UGANDA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF BUSINESS AND ADMINISTRATION

PROJECT TITLE: UGANDA TOURISM MOBILE GUIDE APP

CASE STUDY: UGANDA WILDLIFE

BY

VENETTA GLADYS

SUPERVISOR: MR. JOSH

A PROJECT PROPOSAL SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF

BUSINESS AND ADMINISTRATION IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF AN
AWARD OF BACHELORS DEGREE OF BUSINESS COMPUTING OF
UGANDA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY

MAY, 2017
 DECLARATION
VENETTA GLADYS do hereby declare that this Project proposal is original and has not been
published and/or submitted for any other degree award to any other University before.

Signature………………............. Date………………………………

VENETTA GLADYS

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 APPROVAL
This project Proposal written by Venetta Gladys has been under my supervision and it is ready
for submission to the Uganda Christian University Faculty of Business and Administration for
examination.

Signature…………………………….
Date………./………………../…………

MR. JOSH

ACADEMIC SUPERVISOR

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 DEDICATION

I dedicate this project proposal to my beloved family, my friends and my supervisor Mr. Josh.
Thank you very much for all the support you offered to me.

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I thank God who has enabled me complete this project proposal successfully, my family for the
financial support rendered to me. I also appreciate my friends for the guidance and support they
gave to me. Finally I thank my Supervisor Mr. Joshua Mwesigye for the advice and guidance
given to me regarding my project.

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 ABSTRACT

In this project the researcher will identify problems existing in Uganda’s Tourism industry. Some

of the issues that the researcher will investigate is how hard it is to know location of different

tourism sites and to how they find the right people to contact if they needed some help or make

some payment, and another difficult is that there are many fake tourist sites so in this application

we shall have to only put tourism sites that have been approved by the Uganda Tourism Board.

The researcher will carry out a data collection on the different tourists who would be found on

some sites. The people that will be interviewed include the site manager, tourists and tourist

brokers who will helped the researcher in achieving in coming up with a legit solution. They will

provide first-hand information about the problems they face and how they thought problems can

be solved.

The researcher will build a system to solve all existing problems in the tourism industry; the

system will have many modules. There will be an Android Application which will be used by

tourists to access all the information designed for them. Then a web-based application which will

be used by the system administrator of the Android application. The system administrator will be

the one to update the tourist sites.

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Table of Contents
DECLARATION .................................................................................................................................... i
APPROVAL .......................................................................................................................................... ii
DEDICATION...................................................................................................................................... iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .................................................................................................................... iv
ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................................... v
CHAPTER ONE.................................................................................................................................... 1
1.0 INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................. 1
1.1 Background .................................................................................................................................. 1
1.2 Problem Statement ...................................................................................................................... 2
1.3 Main Objective ............................................................................................................................. 2
1.4 Specific Objective ......................................................................................................................... 2
1.5 Scope of the Study ........................................................................................................................ 2
1.6 Significance of the Study.............................................................................................................. 2
CHAPTER TWO................................................................................................................................... 4
2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW ...................................................................................................... 4
2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 4
2.2 Mobile application development.................................................................................................. 4
2.2.1 Requirement handling process ............................................................................................. 6
2.3 Development of the Application .................................................................................................. 7
2.3.1 Advantage & Disadvantage of Existing System ................................................................... 8
2.3.2 Basic Concept of the Application. ......................................................................................... 9
2.3.3 Modules in Application ......................................................................................................... 9
2.4 Related Apps ................................................................................................................................ 9
2.4.1 Citymapper............................................................................................................................ 9
2.4.2 Splittr ................................................................................................................................... 10
2.4.3 Duolingo .............................................................................................................................. 10
2.4.4 Tripit.................................................................................................................................... 10
2.4.5 Detour .................................................................................................................................. 10
Detour ............................................................................................................................................... 10
2.4.6 Field Trip ............................................................................................................................. 11
2.4.7 iTrack Africa Lite ............................................................................................................... 11

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 2.4.8 Sasol eBirds ......................................................................................................................... 11
2.4.9 ParkSpotter Africa .............................................................................................................. 12
2.5 Strength of the reviewed apps ................................................................................................... 12
2.6 Weaknesses of the reviewed apps .............................................................................................. 12
2.7 Improvements to be added from the reviewed applications ..................................................... 13
2.8 Tour guide apps statistics .......................................................................................................... 13
2.9 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 15
CHAPTER THREE............................................................................................................................. 17
METHODOLOGY .......................................................................................................................... 17
3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 17
3.2 System Study .............................................................................................................................. 17
3.2.1 Observation ......................................................................................................................... 17
3.2.3 Documentation .................................................................................................................... 17
3.1.4 Data processing and analysis .............................................................................................. 18
3.2.5 Editing ................................................................................................................................. 18
3.3 Design Methodology (Break it down) ........................................................................................ 18
3.3.1 Design tools .......................................................................................................................... 20
3.3.2 Graphical user interface (GUI) design ............................................................................... 20
3.3.3 Database design ................................................................................................................... 21
3.3.4 Programming languages ..................................................................................................... 21
3.3.5 Hardware required ............................................................................................................. 21
3.3.6 User requirements ............................................................................................................... 21
3.4 Application implementation and testing ................................................................................... 21
3.4 Android Technology .................................................................................................................. 22
3.5 System Testing Methodology ..................................................................................................... 24
3.6.1 Black Box Testing ................................................................................................................ 24
3.6 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 25
Appendix .............................................................................................................................................. 26
Application Flow Design .............................................................................................................. 26
Project Budget ............................................................................................................................. 31
REFERENCES .................................................................................................................................... 32

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 CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
Uganda is a landlocked country in East Africa whose diverse landscape encompasses the snow-
capped Rwenzori Mountains and immense Lake Victoria. Its abundant wildlife includes
chimpanzees as well as rare birds. Remote Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is a renowned
mountain gorilla sanctuary. Murchison Falls National Park in the northwest is known for its
43m-tall waterfall and wildlife such as hippos.

Presently, the Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Heritage and the Uganda Tourism Board
maintain information along with statistics pertaining to tourism for the country. There has been
increased investment in tourism, particularly in travel accommodation and related facilities; this
has enhanced tourists' experience in the country.
Adventure tourism, ecotourism and cultural tourism are being developed. About three-quarters of
Uganda's tourists are from other African countries. Kenya, which borders Uganda, is the biggest
source of tourists to Uganda, making up almost half of all arrivals into the country. The number
of visitors from Tanzania, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Sudan is quite
low.
As Uganda is a landlocked country, it is very dependent on connections through Kenya for most
of its transport. International travelers sometimes prefer to fly into Nairobi before connecting to
Uganda's capital Kampala as this is often cheaper. Below is a table showing the number of
tourists that have visited Uganda's national parks between 2006 -2010. In 2012 Uganda was
awarded Number 1 in "Top Countries & Travel Destinations 2012" by Lonely Planet.

This application is basically about travelling sites in Uganda for pleasure it clearly gives
someone a picture of what they should expect on the arrival, it shows the beauty of the country
and attractive for example animals, beautiful landscapes, and many others. It should be
attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists and the business of operating tours. This
application will enable tourists to view information concerning the tourism sites. It should be
able to provide all the necessary information about the sites.

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1.2 Problem Statement
In the past years, tourists have been facing a problem of accessing tourism information such as
locating national parks and other tourist’s sites in Uganda. Both internationally and nationally
tourists have been having trouble when touring and less aware about what to find and expect and
also locating places at different sites such as national parks, most especially about the
accommodation. Therefore, I propose the development of a tourism guide application whereby
the tourist can have access to tourism information anytime anywhere.

1.3 Main Objective

To develop an Android Based tourism guide application that will provide information about
tourism sites in Uganda.

1.4 Specific Objective

Below are the specific objects of the researcher’s project: -

(i) To carry out a research on the current tourism sites information in Uganda
(ii) To design a travel sites application, this will include the back-end and the UI interfaces of
the application.
(iii)To test and debug the application
(iv) To implement the application by hosting it to the Google Play Store for users to access
the application.

1.5 Scope of the Study

The study the researcher is carrying out, will include the recognized tourism sites by the Uganda
Tourism Board. This will help the researcher not to show an illegal tourism site. The applicat ion
is not an advertising platform, booking platform.

The major aim of the application is to guide the tourists locate different tourist sites across the
country, and showing contact information which the Tourist can use to contact the respective
tourism agent or site.

1.6 Significance of the Study

This research and implementation of the project is important both economically, socially, and
academically, some of the reasons why this study is significant are mentioned below:-

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(i) International Tourists their finding of accredited tourism sites will be made easy.
(ii) Tourism sites will reduce on the costs spent in advertising about the sites information.
(iii) Remote tourist sites will be brought to the public, making them accessible and easy to
find by tourists.
(iv) Planning for trips in advance is made easier due to easy access to information

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 CHAPTER TWO
2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction
In this chapter, we will provide a theoretical background that will act as a framework and a
foundation for our study. This framework is built upon a consolidation of knowledge from two
different fields; mobile application development and studies of previously developed tourist
systems. Both these fields will have a direct bearing on any project that aims to develop a MTIA.
By presenting a theoretical base regarding mobile application development handling we aim to
describe what differentiates mobile application development from “traditional” system
development. By reviewing research of already developed tourist systems we aim to collect and
analyze a set of functionality that these projects implemented; along with the results from the
user trials of the respective systems.
In the first part of this chapter we will discuss mobile application development and how this
differs from more traditional software development projects. From this discussion, we conclude
that two concepts stand out as important in mobile development. These concepts are
personalization and context awareness. Both Kaasinen (2005) and Oinas Kukkonen & Kurkela
(2003) mentions these as important concepts that will enable developers to create better
applications that will deliver more value to the end user. As we will see in the review of previous
tourist systems, both context awareness and personalization are dominant features (Table3).
Since these two concepts seem to be of core importance in mobile application development we
will present them more in-depth to provide a background for section 4.3, “Personalization,
context awareness and user requirements”, where we discuss how personalization and context
awareness can affect user requirements in mobile development.

2.2 Mobile application development

A software development project usually includes some form of requirements collection at an
early stage, and how this is carried out does not differ much between “traditional” and mobile
system development. Mobile applications have a potentially larger, more heterogeneous and
loosely defined target group of users which has to be accounted for when doing requirement
collection and analysis, but the collection itself can be carried out using the same techniques in
both cases.

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An example of this “traditional” approach to requirement collection in a mobile development
setting can be found in the article Mobile Government User Requirements Model
(Thunibatet al. 2011). The real fork between traditional and mobile development processes will
come at a later stage, when the design and actual implementation of the application has started.
In this part of the development process the differences are, quite naturally, differences in
development tools, programming languages and frameworks. The area of application design is
where the differences between traditional and mobile application development are most
discernable and most researched. Both Kaasinen (2005) and Oinas-Kukkonen & Kurkela (2003)
have proposed design guidelines for mobile development. These guidelines are presented as rules
of thumb aimed at simplifying the development of better mobile applications. Oinas-
Kukkonenetal presents a list with seven key principles that they find important in mobile
application development.
 Such services should provide information that users need when they are on the move
(Mobility).
 They should make the life of their users easier (Usefulness).
 They should include only relevant information (Relevance).
 They should be simple and easy to use (Ease of use).
 The most important information should be the easiest to locate (Fluency of navigation).
 They should use their users‟ terminology and their navigational structure should be
organized in the way in which users think (User centeredness).
 They should be adapted to each and every user’s own needs and capabilities
(Personalization).
Eija Kaasinen presents a list of design implications that are intended to facilitate user acceptance
of mobile applications by fulfilling a set of core user values. She argues that attention should be
paid to the following principles when considering the values that mobile services could provide
to the users:
 Mobile devices are above all personal communication devices. That is why it is no
wonder that key values include personally relevant and interesting content and
communication. The communication value can be related to communication based
services such as discussion groups but it may also be related to the possibility to
participate and spice up the service with user generated content.

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  Mobile services need to provide the users with topical information. If the information is
not topical, the user can have it elsewhere and at other times.
 Mobile services need to provide the user with enough information. If the information is
not comprehensive, the user has to get the rest of the information elsewhere, and soon
learns to go elsewhere in the first place.
 Seamless service entities support the user throughout an activity, even from one service
to another and from one device to another.
 The usage needs are often occasional, even if the service is very useful in those
occasional usage situations.

These guidelines are not tied to any specific step in the development process; instead they can be
seen as a sort of evaluation criteria towards which the development process and the emerging
product (the application) can be evaluated. What we can see from these lists is that they both
mention the importance of personalization in mobile applications.

2.2.1 Requirement handling process

The demand on requirements handling in software development gets higher and higher compared
to ten years ago, when most systems was self-sufficient; nowadays the systems are often highly
integrated in each other, trading information. As stated earlier, software development projects are
under high pressure to make sure the system is finished and delivered on time and budget, which
creates a demand on the requirements handling process to function effectively. Eriksson (2007)
writes that if a project fails to meet its deadline, there is a larger the risk is that the finished
system is no longer what the customer needs.
Some reasons for failing with requirements handling can be attributed to the techniques used for
gathering them, from whom they are gathered or from ambiguously written requirements. The
longer it takes for the missing requirements to surface the more it will cost, as it takes one minute
to add something in a word document while retracting something from production can cost
several thousand times more, a fact that is visualized by Boehm curve (Figure 1).

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Figure 1:Boems curve

2.3 Development of the Application

Nowadays, people’s consumption structure is improving steadily. There has been a large increase
in the number of people out on tours, for the sake of recreation and entertainment. Tourism is the
strongest and largest industry in the global economy world, generating an estimated 11% of the
global gross domestic product (GDP) and employing 200 million people and serving 700 million
tourists worldwide - a figure which is expected to double by the year 2020.Meanwhile, there is
greatly enriched travel

Information provided to the tourists on the Internet.

However, a problem is shown that tourists are not able to get travel information timely when
they are on the move. Therefore, we intend to explore how to build a mobile tourist guide system
based on mash up technology to solve this problem.

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Current mobile services are enhanced with location aware features, providing the user with better
use experience. A great number of mobile phone applications appeared recently, many of which
are location related.

Location dependent services, which answer location related queries, are an important class of
context aware applications. With kinds of promising applications, like local information obtain
(traffic condition, navigation messages and so on) and neighboring environment queries, such as
finding the nearest restaurant, location dependent query service will soon become an necessary
part of our daily lives. We will describe the design, implementation and deployment of a location
based application, named

Smart Travel Guide, with the mobile phone as a platform. This application permitted users to get
tour guidance information they need anytime and anywhere. In particular, the tourist data could
be browsed or queried through an Internet map service such as Google Maps. The mobile client’s
current location is one of the most important information for location related system. Mobile
phones need to report their own locations to the remote server periodically, so that the
information they want can be suitably queried. From the point of view of the service, the
simplest method of locating is to let user tell his or her location, but this method requires extra
effort because the user needs to define his or her location and input it to the system. The user can
be located with different positioning systems. The advantage of this method is that the users do
not need any extra equipment.

GPS has become a mainstay of transportation system worldwide. It provides accurate location
information for an unlimited number of people anywhere in the world. GPS satellites broadcast

signals from space which are picked up and identified by the receivers, then the receiver are
provided with three dimensional locations: latitude, longitude and altitude. If the user device
includes a GPS (Global Positioning System) module which is becoming increasingly common in
current mobile devices, the user’s location can be defined very accurately [1]

2.3.1 Advantage & Disadvantage of Existing System

In the tourism industry, tourist information is obtained mainly through newspaper, magazines,
radio and other simple ways those are available easily. But problem is that tourists are not able to

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get travel information timely when they are on the move. While today's mobile devices are
becoming more intelligent, compared with PC, they still have the following limitations like small
screen and tiny keyboard, limited CPU capacity, limited memory space, slow and fitful Internet
connection.
Many mobiles of recent decades have travel guide application. But the application on these
mobiles works slow due to continues acquisition of the bandwidth.
Therefore, the mobile end - user’s operation is very difficult, and the contents display on the
screen of mobile device is limited.

2.3.2 Basic Concept of the Application.

The application aims to develop detailed texts, pictures, videos and other guidance information
are provided, and so people can better understand the tourist attractions and make decision
objectively. A problem is shown that tourists are not able to get tourism information timely when
they are on the move. Therefore, we intend to explore how to build a mobile tourist guide system
based on mash up technology to solve this problem.

2.3.3 Modules in Application

 Find Current Location
 Locate in Map
 Calculate Distance between two Cities
 Location of different tourist sites
2.4 Related Apps
2.4.1 Citymapper

Comprehensive, easy to use and also playful, Citymapper offers more detailed journey planner
information than Google, including real-time departures and disruption alerts, as well as Uber
integration and cycle routes. It is available in around 30 cities worldwide, with all the obvious
city-break destinations covered. It even tells you how long your journey will take by jetpack –
useless information really, but hopefully something to cheer you up when your train is cancelled.

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2.4.2 Splittr

There is a selection of apps out there to help you split bills (Tipulator, Splitwiseetc), but Splittr is
geared up for travelling, providing a simple platform to share costs between friends. You can
enter expenses as you go, including who paid what and the app will do the rest. A nice touch for
longer, multi-destination trips is that all currencies are supported and you can mix currencies
without having to do the conversion yourself.
Forget about complicated Excel sheets after a trip with friends. Splittr helps you to split costs and
is super easy to use. It's perfect for vacations, weekend trips or even for the household. Simply
add expenses as you go and Splittr will tell you who is next to pay and who owes whom how
much. You can also generate an entire PDF report which you can email to your friends.

2.4.3 Duolingo
Over 70 million people have registered with Duolingo, a free and incredibly well-designed
language learning app. Though not a replacement for proper language tuition, the app is a fun
way to get the basics, or to keep yourself fresh on grammar and vocabulary, before a trip abroad.
Just like a computer game, the app guides you through levels that you need to complete before
advancing, and you gain experience points along the way.

2.4.4 Tripit
A bit like a pocket travel agent, Tripit pulls together travel information from your confirmation
emails for flights, hotels, rental cars, events bookings and converts it into a single itinerary. Just
forward your emails to the app and it will do the rest. If you’re travelling with others you can
easily share the plans, making this a useful app for coordinating a group trip.

2.4.5 Detour
Detour takes the traditional audio tour to the next level with tours that will impress locals. The
app uses your phone’s GPS to pinpoint your location, and guides offer an insider perspective of
destinations, often with interviews of people you can meet in person on your journey. For
instance, the tour of San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf explores the working side of the wharf.
You’ll see where fisherman unloads their daily catch, and learn about hidden gems in the area,
including a vintage arcade with working games from the 1800s. Detour is currently only
available in San Francisco; there are seven tours available, with a new one added each month.

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2.4.6 Field Trip

Turn a casual stroll into your own self-guided tour with Google’s Field Trip. The app runs in the
background on your phone and shares information about different spots around the world using a
pop-up notification. Even better, the app makes suggestions on where you should stop for lunch
or shop for gifts based on recommendations from places like Zagat and Thrills. You can see
things like a picture of Harlem from the winter of 1956 and read about how locals handled those
icy conditions, or learn about Shakespeare’s Globe Theater in London before ever taking a step
inside.

2.4.7 iTrack Africa Lite

iTrack Southern Africa is a new, easy-to-use digital field guide that takes our communal
knowledge of Southern African mammal tracks to another level altogether. It is accessible
enough for those outdoor enthusiasts with nothing more than a casual interest in the footprints
they come across and yet contains enough accurate and quantifiable information to be a powerful
tool for hunters, researchers and expert trackers.
It breaks new ground in documenting the commonly used gait patterns of many Southern African
mammals and makes use of over 2000 measurements to bring users never before published detail
on track dimensions.
iTrack Southern Africa, goes far beyond what a traditional field guide can offer with a powerful search
tool developed by Jonah to simplify track identification in the field. It makes use of basic track features,
length and width measurements and your locality to narrow down the options. If you’re not sure what
criteria to choose, just leave it out and the tool will still provide you with a list of possibilities based on
the information you have given it.
iTrack Southern Africa is a collaborative effort between Dave Hood, a South African Field Guide and
Naturalist with a passion for tracking who provided the bulk of the content and Jonah Evans – a wildlife
biologist, the Texan State Mammologist and a CyberTracker track and sign specialist and evaluator.
Jonah is also the producer of iTrack Wildlife – the definitive North American digital mammal track guide.
The app uses Louis Liebenberg’s drawings which are broadly considered to be the most accurate
depictions of Southern African animal tracks.

