University Bulletin Board Application

Transcription

1 University Bulletin Board Application Introduction In many universities and colleges there are many bulletin boards or notice boards filled with fliers that contain information on seminars, events, selling used items, lost & found etc. Although this source of presenting information reaches out to people, there are some drawbacks associated with it. Some of it include Clutter and confusion, Not very green (due to use of paper), irrelevant fliers etc. In this new age of technologies it is safe to assume that a mobile application can be used to address these issues and make life a lot simpler. According to Nielsen s report the penetration of smart phones among the ages of is around 62% to 80% as depicted in the chart below. From the above statistics it is clear that the use of smart phone among the college students is on the rise. This proposal aims to address the mobile bulletin board application that can bring together various sources of information posted on the traditional bulletin boards in an electronic format.

2 Project Objective Develop an Android and ios application that helps students, faculty and staff of a university to post and view information on seminars, events, alerts etc. Application Definition App Name: u-bub (University - Bulletin Board) Target Users: Students, Faculty and Staff. App Description: The first of its kind bulletin board application is now available for Android / ios devices. Want to advertise about a seminar? Found an un-attended mobile phone in your class? Looking for a sublet? Looking for participants to participate in an experimental study? Don t go through the hassle of printing fliers and sticking it on your universities bulletin board. The one stop solution is here, u-bub!! With help of u-bub you can achieve the following, Faculty and Staff: Post or View, Information about seminars and talks University alerts (Crime, Weather Advisory, Events etc) Intern/ Job opportunities at a lab Participants for experiments Students Post or View, Information about seminars and talks (Thesis defense, project presentations etc.) Lost and Found information Housing information (Sublet, looking for a room-mate) Advertise for events (inter house events, sports events etc.) Sell and Buy used stuff

3 Target Devices: ios: iphone4/4s. Version = ios Android: Google Nexus 4, Samsung Note 2, Samsung Galaxy III. Version = 2.3.3, 4.0+ Motivation The biggest motivation for end users to use this application is that it is a one stop information source that can present you with wide variety of information in an organized manner. There are other sources of information like websites, Facebook groups, Google groups for housing, events, seminars & talks etc. but the user has to visit them separately. With u-bub a user can view or post all information at one place! Challenges Some of the technical challenges of building this application are as follows, Usability: In mobile applications it is essential that a user uses the app with utmost ease. It includes ease of navigation & memorability of the app. Organization of Data: The data in this app has to be extremely well organized and categorized. If not there would be no difference between traditional bulletin board, which is a source of clutter and confusion, and u-bub application. Persistent Data: One of the biggest challenges of building this app is to keep the data persistent for user s viewing. For validation and updates a call to external database is made each time and this can slow down the use of application, since application is dependent on internet for validations and updates. Sometimes the internet can be slow. Network Connectivity: The slow speed of the network in the area can cause annoying experience to the users sometimes. User Benefits Following are the benefits of using the app, The users don t have to go through the process of printing the fliers or visit various websites for posting information. The app provides a platform for posting various kinds of information The user doesn t have to use his/her PC or visit bulletin boards every time to view information. He/She is just a tap away using her mobile! Finally, it reduces the use of paper!

4 Usecases Entities involved Entity Name: End-user (Students, Staff and Faculty) Provides: Following are some of the input provided by the end user to the u-bub application: Login Credentials Posts containing information Various kinds of inputs to view posts in different categories Requires: The end-user requires the following : A platform to successfully post information that reaches out to targeted audience An application to view wide variety of information Entity Name: u-bub mobile application Provides: Following are some of the functionalities that u-bub provides A platform to successfully post information that reaches out to the targeted audience An application to view wide variety of information Requires: Following are some of the information required by the end user to the u-bub application: Login Credentials Posts containing information Various kinds of inputs to view posts in different categories Information from the external database Entity Name: External Database Provides: Login Information Information related to posts Requires: Information from users and admin

