Thursday, 18 November 2010
Information about my submission of Individual Report.
My Report seems to be upside down as I copied each section of my report seperately. It was difficult to upload my diagrams so they are not conjoined with the relevant text. The diagrams belong with Technologies that could fulfil customers needs.
Coursework 1 - Individual Report - Diagrams
Fig.2 Laudon & Laudon (2003) explains the basic concept of an information system. This information system highly applies to my concept and investigation into technologies that could fulfil a customer need. Here the customer would put in data about the required city destination. The data is then processed and information given to the customer, from this information the customer can make a decision on how the enter the city centre, where to park and what to visit.
Coursework 1 - Individual Report - Evaulation and Bibliogrpahy
Evaluation:
The tourism industry in Britain is constantly growing. David Cameron points out that tourism contributes £115bn to our economy every year. By creating applications for the Iphone we are enforcing the era of ‘Mobile Computing’ and adding technologies that are fulfilling customer needs in different industries. I feel that my application for the Iphone would be contributing to the efficiency and organisation of customers needs.
The tourism industry in Britain is constantly growing. David Cameron points out that tourism contributes £115bn to our economy every year. By creating applications for the Iphone we are enforcing the era of ‘Mobile Computing’ and adding technologies that are fulfilling customer needs in different industries. I feel that my application for the Iphone would be contributing to the efficiency and organisation of customers needs.
Bibliography for Report
· Browning, J. (1990) The Economist
· Relative Resource Manager – Brookes Virtual
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=439444
Coursework 1 - Individual Report - Benefits, Oportunities and criticism
Benefits and Opportunities:
· Clearly the main benefit for the customer from using the application would be easy access into the city of choice. By using the application the customer should hopefully be benefiting by finding an appropriate parking space for the vehicle they own or a route into the city if driving is not available.
· The tourist destinations will benefit as they can advertise on the application – encouraging more people to visit the tourist destinations.
· Customers will be up to date with all the tourist events taking part when they choose to visit the city destination.
· This application could also benefit cities. The application has a setting in which it can suggest alternative routes or methods into the city rather than driving. This could reduce congestion and carbon footprint as it may suggest to get public transport from out of town.
· Benefiting other people that are thinking of visiting the city and tourist destination by adding comments that anyone with the application can view.
Criticism:· If the application states that the city is congested and not car friendly this may turn people away from going to the city centre as a lot of families prefer not to travel by public transport.
· How will the application keep up with a sudden change in congestion and peak periods?
How will the application be able to generate and filter all of the tourist destinations and cities in the country?
Coursework 1 - Individual Report - Feedback from other Applications
Feedback:
Feedback from customers purchasing Iphone applications and using them for their customer convenience provide us with information that can help create better applications.
One customer states that ‘It would be nice to see which car parks are fitted with height or width barriers, which ones are long stay (24hrs) & whether open air or multistory for large vehicles such as motor homes’. Another would like to see these applications to filter the information being showed and to only show car parks with parent and toddler spaces, disabled spaces, safer parking awards or accept credit cards.
Research gained through the internet (news.cnet.com) informs us that just 30 percent of people who buy an Iphone application actually use it the day after it was purchased, according to Pinch Media, which analysed over 30 million downloads from Apple's App Store. The numbers plunge from there. After 20 days less than 5 percent of those who downloaded an application are actively using it. Now it's clear that seven months, 15,000 applications, and 500 million downloads later, things haven't changed. App Store activity continues to be huge; Apple has made the App Store the centrepiece of its IPhone marketing over the last few months, highlighting the breadth and depth of applications that are available on the App Store for business and entertainment. But if most people don't find IPhone applications very compelling, does it matter how many exist? It's enough to wonder if the App Store is starting to get a bit saturated. Although, developers are still making plenty of money from the other 90 percent - people are very willing to try new IPhone applications, meaning that building a better mousetrap is still a very viable business model for the world of mobile computing.
From studying these available applications and customer criticism I can create an application that will fulfill the needs of the customers.
Coursework 1 - Individual Report - My concept
My concept: An Iphone/Ipad application that aids a tourist or local into a city of choice.
View the best route into the city by car, car parks available with prices and convenience rating, maps and tourist destinations – how to get there , general city information about driving and entering the city and finally experiences and rating from other people that have visited. This application can be purchased from the ‘Apple Store’ online or directly from Iphone or Ipad.
Main Features:
· Discover the prices, location, size, and accessibility of the multi story car parks in a detailed description, for example the height of the car park for larger vehicles. How many spaces available in the car park.
