Year of Award

2011

Document Type

Professional Paper

Degree Type

Master of Science (MS)

Degree Name

Computer Science

Department or School/College

Department of Computer Science

Committee Chair

Yolanda Reimer

Commitee Members

Min Chen, Martin Fromm

Keywords

Android, Google Maps, Human-Computer Interaction, User-Centered Design

Abstract

With mobile phone technology pervading people's everyday lives, using these devices has become prevalent for route recommendations while traveling in unfamiliar locations. Current research works to improve algorithms that calculate efficient and effective routes between two or more points. While expedient travel is necessary in time constraint situations, efficiency is not always required. This paper describes Pedestrian Pal, an application built for the Android mobile phone, which offers route recommendations to users based upon their desired specifications. The recommended routes are not necessarily efficient, but rather are paths based upon collected user ratings, aesthetic interests, and users' inputted parameters. During the development of this project I issued a short survey to 23 individuals to collect data to seed the system and solicit desired functionality for the application. Results of this survey confirmed most pf the design choices and were incorporated into the system. Special design choices were applied during the interface designing phase due to the limited screen real estate of the Android mobile device. Large buttons, simple menus, and familiar layouts do not overwhelm the interface and offer a seamless and intuitive user experience. Upon completion of the application development, ten users participated in testing sessions. These tests required the users to walk through eight separate tasks to examine the system's ease-of-use, fluidity of design, and intuitiveness. A follow-up interview questioned the users about the system's menu navigation, usability, and opportunities for improvement. The user tests provided encouraging feedback that affirmed the design choices as well as discovered faults in the system.

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© Copyright 2011 Bradley H. Bahls