Transcript Project Proposal Slides

CELLPHONE
SHOPPER
Project Proposal
11 May 2007
Graham Hunter | Marc Pelteret | Tshifhiwa Ramuhaheli
Supervisor: Hussein Suleman
Introduction

Some typical problems with grocery
shopping:




Difficulty in sharing shopping list
One person adding something to list and
another wondering who added it and why
Buyer not knowing which brand of item to buy
Co-ordination
Cellphone Shopper
2
Introduction
Key aim of project: make grocery shopping
easier by using technology
 Will use cellular telephony and the Internet
 Goal: allow household to share and
manipulate shopping list stored on central
server


Via a Web interface or cellphone
Cellphone Shopper
3
Proposed Solution

Key features:

Create, view, manipulate current list
▪ Each list has an owner
▪ Annotation facility
▪ Make items private


Add new products to database
View a full history of previous lists
Cellphone Shopper
4
Proposed Solution

Key features:



Manage user information
Provide shop layouts and in-store shopping
routes
Users can check items off the current list as
they are bought
Cellphone Shopper
5
Proposed Solution

Possible features:



Product suggestions based on users’ list
histories
Community features
"State" management
Cellphone Shopper
6
Proposed Solution
Apache
HTTP
Server
Web UI
App.
Web Interface
Marc
MySQL
Database
Server
Apache
Tomcat
Web
App.
Cellphone Interface
Tshifhiwa
Graham
Server
Cellphone Shopper
7
Methodology

Requirements Gathering

Important to know how different people shop
based on the household they come from
▪ Do user interviews

Usability Testing

Need to know if people can use the interfaces
easily while mobile
▪ Prototype Interfaces will be developed and tested
Cellphone Shopper
8
Back-end
A Web Application with a database and an
API through which the front-ends can
access information stored in the database
 Located on same machine as the Web
server
 Run on Tomcat
 Will use SOAP to communicate
information between modules.
 Carries out the business logic

Cellphone Shopper
9
Back-end: Success Factors
Retrieve information from the database on
request from either interface
 Translate data from the database to XML
 Send and receive messages to/from both
the mobile interface and the Web interface
in XML
 Perform statistical analysis on user data
and present the results to either user
interface

Cellphone Shopper
10
Web Interface

Will be developed using modern Webdevelopment techniques and technologies

Such as AJAX
Will be a combination of client-side and
server-side programming
 Will communicate with back-end using
SOAP

Cellphone Shopper
11
Web Interface

Features:




Interface: easy for non-technological people
to use
Handle multiple users accessing same list
Display shop layouts and generate in-store
shopping routes
Generate statistics charts based on list history
Cellphone Shopper
12
Web Interface

Key success factors:




Specified features fully implemented
Interface: good aesthetics, easy to use
Good performance
Web application can bear acceptable
workload
Cellphone Shopper
13
Cellphone Application

Provide basic features:




List retrieval
Editing lists
Check purchased items off on list
Get store layout
Cellphone Shopper
14
Cellphone Application
Will be implemented using J2ME
 Communicate with the server via SOAP
 Communication is over General Packet
Radio Service (GPRS)

Cellphone Shopper
15
Cellphone Application

Success factors:




The features are fully implemented
The interface has good aesthetics
The application performs operations in an
acceptable timeframe
User can achieve their tasks with a low
number of clicks
Cellphone Shopper
16
Joint Work

Gathering of user requirements


User studies
Design of communication protocols

XML schema
Cellphone Shopper
17
Deliverables
A back-end SOAP-based server
 A database containing basic information
 Software to insert more information into
the database
 A Web-based end-user interface
 A J2ME cellular phone end-user
application

Cellphone Shopper
18
Conclusion

Work allocation

Marc
▪ Design and implement the Web-based end-user
interface.
▪ Perform the user evaluations of the interface

Tshifhiwa
▪ Design and implement the cellular phone
application.
▪ Perform the user evaluations of the interface
Cellphone Shopper
19
Conclusion

Graham
▪ Design and implement the Web Application
backend, which will provide an interface for
communication between the user interfaces and
the database
▪ Implement and manage the database
Cellphone Shopper
20
Conclusion

Impact



Functionality that reduces the amount of time
it takes to compile and manage a shopping
list
Easily share information about shopping tasks
between people leading to greater
organization
Make shopping easier
Cellphone Shopper
21
CELLPHONE
SHOPPER
Project Proposal
11 May 2007
Graham Hunter | Marc Pelteret | Tshifhiwa Ramuhaheli
Supervisor: Hussein Suleman