2.4.8 Sasol eBirds

The Sasol eBirds of Southern Africa is an interactive version of the best-selling Sasol Birds of
Southern Africa field guide. This application has specific features that will enhance your birding

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experience.
"In southern Africa the Sasol eBirds would undoubtedly be my first choice. The text is detailed,
the navigation system is user friendly and the opportunity to listen to recordings of calls and
songs is a huge asset. Above all, the superb paintings by Norman Arlott and Peter Hayman have
stood the test of time and are more detailed, more accurate and more life-like than anything on
offer in other birding apps for the region." — Mark Cocker, author of Birds and People

2.4.9 ParkSpotter Africa

Currently covering Kruger National Park, Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, Addo National Park,
Table Mountain National Park in South Africa and Etosha National Park in Namibia, ParkSpotter
Africa is a useful park app guide, with park contact details, gate opening times, accommodation
options, lists of waterholes and points of interest and hiking routes. There’s also detailed
information on all the flora and fauna you can find in the parks (as well as a tool to help you
identify animals), and features that allow you to track your trip, save and share your wildlife
sightings on social media.

ParkSpotter Africa App puts the power of the African wildlife experience in the palm of your
hand. High-quality pics and great info detailing flora, fauna and local attractions in each park.
Share your wildlife experiences instantly. Track your journey and locate your wildlife sightings
with easy swipe functionality. The latest, most up-to-date mapping as well as the latest park
contact details, facilities and information.

2.5 Strength of the reviewed apps

 It is integrated with other software for example QuickBooks online for easy payroll
computation.
 Its cloud capability ensures backup and convenience.
 It sends notification to employees about the changes in the shifts.
 It has both online and offline workload access capability.
 Employees are sent notifications via their email.

2.6 Weaknesses of the reviewed apps

 Notifications are only limited to emails.
 The reviewed applications do not have the event booking capability.

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  The reviewed applications do not allow events service providers to upload the
information.
 The apps do not have payment options for the events services.

2.7 Improvements to be added from the reviewed applications

The application I intend to design will have the following strengths basing on the lessons learnt
from related applications.

 It will send task notifications to the users.

 It will enable the tourists view the details of the information they need.
 The application will be user friendly with high response rate.
 The managers will be able to receive reports about tourists.
 It will allow the managers communicate to the employees.

Advantages of Uganda tourism mobile guide app

 Cost savings: Better scheduling can reduce overheads associated with not assigning more
employees than are required at any time, and avoid staff being overworked by not
receiving enough rest between shifts or bad shift combinations. Furthermore, filling
unforeseen gaps in schedules by relying on expensive, short notice staff will be removed.

 Personal preferences: By providing interactive and important information to the tourists,

more so they will be satisfied when they are able to better plan and use their leisure time.

2.8 Tour guide apps statistics

Of all direct online bookings, 30% are made on mobile devices (tablets and smartphones), and
it’s increasing at a rate of 1% per quarter (Rezdy data). Mobile phones are the #1 item to bring
on holiday (ETB News) Millennials touch their smartphones 43x per day (SDL). 38% of leisure
travelers and 57% of business travelers use mobile for travel information (Google) Travel-related
mobile queries so far during 2013 are up some 66% year-on-year (Mobile Path to Purchase.)
31% of smartphone users claim they research travel on their mobile devices (Mobile Path to
Purchase). 14% of smartphone users are securing a booking or quotes on their mobile

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devices (Mobile Path to Purchase). 49% of those using mobiles to get prices for travel products
do so on aggregators (Mobile Path to Purchase). Those who book from mobile devices have 5.1
research sessions & visit 3.3 websites (Mobile Path to Purchase). Tablets for travel arrangements
are increasing – 21% for business & 9% for leisure travelers (Amadeus). 20% of Australian
households now have at least 1 tablet (Amadeus) Up to a week before travel, 5.3% of travelers
would make a last-minute booking on a tablet, 43.8% on mobile (Eye for Travel). 94% of
TripAdvisor customers are using mobile to research local things to do (Cross Media Live). 23%
of leisure and 26% of business travelers use their mobile browser to book vacation activities
(Google). 29% of web users accessed their websites through a mobile device (Tourism Research
Australia) Travelers go online during their trips, finding local activities using their mobile
devices 33% of the time (Tourism Research Australia) Sales of web-enabled mobile devices are
outrunning computer sales (GigaOm). 52% of travelers used a smart phone or tablet to complete
travel bookings. Of those 52%, 23% opted to use their smart phone while 29% made their
reservations on their tablet (JiWire). Australian online shopping related searches via mobile
devices and smartphones have spiked 40% year-on-year (Search Engine Watch). Return on
Investment on tablets is 70% better than desktops (Adobe). 67% said they were more likely to
make a purchase when visiting a business’s mobile-friendly site, versus 61% who said they’d
most likely leave a site that wasn’t optimized for mobile (Search Engine Watch). 74% of people
said that “If a site works well on a mobile phone I am more likely to return to it in the
future” (Search Engine Watch).

