Thursday, April 19, 2012

Week Three

In week three, research on Drexel's campus continued. While some communications for floor plans are still ongoing, Recreation Center floor plans were obtained. Below is the first of three floors in the Recreation Center.
Drexel University Recreation Center: First Floor

The following website was also found: http://drexel.edu/facilities/design/, which allows users to view floor plans for many Drexel buildings. However, the quality of the images makes them illegible, so further work needs to be done to obtain quality prints. Emails to the appropriate departments currently remain unanswered.

Work has also begun to generate small descriptions and any relevant hours of each building. Any major department or office that the building houses is also being listed. This will make data entry relatively easy for future programming.

Basic programming is set to begin with a stock Drexel map until a suitable version can be obtained. Graphic design is also beginning on the floor plans to alter them to Drexel Interactive Map's specifications. The current plan includes highlighting a room when it is searched for, so outlines of each room will need to be made. It is expected that a rough prototype, complete with clickable buildings, will be operational in the coming weeks.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Week Two



For Week Two (4/11/2012 - 4/18/2012) , there was continued work with the Drexel Interactive Map application.



Week Two Status:


  • Project Overview finished
  • Continued work in Eclipse for the Android Development
  • Discussion with Drexel University continue in regards to obtaining blueprints.
  • Continued research of campus buildings / facilities



The Project Overview was finalized, which can be found by selecting the Project Overview tab at the top of the blog. The Project Overview outlines current and future goals for the application along with describing the intents of the application.

Programming with Android continued, mostly familiarizing with Android SDK. Nothing notable has been made, but knowledge within the programming environment has increased.

Unfortunately, DUMap was unable to obtain floor plans from a past project which would have assisted in mapping out the campus. Although, there was word back from Drexel University and specific buildings that the application would like to include. A large campus map that would show campus on a large, external scale is in the process of being obtained. That campus map looked similar to the following.

Drexel University Campus Map
The map above is most visually appealing and user friendly for the design. Using a regular Google map is inclusive of unnecessary marking and doesn't allow for the user to see as quality of a visual representation as the one depicted in the map above.



Tucker Gemberling

Friday, April 6, 2012

Week One


Welcome to the the Drexel Interactive Map (DUMap) design blog.

The goal of the DUMap Development Team is to establish an Android application for smart phones that will enable users to easily navigate through Drexel University's campus. The application will cater to both Drexel Students and visitors alike, whether users are attempting to locate their University 101 class or the admissions office for a tour. Along with that, we want to provide information on Drexel facilities and neighboring locations, such as dining locations and local stores.

Information on Team Members and Advisors can be found here.

The goal of the blog is to keep those interest in the progression of the DUMap current throughout the eleven week design process. For week one, DUMap was faced with the challenge of determining the specifics of the application and end goals.

When starting the process of DUMap, the questions to be considered were..

What should be incorporated in the initial design?
  • Large Campus Map
    • Shows buildings
    • Zoom enabled
  • Blueprint / Floor Plans of all Drexel Buildings
    • Inclusive of room #
  • Search Functions allowing users to search buildings
  • 'You're Here' Marker if the student is on campus
  • Points of Interest
    • Dining Halls
    • Study Areas
    • Outside Facilities
    • etc.
  • Descriptions of places
    • Description
    • (if applicable) Hours
    • (if applicable) Menus
    • Upcoming Events Campus Events
      • Sporting Events
      • University Presentations
      • etc.
    As we are still in the first week of design, these are only our initials thoughts on the project and we plan to take an active approach to creating this application.

    What platform/OS do should the application use?
    Android rather than iOS was determined to be the best option. The major factor question when making that decision was "which has more user base. According to comScore's study in late 2011, Android has more users base than iOS with nearly 44% of smart phone users having Android devices to 27% having iPhones [1]. Hitting more users and being available to a larger part of the population is key. If there is great success with Android, moving over to iOS would be the next logical step.

    Who is the target user? 
    The target audience is quite large as there is the need to cater to all those who want or need directions on the campus on a micro and macro level. Students who have little knowledge of, for example, Curtis may be unfamiliar with how to find Curtis 258, which DUMap intends to solve through building blueprints. On the other hand, visitors may need to know how to find the admissions office which is located in Main. First, they would need to find Main and then they would need to find the admissions office. The application is able to assist in that area by providing the initial view of the whole campus, similar to a Google Map view, all the way down to a building floor plan.



    Week One Status:


    • Website / Blog opened
    • Design specifics determined
    • Work has been divided and responsibilities assigned to the DUMap Team Members. The generic assignments of each individual member can be found in the Team Member Section. The responsibilities were assigned were based off interests of the group members.
    • Initial experimentation with Android and Java Environments
    • Began research of campus buildings / facilities
    • Contact about obtaining data from past design projects to assist in creation of project.




    Tucker Gemberling