertation examination matters. For instance, the administrative staff can use the proposed system to inform the date for presentation to the examiners, students, and other pertinent parties. It is expected that the application of the system will result in effective event management performance. Other plausible application areas of the system are workshop, roadshow, or meeting that might require constant informing of up-to-date information to the participants. Furthermore, the interviewees pointed out that the SMS-based reminder is the most unique and useful feature of the proposed system. Most people lead busy lives and are frequently moving from one place to another. So, the SMS-based reminder is very useful as they will be able to reach people via their mobile device even if they have no access to Internet-connected device. However, reminder is still useful as an alternative, as people also frequently check their . ISBN:

4 Furthermore, the integration with social networking website provides a channel for the recipients to respond to the reminder if they have any enquiry about it. Therefore, the proposed method has enabled two-way communication between the event creator and the participants of the event. 5 Result of Survey The purpose of the survey is to discover the behaviors of the potential users in order to provide new input for the enhancement of the system, along with to assess their perception towards the efficiency and usefulness of proposed system in daily life. The following are the detailed objective of the survey: i. To survey the number of people who have used similar reminder system before. ii. To survey the number of people who frequently missed appointments. iii. To survey the features of a reminder system that is important to respondents. iv. To survey the amount of money respondents are willing to pay for a reminder system. v. To survey the usage of and SMS among respondents to analyze the potential and effectiveness of sending out and SMS reminders. With regard to the question regarding how often the respondents miss their appointment, more than 85% of the respondents admitted that they generally have experienced missing out their appointment as shown in Figure 3. Moreover, 11% of the respondents forget their appointment very often. Hence, these statistics demonstrate that there is a need for the proposed multi-way reminder system. With respect to the question on whether the respondents have prior experience of using similar reminder system, two third of the respondents answered that they have such prior experience, whereas one third did not. Considering that nearly one third of the respondents have no experience of using a reminder system, it implies that the introduction of the proposed system would able to solicit their interest in trying out this innovative systems. On the other hand, the users with prior experience would also make them become more open toward similar system as proposed in this study. Figure 3. Frequency of Missing out Appointment Due to the reason that this proposed system send out reminder to the mobile device and of the recipient, it is imperative to understand the willingness of the potential users to receive reminder in such a way. This could prevent frustration of the recipients in future. The result indicates that 60% of the respondents are willing to receive reminder notification via SMS, whereas the others are not willing to such method. With the nearly half of the respondents are not willing to receive SMS notification, the researchers realize that the SMS function should not be applied to every recipient by default. Instead, the SMS function should only be activated for those recipients who have provided the permission to receive SMS reminder. With this practice, it could minimize the chance that the recipients feel that they are being disrupted or intruded. At the same time, the recipients who ware willing to receive SMS-based reminder will be able to enjoy the benefits of fast information regardless where they are. Figure 4. Willingness of Receiving SMS Reminder As reminder is one of the major functions of the proposed system in disseminating information, the survey also investigated the perception of the ISBN:

5 respondents on receiving reminders in the form of and their frequency in checking their . Interestingly, the result reveals that majority of the respondents (approximately 70%) are willing to receive reminders though . The number is greater than the respondents who reported that they are willing to receive the reminders via SMS. This result could be attributed to the fact that is a less intrusive means compared to SMS [2]. Figure 5. Willingness to Receive With regard to the frequency of checking , the evidence shows that about 70% percent of the respondents check daily. Considering that most of the respondents would check their daily, constitutes a reliable channel to reach the recipients of a reminder. Besides, by sending the reminder via , the delivery report and read report can be generated as an indicator to know whether the recipients have read the reminder. In addition, the delivery report can be used as evidence to proof that the reminder has been successfully delivered to the mailbox of the recipients. Figure 6. Frequency of Checking Moreover, the survey asks the respondents to evaluate the noticeability of calendar in their account. The result of analysis indicates that only 8% of the respondents reported that the event calendar is very noticeable. 61% of the respondents answered that the calendar is barely noticeable, whereas 31% reported that the calendar is not noticeable. In reviewing these numbers, it implies that calendar by itself may not be effective far reminding the users on important events or tasks. Hence, this provides a great room where the proposed system can be combined with the calendar in order to provide better reminder effects. 6 Discussion One of the important findings of this study reveals that not all recipients would be happy to receive SMS reminder. Thus, the developer should be cautious about this and may consider to enable an option to selectively send out the SMS reminder. In addition, the users were reluctant to received SMS reminder and this might due to the reason that they do not realize the benefits of the feature. Hence, it is critical to expose them about the benefits of such features. By acknowledging the benefits that can be offered by the system, the users would have higher tendency to accept the SMS-based reminder [3, 4]. The proposed system utilizes the existing information channel such as account, social networking website, and SMS. With this direction, the proposed system does not require the users to purchase a new device or pay for any service fee. Besides, this will minimize the maintenance cost of the system as well. 7 Future Work One major future direction of the multi-way reminder system is to integrate with popular social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin. Statistics have revealed that Facebook is the most popular social networking website among Malaysian [5]. The users usually login their Facebook account very frequency and a noticeable proportion of the users keep their account signed in and use the Facebook as a means of communication like an instant messenger [6]. Based on this trend, it is expected that a reminder that is sent through social networking website would be more effective and noticeable than . More importantly, by integrating with the social networking website, it provides the capability to the system to enable the users to respond to the information. Thus, a two-way communication can be achieved in this environment. The recipient can easily post their enquiries on the thread. The response to their enquiries would be fast once the administrate notices and replies. Furthermore, the enquiries can be viewed by other recipients, and thus reduce ISBN:

6 redundant questions that may be asked by them. Thus, it will reduce the workload of the administrative staff on repetitive job, while enabling them to focus on more productive work. The existing event management module in the social networking website itself is a valuable resource to be utilized together with the proposed system. This function is especially useful when the reminder of an event requires attendance confirmation from the participants. The administrator will first create an event on the website. Next, the reminder is sent to the recipients through or SMS that contains the link to the webpage. By click on the link, the users can go to the webpage and confirm their attendance. 8 Summary In conclusion, the proposed multi-way reminder system possesses great potential to be applied in various routine tasks. It able to provide a wide range of benefits such as ease-to-use, ease-to-setup, and low requirement system sources. Literally it does not require new investment to purchase equipment or service. The system takes the advantage of existing computer, mobile device, and information facilities to provide reliable and effective way of reminding users about important event and tasks. More importantly, the system allows the users to receive reminder or notification despite the availability of Internet connectivity via SMS. Moreover, users tend to read the SMS message in relative shorter time compared to other methods such as [7]. Yet, SMS is less intrusive than phone call. Albeit the system is sufficient to be put into daily use, there are great potential for the system to be further improved in near future. With the capability of smartphone nowadays, there is unlimited possibility to improve the system. For instance, GPS function, Near Field Communication (NFC) and 2D barcode tagging are some of the good capabilities that could be utilized into the upcoming update of the system. In addition, location-awareness which is the trend now could also be integrated in a useful way [8] Proceedings of the 37th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences Park, Y. and J.V. Chen, Acceptance and adoption of the innovative use of smartphone. Industrial Management & Data Systems, (9): p Constantiou, I.D., Consumer behaviour in the mobile telecommunications' market: The individual's adoption decision of innovative services. Telematics and Informatics, (3): p Haron, H. and F.B.M. Yusof. Cyber stalking: The social impact of social networking technology. in Education and Management Technology (ICEMT), 2010 International Conference on Acar, A., Antecedents and Consequences of Online Social Networking Behavior: The Case of Facebook. Journal of Website Promotion, (1-2): p Benbunan-Fich, R. and A. Benbunan, Understanding user behavior with new mobile applications. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, (4): p de Reuver, M. and T. Haaker, Designing viable business models for context-aware mobile services. Telematics and Informatics, (3): p Reference 1. Deng, Z., et al., Understanding customer satisfaction and loyalty: An empirical study of mobile instant messages in China. International Journal of Information Management, (4): p Dickinger, A., et al. An investigation and conceptual model of SMS marketing. in ISBN: