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NAME SUGGESTION: Parkeasy, ezPARK, rapidPARK (suggestions please!)

This Project aims to tackle the parking problem at the University of Toronto, Mississauga. This project involves the creation of an application that can be assessed through smartphones and Android devices. This application allows the users to see vacant parking spaces at the university parking lot. The application is designed to look at two incidents; Occupied Parking Spaces Vacant Parking Spaces To operate the application, the users need a smartphone or an Android device with Internet or GPs capability.
 * __Executive Summary__**

[Insert name of system]  is an application that can be used on all smartphone and android platforms which allows one to quickly and easily locate a vacant parking spot at University of Toronto at Mississauga (UTM). We have noticed through monitoring and self experience that to find a parking spot that is not in use at UTM’s parking lots is a difficult task and wastes a significant amount of time. Our application will utilize a GPS tracking system for all students, faculty, staff and visitors to easily indicate through the system where they are and which parking spot is either taken or vacant. There are current technologies that are active and are available with similar objective of creating a parking management system. However, none of them specifically target UTM’s community. Taking into consideration Yorkdale Shopping Centre’s current parking management system, we will use their system as an example to follow and re-design the areas that pose problems within Yorkdale’s system. The parking management system at Yorkdale intends to serve the same purpose as the system we would like to design for UTM, however it contains several drawbacks which we anticipate to re-design. Through a digital display board at Yorkdales parking lots, customers are able to see which parking spots are vacant within the mall’s parking lots. These indicators are located in the entrance of each parking lot and levels at the parking centre. With this on-site information, they distribute this information every 15 minutes through the official and mobile website. As a re-design, one of the changes that we propose to make is to create a more convenient parking management system that will target the students at UTM. In addition, we would like to create this system into an application so that information is available at the hands of customers rather than having to locate digital boards. Yorkdale’s parking management system responds slowly because of its 15 minute delay. There is no instantaneous retrieval of parking information offered with both its official and mobile websites. Retrieval of parking information needs instantaneous response since many consumers are constantly thinking where to park when coming in to a parking lot. A new parking management system would allow drivers to retrieve information faster through a GPS tracking system, to find out where to park rather than guessing if the information is accurate. We would need to create a mobile application that would allow consumers to retrieve instantaneous parking information ensuring that they receive accurate information about the parking spaces available within the campus of UTM.
 * __INTRODUCTION __**

The mobile application’s core function is to help its users find availability in parking spots and areas in University of Toronto at Mississauga. This would be attained through a mobile application on a smartphone such as the iPhone and Blackberry. The mobile application needs to determine its functional requirements to execute the mobile application and launch it to the public for them to experience and use. For the mobile application to run, it has a hardware requirement for it to operate. Our mobile application will run on a smartphone for consumers to use the application. Ian Manfield explains “The landscape of mobile internet usage has changed to such an extent that in some cases the first internet experience is now through a mobile phone rather than a PC,” (Ian Manfield, Apr 2011). Smartphones such as the iPhone, Blackberry and Android allows its consumers to access the Internet and GPS technologies through its 3G or 4G wireless networks. These smartphones uses its wireless technologies in conjunction with its mobile applications enabling its consumers to access various content from different companies. Smartphones will allow our mobile application tomeet its objective as a mobile, easy and convenient application to help students find parking at University of Toronto at Mississauga. Smartphone’s mobility will help students find out available parking spaces in school and its wireless technologies will enable convenience for consumers to access parking information anytime and anywhere. The mobile application will utilize the smartphone’s operating systems to run the parking application. Marco Tabini announced that “ Apple has officially released version 4 of Xcode, the integrated development environment designed to help developers write apps for Mac OS X and iOS,” (Marco Tabini, Mar 2011). We would need to use Apple’s XCode4 and its development kits to create and develop the mobile application. For the Blackberry smartphone, we would need to use the Blackberry’s Java development kit. We would need to develop the mobile application through these development kits to submit to Apple or Blackberry. After submission, Apple or Blackberry would release the mobile application to Apple’s App store or Blackberry’s App World to release for its consumers. Both of these development kits will allow Our mobile application will need to collect information as a functional requirement for the parking mobile application. We would need to collect information from UTM parking services. Detailed mapping of all the parking areas will need to be collected from UTM parking services. It would be necessary to collect the most detailed and accurate information on the exact parking location and spaces at the school. Proving accurate information is necessary to make the mobile application the only choice for parking assistance at the University of Toronto at Mississauga. Also, besides geographical information of the parking area, we would also need to collect the user’s location through the smartphone’s GPS. The mobile application would need a graphical interface as its interface requirement. It would utilize a multimedia interface similar to other mobile applications available in many smartphones. John Wiley explains that “one of the distinctive features of multimedia is its ability to facilitate rapid access to multiple representations of information,” (John Wiley, pg. 241). The mobile application would utilize a multimedia interface to support various information displayed within the parking mobile application. Various images would display the geographical map of the parking areas, and various interactive images to show live information of parking availability for the university parking areas.
 * __ Functional Requirements __**

The mobile application need make it easy for its users to understand how to use the mobile application. The mobile application needs to have an easy learnability for its users to use and access the mobile application. Since usability is important for this mobile application, the mobile application will create tutorials to make it easier for its users to use the parking mobile application. This tutorial will be an option within the mobile application to train new users on how to use the mobile application. This tutorial option will guide the new user step by step on how to utilize the parking mobile application. This would support a physical training requirement allowing its user to use the mobile application with guidance on the actual application Also, we would provide an informational video on Youtube showing video scenarios on how to use the mobile application. This would support the user to learn the mobile application visually through a video guiding the user how to use the application. Another training requirement available for the mobile application is customer support. We would provide a support system online. This will help new and current users to ask questions related to the use of the mobile application. This would give a hands-on help for the users where there will be support available when help is needed to use the application. Accessing the mobile application through smartphones will reduce training requirements. Current users of smartphones would already know how to use the hardware. Christina Warren suggests that “designing your apps so that they take advantage of gestures, like swiping forward and back, pinching to zoom and pulling-down to refresh, can add a lot of usability to your applications without taking up tons of space for a designated button,” (Christina Warren, July 2010). Learning these gestures for a smartphone such as the iPhone are required to learn how to use the mobile application. We are relying on the user’s current experience and knowledge with their smartphone to access and use the mobile application.
 * __ Training Requirements __**

__**Quality Requirements**__ __False Positive and False Negative Requirement:__ In our application we need to detect incidents in order for our application to function. The incidents that occur in our design would involve the occupancy of a parking space and the vacancy of a parking space. To do this, we must develop an incident detention process; this lets us know when a parking lot is occupied and when it is vacant. It also helps us to monitor and reduce the amount of errors that the app reports as incidents (DESERC 24). The incident in this app is a vacant parking space because the app is designed to search for vacant parking spaces and not occupied. The false positive requirement for our app ensures that the number of false alarms or incidents should be kept low. False positive in this case means that if a parking space is occupied then it the app must show that it is occupied and not show that it is vacant. The false negative in our design means that if there is a vacant parking space, then the application must show that there is a vacant parking space and not an occupied one. The idea behind this requirement is that we must keep these false incidents, whether positive or negative at a low point at all times. __Operational Requirements__: For this application, the operational requirements are easy to operate and easy to possess. The design we have is an application and it can be used on many smart phones and android devices. This application is targeted towards the students, faculty and staff of the University of Toronto and many of these users have smart phones or android devices and in some cases they may possess both. The application needs to be operated by the users because the available parking spaces would change regularly and it is up to the users to keep up with the changes. Some of the operational constraints that the application has is that the use of this application would require a smart phones that has internet assess and runs applications. Another operational constraint is that the application would only be available on phones that operate apps. __Availability Requirements:__ The availability requirement would simply just require the users to have a smart phone and they would be able to assess the information our app provides. Our availability requirement has ensured that the application is ready for use when required, maximizes the amount of time that the application is available for use, minimize the scheduled and unscheduled downtime during which the app is not available for use and enables the users to use it at user-chosen times. Reducing the downtime allows provides reliability and we can minimize the amount of downtime by scheduling the downtime during the period when the application is less likely to be used. This would involve scheduling during weekends, holidays or during the night as it is less likely that there will be a shortage of parking spaces during these periods. Scheduling downtime during the night is an effective way of scheduling during a 24 or 48 hr. period. Our application provides few constraints in terms of availability because smart phones and android devices are portable and can be carried at all time and this makes it more available for the users. It would have been a different scenario had our application only be made available for use with computers.