In 2011, about 11 percent of people used their mobile device to inquire about a tour on their next
vacation. By 2012, that number rose to 19 percent (VFM Leonardo). 36 million Americans using
their mobile devices to research vacation options and another 16 million making the reservations
on their mobile device (VFM Leonardo). More than 60% of United States users want a smart
phone site to load and work properly within 3 seconds or less (Forbes). 87% of global and 85%
of American travelers use mobile devices while traveling (Trip Barometer). On holiday, 24% of
travelers use their smartphones for reading reviews, while 22% use their tablets (Trip
Barometer). On holiday, 27% of travelers are looking for things to do with their smartphone,
while 21% use their tablets (Trip Barometer). 66% of US and UK tablet owners use tablets for
researching product information before buying (Econsultancy). 63% of US and UK tablet owners
are watching videos or browsing photos and checking prices for store information

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(Econsultancy). 73% of UK and US tablet owners said they use their tablets primarily at home
either while watching TV or while in bed at night (Econsultancy).What matters most to US
(29%) and UK (31%) tablet owners while browsing a website on a tablet is a similar experience
to desktop, but adapted for a mobile screen (Econsultancy). Mobile growth will outpace both
total and online growth to account for more than 25% of total vs online travel bookings
(Business Insider). Barriers to overcome in mobile are bad UX design, friction that keeps users
from completing transactions, and lack of Wi-Fi & 4G coverage (Business Insider). Tablets
accounted for 7% of all online travel bookings globally in the 3rd quarter of 2013 (Business
Insider). Mobile apps overtake PC Internet usage in U.S. Mobile devices accounted for 55% of
Internet usage in the United States in January 2014. PCs clocked in at 45% (comScore).
Consumers use their smartphone (57%) & computer/tablet (66%) to search for local information
when they realize they want or need to make a purchase (Google). Consumers use their
smartphone (53%) & computer/tablet (83%) to search for local information when they actively
look or research their purchase (Google). Consumers use their smartphone (43%) or
computer/tablet (64%) to search for local information when they purchase their product/service
(Google). The number of Americans who book travel online and on tablets in 2013 increased by
40% compared to 2012, and those using tablets were 20% more likely to make a booking than
those using smartphones.(Phocuswright). US sales of travel bookings via mobile devices will go
from $6.15B in 2012 to $39.5B in 2015. (Phocuswright). Global smartphone users are expected
to touch 1.75bn in 2014 (Eye for travel). Global mobile phone users to reach 4.55bn in 2014
(Eye for travel). Between 2013 and 2017, mobile phone penetration will rise from 61.1% to
69.4% of the global population (Eye for travel). US consumers will spend more time on mobile
devices than PCs in 2014: 3 hours per day (Eye for travel). When using Facebook, 37% access
the site via desktop, while 68% access the site via mobile (Eye for travel). 37% of the booking in
Australia are done on mobile platforms (Criteo, 2015). 45% of connected travelers use their
smartphone to book travel activities pre-trip (Trip Barometer, 2015)

2.9 Conclusion

In conclusion, the reviewed literature has provided deeper understanding of the proposed
application. Different scholars have written about task allocation applications and information
systems. Review of the related applications will help the researcher come up with an application

15
that will eliminate some of the weaknesses in the related applications and also pick ideas from
the strengths of those application in order to design an improved application.

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 CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction
Our approach to answer the research question which functional requirements do travelers have
on an information application for mobile platforms was to first review literature on existing
mobile tourist systems. This data will then be analyzed in order to create a ranked list of
important user requirements that will be used as an input in a future Tourism Guide project.

According to Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill (2007) a deductive research approach is an approach
where testable hypotheses are derived from a theory base and the results are then gained by
testing these hypotheses. The opposite is an inductive approach where a theory or hypothesis is
derived from a set of data. Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill states that “The survey strategy is
usually associated with the deductive approach” (ibidp.138) and this is indeed true for our study.
Both our theoretical framework will be based on previous work within the field of mobile
information systems for tourists.

3.2 System Study

This involves different ways through which the researcher can get the information regarding the
application to be designed and the system that is currently being used. Data collection methods to
be used include; observation, documentation review and these are explained as show below.

3.2.1 Observation
During observation, as is system will be closely observed to see how it currently operates and the
way it can be improved to meet the business need. I will follow up the whole process of task
allocation used by Great Lakes Safaris.

3.2.3 Documentation
The study will be done by reviewing a number of relevant documents about employee task
allocation. Reading existing documents will enable the researcher to use the relevant information
about task allocation. This included evidence written by people, general information about
challenges encountered by using task allocation and how the to be application shall bridge that
gap.

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3.1.4 Data processing and analysis
The data collected will be processed and analyzed to ensure that it gives meaning. The written
data will be read through and selection identified.

3.2.5 Editing
This involves cross checking whether given were answered and checking for errors, gaps or what
is missing in the data. Final editing will be made by reading through the data to identify patterns
of meaning and comparison with the data collected by other means.

3.3 Design Methodology (Break it down)

Figure 2: Prototyping

The researcher will use Prototyping, Prototype software is often referred to as alpha grade,
meaning it is the first version to run. Often only a few functions are implemented, the primary
focus of the alpha is to have a functional base code on to which features may be added. Once
alpha grade software has most of the required features integrated into it, it becomes beta software
for testing of the entire software and to adjust the program to respond correctly during situations
unforeseen during development

Often the end users may not be able to provide a complete set of application objectives, detailed
input, processing, or output requirements in the initial stage. After the user evaluation, another

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prototype will be built based on feedback from users, and again the cycle returns to customer
evaluation. The cycle starts by listening to the user, followed by building or revising a mock-up,
and letting the user test the mock-up, then back. There is now a new generation of tools
called Application Simulation Software which help quickly simulate application before their
development.

Extreme programming uses iterative design to gradually add one feature at a time to the initial
prototype. Continuous learning approaches within organizations or businesses may also use the
concept of business or process prototypes through software models.