5 Use-Case Diagram u-bub Application (System)

6 Login: Following are the steps that are involved in the Login use-case: User Log s into the application by entering login credentials After the login information is validated user is directed to a landing page where a list of latest posts are displayed Post / View University Alerts Following are the steps that are involved in University Alerts use-case: Assuming that a user is logged in, the user can visit University Alerts either from the tab or tapping on the Alert on the welcome / landing page for either posting or viewing For viewing, the alerts are displayed in a list For Posting, the user (Only Faculty or Staff) has to select New Post icon from the bar and post the information. Post / View Talks & Events Assuming that a user is logged in, the user can visit Talks and Events either from the tab or tapping on the Alert on the welcome / landing page for either posting or viewing For Viewing, the user can just browse through the sorted list of talks and events. On selecting the event or talk the information about the Event / talk appears. The idea is to incorporate a reminder option in the info page so that a reminder rings before the event begins. For Posting, the user has to select New Post icon from the bar and post information like date, time, venue, brief description and Poster of the event (Optional). Post / View Housing Assuming that a user is logged in, the user can visit Housing either from the tab or tapping on the Alert on the welcome / landing page for either posting or viewing For Viewing, the user can just browse through the list of Housing posts. On selecting the post the information about the post appears. If a mobile number is present the user can directly call the person who posted the information by just tapping on the number. For Posting, the user has to select New Post icon from the bar and post information like Looking for a roommate, Looking for a house, sublet etc.

7 Post / View Buy or Sell Assuming that a user is logged in, the user can visit Buy or Sell either from the tab or tapping on the Alert on the welcome / landing page for either posting or viewing For Viewing, the user can just browse through the sorted list of items that are posted for sale. On selecting the post the information about post appears. If a mobile number is present the user can directly call the person who posted the information by just tapping on the number. For Posting, the user has to select New Post icon from the bar and post information like Amount, Negotiable or Non-Negotiable, contact information and a brief description. Post / View Lost & Found Assuming that a user is logged in, the user can visit Lost & Found either from the tab or tapping on the Alert on the welcome / landing page for either posting or viewing For Viewing, the user can just browse through the sorted list of found items. On selecting the found item the information about the item like place found, time found, contact information of the person that found the item appears. If a mobile number is present the user can directly call the person who posted the information by just tapping on the number. For posting, the user has to select New Post icon from the bar and post information like Found or Lost, date, time, venue, brief description and reward money (Optional). Post / View Miscellaneous Assuming that a user is logged in, the user can visit Miscellaneous either from the tab or tapping on the post on the welcome / landing page for either posting or viewing For Viewing, the user can just browse through the list of miscellaneous posts like subjects required for experiments, on campus job opportunities etc. On selecting the post the information about the post appears. If a mobile number is present the user can directly call the person who posted the information by just tapping on the number. For Posting, the user has to select New Post icon from the bar and post information regarding the purpose of the post Logout The users can just logout from the application by selecting logout from the settings icon on the bar after which the user is redirected to login page.

8 High-level System Architecture Mobile Device VIEW UI Components / UI Kit CONTROLLER / CONTROL Managers (Android) / Delegates (ios) Internet Application Server EXTERNAL DATABASE application database The diagram above shows the high level system architecture of the application. The following is the process flow of the application, The user gives the inputs via the UI of their respective devices. The input is handled and processed by the controller part of the application. Based on the user s request, a service call is made to an external application server (Which has the app database) via the internet. The database returns the data in a specific format (XML or JSON). The data is parsed and formatted by the controller part of the application. Finally the view gets updated based on the information parsed and formatted.

9 Design Rationale: The application design is fairly obvious because it is completely dependent on internet connectivity for the reason of constant fetching and updating of information. The data storage is external as this application needs a common place to post and access data. Wire frame Mock ups Legend for Icons and Controls Menu Icon - lets you select the category and also logout from the application Home Icon - lets you go back to the previous page Refresh Icon - lets you select the category and also logout from the application Previous Icon - lets you navigate to previous post Next Icon - lets you navigate to next post Post Icon - lets you post information

10 Login Main Page / Landing Page

11 Viewing Page (Common For all) After selecting a post Posting page Example

12 Bullet List icon on Navigation Bar example