http://www.deserec.eu/files/Deliverables/wp4/D_4.1_Requirements_for_the_fast_self-healing_module.pdf

The primary purpose of setting usability requirements is to ensure that the system being created effectively meets the expectations of its users in terms of user-friendliness. In for the user to have high-quality experience using the parking application, we must make certain that learnability, error rate, standard guidelines and look and feel requirements are met. In order for the user to get comfortable with using the system, it is vital for us as designers to provide ways for the user to learn how to use the application. To do this, we will provide messages through the system through a dialog or on-page messaging technique. Dialogs will be most helpful especially since each user will be a driver and will want to maintain their eyes on the road rather than looking elsewhere. Also, on-page messaging is helpful for those who are hearing impaired. Messages will be provided at the beginning of each use to step-by-step guide the user in what to do. This feature can be disabled at any point in time when the user feels he/she is able to accurately use the application without any prompts. In addition, tool tips will be offered through a hover help feature. When the user places the cursor (Android, Blackberry), or touches (iPhone, touch screen phones) a button on the user interface, a bubble box becomes visible and explains the function of that particular button and offers brief help on how to use it. Moreover, the user will easily be able to fulfill all learnability requirements through the use of online tutorials and references that can be accessed through the click of a button the application. An important part of designing this application is to help users recover from errors. It is a given that users are bound to make mistakes regardless of if it is their first time using the application or 20th times. To ensure that these actions are reversible we will offer an undo feature where users are able to reverse one or more of their recent actions. This feature will be available through a button in the tool bar. In addition, a redo button will be offered to reverse any action that was invalidated through undo. It is imperative that the application is universally designed to ensure that all types of users are familiar with the system and can use it with ease. The user interface will be designed to support all types of user roles. There will be only one interface provided that will be simple to use for the novice, expert, casual and frequent user. To ensure usability for the novice user, there will be step by step instructions provided as mentioned in the above paragraphs through dialog or on-page messaging. These messages can be disabled by the expert or frequent user. Additionally, it is important to follow the guidelines of the W3C for accessibility. This application will be designed to work for all drivers with a smartphone using UTM’s parking services// //. We assume that all smartphone users have data enabled on their phone, if they do not, we assume they will be able to connect to UTM’s UTORWin wireless fidelity (wi-fi).In terms of consistency, the application will have common screens, features and buttons for each page viewed. To ensure that users receive feedback for their actions, an status bar will be provided on screen when performing an action. For example, if a user clicks the “park” button, he/she will know that their action has been successful when they see the status bar is completely filled and they are re-directed to a new page.// //A very important aspect of designing any type of system is to construct a simple but attractive presentation. Our application will have a screen layout presented in logical order for everyday use. We will ensure that the first part of starting the application requires for one to be on UTM parking premises and then the user can move on to the next step. Also, we will use a legible font style and size so that all users are able to understand and easily read through any components on their phone’s screens. Also, a visual design grid will be used to present each page in a grid-based pattern to aid in ease of visually reading from top to bottom and left to right. This is important because it is in human nature for English to be read from left to right and top to bottom. Colours used in the design will conform to the guidelines for those who are colour blind. Moreover, for iPhone or touch screen phone users the design of our buttons will be designed to be not too small or too big.// // (Need to include display resolution stuff but I don’t know anything about it) //
 * __Usability Requirements__**

Mansfield, Ian, As Smartphone Usage Rises, April 20, 2011 <**__[]>__** Referenced on May 25, 2011. Tabini, Marco, Apple releases Xcode4, puts it in sale at the App Store, Mar 9, 2011 Warren, Christina, 5 Ways to consider when designing mobile apps, July 2010 < []> Referenced on May 25, 2011. Wiley, John, Interaction Design, 2nd edition, Interface Types, Wiley.
 * Sources ** :
 * __ []> __** Referenced on May 25, 2011

Toth, Ervin, SIXTH FRAMEWORK PROGRAMME PRIORITY 2 “Information Society Technologies” 2004  Referenced on May 25, 2011

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