System design is the third basic stage in systems development life cycle following planning and
analysis. It involves development methodology, user interface design and database design, the
data flow diagram, the context diagram, system flowchart and Entity relationship diagram shall
be used in system design.

3.3.1 The principal stages of the model map onto fundamental development
activities:
1. Requirements analysis and definition: The system's services, constraints and goals are,
established by consultation with system users. They are then defined in detail and serve
as a system specification.

2. System and software design: The systems design process partitions the requirements to
either hardware or software systems. It establishes an overall system architecture.
Software design involves identifying and describing the fundamental software system
abstractions and their relationships.

3. Implementation and unit testing: During this stage, the software design is realized as a
set of programs or program units. Unit testing involves verifying that each unit meets its
specification.

4. Integration and system testing: The individual program units or programs are
integrated and tested as a complete system to ensure that the software requirements have
been met. After testing, the software system is delivered to the customer.

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 5. Operation and maintenance: Normally (although not necessarily) this is the longest
life-cycle phase. The system is installed and put into practical use. Maintenance:
involves correcting errors which were not discovered in earlier stages of the life cycle,
improving the implementation of system units and enhancing the system’s services as
new requirements are discovered.

Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD): This clearly communicates the key entities in a certain
database and their relationship with each other. These will help the researcher to show the
relationship of the entities used in the database.

System flowchart: This will be used to help analyze a problem in a more effective way during
application design and it shows the general flow of the application processes.

Data Flow Diagram (DFD): This is a diagrammatic representation of the information flows
within a system, it is used to show how information enters and leaves the system, what changes
the information and where information is stored.

The Context Diagram: This will be used to show the system under consideration as a single
high-level process and then shows the relationship that the system has with other external entities

3.3.2 Design tools

Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Fireworks will be used as a graphic editor. Since they are not complex
and have more sophisticated features.

3.3.3 Graphical user interface (GUI) design

The graphical user interface shall be designed using android studio. This will show different
screens for different users depending on the tasks they are to perform. The activities and different
application lay outs that are user friendly will also be designed.

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3.3.4 Database design
The database will be designed using Structured Query Language (SQL), it will be run on wamp
server using php myAdmin. SQL is recommended during database design since it supports
relational database systems whose advantages include the ability to provide faster access to data
than flat files, and random access to data and has a built-in privilege system and most web based
applications use SQL databases.

3.3.5 Programming languages

Hypertext Pre-processor (PHP) is a server-side scripting language that will be used for the
programming environment. Java Script will be used for most of the programming. Both PHP
and Java Script will be used for validation of the interfaces made.

3.3.6 Hardware required

A phone with android operating system version 4.0 and above shall be required to run the
application on the mobile phone. Application testing using a computer will require a Computer
512MB+ RAM, monitor with minimum resolution of 1024x768, keyboard, and mouse, Hard
Drive should be in NTFS file-system formatted with minimum 10 GB of free space.

3.3.7 User requirements

The requirements will be gathered to enable the designer know what should be included in the
application these will also help in coming up with a prototype. Techniques for example
interviews and observation are used to collect information regarding the application in question.

3.4 Application implementation and testing

Android studio will be used to design the application. Having done that, the prototype will be
presented to the intended users for validation. Following validation, the suggested edits will be
done to satisfy user and system requirements. Following the above approach the application will
be presented to the management to see if it best suites their requirements, some of Great Lakes
Safaris employees shall be allowed to test the application and see if it works for them. The
application will be uploaded to the Google play store to enable the users easily download the
application.

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3.4 Android Technology
3.4.1 Android Mobile Tool Used: -

Android is one of an Open source platforms. It is created by Google and owned by Open Handset
Alliance. It is designed with goal “accelerate innovation in mobile” As such android has taken
over a field of mobile innovation. It is definitely free and open platform that differs hardware
from software that runs on it. It results for much more devices are running the same application.
Also, it gives possibility of friendlier environment for developers and consumers. Android, it is
complete software package for a mobile device. Since the beginning android team offers the
developing kit (tool and frameworks) for creating mobile applications quick and easy as possible.
In some cases, you do not specially need an android phone but you are very welcome to have
one.

It can work right out of the box, but of course users can customize it for their particular needs.
For manufactures it is ready and free solution for their devices. Except specific driver’s android
community provides everything else to create their devices.
3.4.2 Android Design
The Activity Lifecycle

As a user navigates throughout and back to your app, the Activity instances in your app
transition through different states in their lifecycle. The Activity class provides a number of
callbacks that allow the activity to know that a state has changed: that the system is creating,
stopping, resuming, or destroying an activity.

Within the lifecycle callback methods, you can declare how your activity behaves when the user
leaves and re-enters the activity. For example, if you're building a streaming video player, you
might pause the video and terminate the network connection when the user switches to another
app. When the user returns, you can reconnect to the network and allow the user to resume the
video from the same spot. In other words, each callback allows you to perform specific work
that's appropriate to a given change of state. Doing the right work at the right time and handling
transitions properly make your app more robust and perform ant. For example, good
implementation of the lifecycle callbacks can help ensure that your app avoids:

22
  Crashing if the user receives a phone call or switches to another app while using your
app.
 Consuming valuable system resources when the user is not actively using it.
 Losing the user's progress if they leave your app and return to it at a later time.
 Crashing or losing the user's progress when the screen rotates between landscape and
portrait orientation.

