University HCI Report: Rapid Prototyping of a Mobile Application

This report details the design and rapid prototyping of a travel-based mobile application, focusing on user-centered design principles. The application aims to connect users with travel buddies and facilitate group trips. The report discusses the selection of the application, its importance, and the targe...Read More

Running head: HUMAN COMPUTER INTERACTION
HUMAN COMPUTER INTERACTION
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Discussion..................................................................................................................................2
Proposed system.....................................................................................................................2
Description of the proposed system and user interaction.......................................................2
Prototyping technique............................................................................................................4
Functionalities........................................................................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
The report discusses the user of rapid product prototyping to develop software quickly
and efficiently for the clients. The method used in this report for developing the mock-up is
the card based prototyping technique. In this report, the mobile application to be developed
will be discussed in detail along with the major functions performed by the application. The
report will also discuss the target users of the application and how the application will help
address the needs of those users. The report will highlight the main functions and features of
the software and will discuss about the user centred design of it. The report will also contain
example scenarios of how users might use the product. The report will also discuss about the
card based prototyping in brief and detail on its main features. The report will discuss the five
major functions of the application and detail on its uses.
Discussion
Proposed system
The system proposed in this report is an online mobile application that is being
developed using the card based prototyping technique. The application being designed is a
travel based application that helps people connect and find travel buddies for trips. The users
can use the application to search for travel mates with similar choice criteria’s and thinking.
Once a client inputs all the information required, the application automatically searches and
matches him with closest matches. The application is being developed using the card based
prototyping methods. This method is very common and is widely used in the design of the
Facebook mobile application and the windows 10 card based interface for mobile and tablets.
This system is selected because it can be developed using the chosen prototyping method and
is also an application with very high utility. The system incorporates multiple different
functionalities which can be adequately shown using the card based system.
Description of the proposed system and user interaction
The proposed system can be easily used by any user due to its simple, user centric
design and functionalities. The main needs of user using this application is to find suitable
travel partners who are going to similar destination and want to share the accommodation.
This application is also useful for people who want to travel in large groups of twenty to
thirty people and can contact similar minded people through this application to organise such
trips. The application can also be used by people looking for solo holidays and can help them

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find accommodation, transport and food. The application should have an interface that can be
easily navigated by an inexperience user as many of the users using this application may not
be from a technical background.
The tasks done by the application varies form one user to another. For example, a
person who wants to travel solo on a trip to Paris can use this application to book his flight
tickets to Paris, find accommodation to stay in Paris and also look for eating options once he
reaches his destination. The application has a repository of all common tourist destinations
along with an extensively researched database of those areas. Another example, can be of a
group of users who wants to travel in a group for a trip to say New York. The user can use
this application to search for other people who are looking for a group trip to New York for
the same duration and at the same time of the year. The user can enter his preferences like
housing options, flight ticket class, side seeing preferences and dates of the trip. The
application after accepting this information uses an algorithm to search the application user
database to find people with the closest preference matches. This helps the user to connect
with such people and find travel mates for their trip. This is the main service of the
application. The users can select the number of people they want in their group and the
application allows the users to search for them in two categories of 20 and 30 people.
The application also has a feature of price comparison between multiple hotels and
housing complex. The users can use this feature to their advantage to find cheaper
accommodations based on their trip destination by comparing multiple hotels before
finalizing on one. This feature of the application also shows the prices that are being offered
by different hotel booking websites, so that the user can compare among these sites and chose
the one with the lowest price or maximum discounts. The application also has a payment
feature that can allow the users to book their hotels from the selected website without having
the need to leave the application. The application accepts mobile payments via credit cards,
debit cards and mobile wallet. The application directly pays the involved website and
confirms the booking to the client immediately on the application screen. This service
provided by the application is free of charge and greatly benefits the users as all activities can
be completed from inside the application without leaving it.

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Prototyping technique
The prototyping technique selected here is the card based prototyping method. It is an
extensively used method and finds application in software like Facebook and windows OS.
The card based prototyping method has the following main advantages. This method can help
in organising the information into chunks to increase readability. This makes finding
important information easier while scanning. This type of method makes the application
easier to digest and helps users to easily access the information or function they want. The
card based design is also very visually pleasing as the information on the screen is organised
properly into visually stimulating cards. Another great advantage of using the card based
prototyping method is that it is quite good for almost all types of screens and sizes. A fine
example of such a design is the Microsoft windows 8 operating system that is available on
windows smartphone, windows based tablets and normal computers using windows. It has a
card based interface in all of these devices but with different screen sizes. The last advantage
is that this method is specially designed for smartphone and is perfect for thumb scrolling.
Considering all these advantages and features it was decided that this method
perfectly suited the chosen application as the app also has need to showcase multiple
functionalities on one screen for easy viewing. The app is being designed for smartphones
and card based prototyping is excellent for smartphone use due to variable screen size and
thumb scrolling options. Also the application needs to show multiple different information of
similar types in such a way so that the user would be able to scroll through them till he finds
the one he is looking for. This can be best designed using the card based prototyping as the
individual hotels or user’s information can be displayed as small cards in the application. So,
keeping in mind all these functionalities of the software, this method of prototyping is chosen
for the application.

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Figure 1 Application Interface Design Mock-up
Functionalities
The five main functionalities of the chosen application are:
1. Hotel and flight booking: The application can be used by users to search for flights and
hotels for the location they want to travel to. The user needs to enter the departure and arrival
dates and their destination to start the search.

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2. Travel Buddy search: The users can use this feature to search for travel mates based on
their preferences. This will help them match up with similar people like them. The users can
then contact the other matched people to plan their trip. This is the primary feature of the
application.
3. Price comparer: This feature can also be used by the user to compare prices of hotels in
the same area by looking up hotel booking websites. This feature is quite useful as it
compares the prices of all nearby hotels and shows the cheapest ones. The user can specify
budget and criteria for the search for more customised results.

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4. Payment feature: This feature can help the users pay for the hotels they have chosen
directly from the application without having the need to go to the hotel website. The
application acts as a third party between the user and the website at no additional charge.
5. Group Trip planner: This feature allows the users to plan trips for large groups of 20 to
30 people. The application allows planning of the trip starting from finding travel mates to
hotel booking to transport arrangement, all from one interface.

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Conclusion
To conclude, the travelling based application being developed using the card based
prototyping has many uses that would make the application popular among users. The report
has discussed the proposed system in detail and mentioned the reasons for their selection. The
report also provides a description of its user base and the different types of customers that
would use the application. The report provides example scenarios in order to demonstrate the
use of the application to such users. The report also discusses the prototyping technique used
in the system. The card based prototyping technique and its features and advantages have
been discussed by the report. The report also mentions the reasons for this method being a
good fit for the chosen system. The report finally concludes with a description of the five
main functions of the system that is being developed.