· View the ‘Out of town’ car parks – park and ride and the convenience of these.
· Come up with the best route to enter the city centre with a 3 dimensional map – showing 1-way streets, any special driving systems or to not enter the city at all.
· View free car parks in and around the city.
· Show on road parking spaces available
· Prices of car parks in the city – from cheapest to most expensive on a map and location of each car park in consideration to the city centre or tourist destinations.
· Show car parks with specialist facilities, i.e. parent and toddler spaces, disabled spaces and if they accept credit cards.
· What about if you are a regular in the city? This application would also work for those familiar with the parking systems in the city and just needing to find the car park with the most spaces at the cheapest price.
· Part of the application advertises tourist destinations in the city of choice. By entering the city of choice it will automatically generate the most popular tourist destinations and attractions. This will include prices, events and key dates. For example, Oxford Castle and Prison.
· The facility to view comments from people that have visited the city with tourist suggestions. People that have used this application and comments about it. Comments on the general city centre with tips for parking, entering etc.
Research into and examples of similar Iphone applications:
Other Applications:
1) G-park - When you park your car, you hit "park me" and it drops a GPS flag on your current location. When you can't remember where you parked, you just hit "where did I park?" and Google maps gives you turn-by-turn directions back to your car. If you spend any time in unfamiliar towns you may well find it very useful.
2) NCP – to find an NCP car park and then plan your route to it, straight from your iPhone. It can also help you to find and return to your parked car.
- Find an NCP car park that’s conveniently located near to where you need to be
- Plan your driving route and get walking directions from the nearest NCP car park to your destination
- Once you’ve parked, record your car’s location and get walking directions back to it so you can find your car again at the end of your day
- Easily contact us to book your airport parking
Coursework 1 - Individual Report - Technologies that could fulfil customers need
Technologies that could fulfil customers need:
Browning, J. (1990) The Economist states that ‘Information technology is no longer a business resource; it has become the business environment’. Today we can no longer live without technological and information systems as they are used on a day to day basis in the environment we live in. Not only do business run through information systems and up and coming technology but now a huge number of humans across the world own personal information systems such as mobile phones, computers and the new generation of mp3 players, iPads and gaming devises. Therefore many products are being created in order to help people on a daily basis to make life run smoothly. We are now entering the era of ‘Mobile Computing’ – rather than doing it on your computer you can do it whilst on the bus into work for convenience. This has forced the creation of ‘applications’ to rise rapidly on such mobile phones as the ‘Iphone’ and the ‘Blackberry’. Here there is a large market for the creation of various applications that can fulfil a customer’s need through such examples as organisation, planning, entertainment and learning. We are aware that over a million Iphones were sold just in the first weekend it came out, so this gives a good idea of how popular and important these new established mobile phones are and how they have affected humans and companies. These applications can include advantages for many different industries, for example supermarkets and retail shops now have applications on the Iphone for purchasing and viewing products, all promoting sales. These technologies (applications) have been formed due to the creation of new phones and computing and are improving not only internet sales but also communication and efficiency in life.
10 years ago when planning a tourist trip to a city not previously visited it would be likely that a map would have been used to plan the route. To find out car park destinations, prices and city driving preferences you would have had to use a phone. Nowadays due to the technologies we have created there is a possibility that this can all be done for you. When you are arriving in a brand new city it is terribly daunting experience, especially when you are driving. When looking for somewhere to park, or just the general direction into the city centre it can become a tricky and impossible scenario – even with a Satellite Navigational system. Therefore would it not be easier if you had an application on your phone that would help you plan your route into the city centre, find you a parking space in your price range and with the facilities you may need. It is also clear that in some cities it is impossible to even enter the centre or drive around due to major congestion and driving rules, therefore the application would make it clear not to enter the city and give you an alternative route such as ‘Park and Ride’.
When creating my concept my main idea was due to the congestion and traffic trouble that is very current in Oxford city centre and surrounding areas. After experiencing problems myself due to being new in oxford I imagined what it must be like for other tourists visiting the area. Oxford is a highly populated tourist destination; therefore many tourists must be arriving my car and having difficulties. When I began to do research into driving in Oxford I was right. I found many comments on blogs from people informing others to not drive into the centre of Oxford as they have ‘a very messed up road system, with unclear signs. Anyone who doesn't know the place risks getting a £30 fine for straying into the wrong zone’. This made me question how popular an application could be that would define this information for you before making a trip to an unknown city. Would it not make it considerably easier for the customer and their needs?
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