3.4.4 Activity-lifecycle concepts

To navigate transitions between stages of the activity lifecycle, the Activity class provides a core
set of six callbacks: onCreate(), onStart(), onResume(), onPause(), onStop(), and onDestroy().

Figure 3: Android Activity Life-Cycle

As the user begins to leave the activity, the system calls methods to dismantle the activity. In
some cases, this dismantlement is only partial; the activity still resides in memory (such as when
the user switches to another app), and can still come back to the foreground. If the user returns to
that activity, the activity resumes from where the user left off. The system’s likelihood of killing
a given process—along with the activities in it—depends on the state of the activity at the time.

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Activity state and ejection from memory provides more information on the relationship between
state and vulnerability to ejection.

Depending on the complexity of your activity, you probably don't need to implement all the
lifecycle methods. However, it's important that you understand each one and implement those
that ensure your app behaves the way users expect.

3.5 System Testing Methodology

Software testing is a process of executing a program or application with the intent of finding the
software bugs. It can also be stated as the process of validating and verifying that a software
program or application or product: Meets the business and technical requirements that guided its
design and development.
What Technique will be used?
Black Box Testing, also known as Behavioral Testing, is a software testing method in which the
internal structure/ design/ implementation of the item being tested is not known to the tester.
These tests can be functional or non-functional, though usually functional.

3.6.1 Black Box Testing

Figure 4:Black Box Testing

This method is named so because the software program, in the eyes of the tester, is like a black
box; inside which one cannot see. This method attempts to find errors in the following
categories:

 Incorrect or missing functions

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  Interface errors
 Errors in data structures or external database access
 Behavior or performance errors
 Initialization and termination errors

BLACK BOX TESTING TECHNIQUES

Following are some techniques that can be used for designing black box tests.

 Equivalence partitioning: It is a software test design technique that involves dividing

input values into valid and invalid partitions and selecting representative values from
each partition as test data.
 Boundary Value Analysis: It is a software test design technique that involves
determination of boundaries for input values and selecting values that are at the
boundaries and just inside/ outside of the boundaries as test data.
 Cause Effect Graphing: It is a software test design technique that involves identifying the
cases (input conditions) and effects (output conditions), producing a Cause-Effect Graph,
and generating test cases accordingly.

Why Is Black Box Testing Chosen?

 Tests are done from a user’s point of view and will help in exposing discrepancies in the
specifications.
 Tester need not know programming languages or how the software has been
implemented.
 Tests can be conducted by a body independent from the developers, allowing for an
objective perspective and the avoidance of developer-bias.
 Test cases can be designed as soon as the specifications are complete

3.6 Conclusion
The Mobile Based Tourist Guide application is an application that will enable tourists who come
to visit Uganda be able to locate tourism sites that are approved by the Uganda Tourism Board.
This application is not a booking application; through the application a user will be able to
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contact different people who manage the sites. The researcher will implement the application
using android technologies to achieve system goals.

Appendix
Application Flow Design
1. Splash Screen Activity

This is the first screens that will pop-up when the application is launched. It will delay for 4
Seconds, and then loads the Home Activity. This Activity will have TextViews, Background
Image, Progress Bar.

Figure 5:SplashScreen Activity

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 2. Home Activity

Figure 6:Home Activity

After the splash screen Activity, the HomeScreen will launch, this will be the starting page for
the application. So the tourist has to select the item he/she wants to visit or inquire to get more
information about it.

This activity will have icons with labels, this will be inform of a dashboard. You select where
you want to inquire about. The researcher will use CardViews and Linear Layouts to arrange the
icons vertically.

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 3. Hotels Activity

Figure 7:Hotels Activity

Above is the list of the available hotels in the country, after selecting hotels from the Home
Screen Activty this hotels Activity will pop-up. The list will include an image about the
hotel, then brief description about the hotel.

The hotels list will be organized using RecyclerView and CardViews, these technologies
were introduced to advance listView Activity. RecyclerViews and CardViews will help us
achieve the above design.

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 4. Single Hotel Activity.

Figure 8:Single Hotel Activity

When a tourist selects his/her favourite hotel from the previous activity, the single activity of the
that hotel will pop-up. This activity will have images about that entity, some outstanding features
in that hotel.

This Activity will have a detailed description of the hotel, for example Name of the Hotel,
Contact Details (Email, Telephone Numbers etc), Location Google Maps of that hotel. Then on
the same activity there will be a Book Button, this button will open up another activity that will
help the tourist contact the hotel directly through various ways.

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 5. BookActivity

Figure 9:Booking Activity

This activity will be the last activity, the tourist has to select the option he/she prefers to contact
the hotel agent. There is Email: here you can email the hotel directly, Call Agent: You can call
the hotel agents from the app, WhatsApp agent: You can link to WhatsApp and contact the agent
through the application. Social Media Links: Here there is Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc.

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Project Budget
The researcher will inject resources into the completion of the project and below is the budget
that will enable the researcher to finish the project to the very last end. Find the budget below: -

No. ITEM PRICE (Ugx)

1. Data Collection from different Fields 150,000/=

2. Publications/ Printing Services 80,000/=

3. Internet Connection 150,000/=

4. Consultation Services / Resources 170,000/=

TOTAL 550,000/=

Table 1: Budget

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