Design Prototype
Though not all design problems need the involvement of users in the design cycle, the cases where user expectations are the primary concerns for design, a tactic consideration of user characters and behaviors is needed. The quality of human-product interaction can be improved by following a user-centered design process, Preece et al as cited in Renee Wever . The basic design cycle presented by Roozenburg and Eekels (1995) is followed by many patterns and consists of an analysis phase facilitating the designer to understand the problem to generate solutions for further simulation and evaluation.
The final product will look back for accuracy to inline with the user specifications at each evolutionary phase. Such user centered design will facilitate the designer not only with the user expectations but also the requirements of the technology tools during the development process. Such user expectations, user characters and behaviors are collected and architected in the form of Contextual mapping Schneiderman (1998) as cited in Goh Chu Hiang emphasizes that “all designs should be initiated according to a comprehensive understanding of the users’ characteristics.
Such user characteristics include visitor purpose, education, demographic profile, training, personality and motivation. In the development of a travel Portal website, personas were intended to use to create model characters to correspond with real time target web users. Such prototype will help in further change making in the functionality of the website according to he user choices. Personas usage is encouraged by Goh Chu Hiang to develop the context of web development for cultural tourism web site, under the opinion that they provide design insights.
The personas will also help to incorporate the behavior and experiences of the travelers that browse the travel portal. An authenticated travel portal will be visited by personas from different backgrounds like students for study tours, and to perform research on arts and cultural tours, business people finding hotel bookings and air bookings for trips, other tourists that are interested in visiting folklore or art, monuments, nature and pilgrimages in different parts of the world. The audience segmentation analysis for the travel portal is as follows: 1.
Business User: (Information on Freight booking and cancellations) 2. Travel Agent: Freight booking/Car booking/ Hotel booking agents/tour guide 3. Student: (Research Purpose) 4. Holiday Traveler: (Mountaineering) The primary persona was identified as Business User because of his high frequency internet usage and very high potential to travel. The characters and behaviors of the profile is used as the key reference in the website development. The Secondary User is Travel agencies and their staff: These users are heavy traffic creating users on the portal.
So for them site the needs much bandwidth. Their design features run around the needs and necessities of the other users. Student segment: This represents a younger generation the browses the site for study purpose or to make fun and to interact with other social groups. This group is a heavy internet usage group and looks for socially connecting internet tools like chat, discussion boards, audio and video file sharing and posting messages (mailing). This group if provided with particulars can refer or become the potential active travelers.
The fourth group of portal user is Holiday traveler who needs to be updated on fright and weather forecast incase of mountaineering and some sensitive place. Such users need GDSRS mobile tools to be connected on the portal. The Challenges in developing prototype for such Web communication involve – Interaction, Engineering of the structures and Compliance and Trust: General Features of Tours & Travel Website Authenticated travel portal is a genuine portal in which all the features are according to the requirements and information accessing anticipations of the different types of web users.
The people who don’t know the Area in which they are going to visit, for them the online booking and traveling guide to travel in that place along with the travel guide on the food, pricing and clothing to be taken can be a much anticipated value service. Visitor Section Browse tours by themes (example: Wildlife, Adventure, Religious etc. ) Browse tours by origin city / location Browse tours by duration Browse by tours Featured tours on homepage along with thumbnail images Each tour has detailed info which includes the following Title Category (Theme) Duration Destination Short overview
Detailed description Country Origin City Departure Price in USD and INR Day wise Itinerary Customer review Multiple images per project Enlarged images on clicking thumbnails Package includes Package does not include Notes Validity till Enquiry button Booking form button Send to friend Multiple static information pages like About us Useful travel info like flight schedules News FAQs Picture gallery Client testimonials Other services Contact Us Tour booking form with email notification Hotel booking form Flight / Car booking form News area on homepage Login area for traveller who has purchased a tour
Customer (Traveller) Section Secure login for customers who have purchased a tour Update contact information Information of the tour that has been purchased Messages from the travel company Post a query to the travel company Admin (Tours Company) Section Configuration Options Edit admin password Add/edit/delete/activate/deactivate admin users Categories & Tours Management Add/edit/delete/activate/deactivate tours Add/edit/delete/activate/deactivate categories Add/edit/delete/activate/deactivate sub-categories Add/edit/delete countries Add/edit/delete regions Add/edit/delete cities Add/edit/delete areas
Admin can view detailed info for all tours Customers Management Add/edit/delete/activate/deactivate travellers Confirmation email (with username and password) on registration of a traveller List of orders received Messaging Inbound messages Sort messages by date range, tours Reply / delete messages Outbound messages Send message to a particular customer Send message to all customers of a particular tour Send message to all customers of all tours Website Features Customization of the style with custom site theme image and logo Customer provided copy Customer provided graphic (Static or Animated)
Image enlargement facility Customer provided logo Contact form WYSIWYG Editor for unlimited changes to static information pages Hosting & Email Support Telephone support Email support Proposed Business Model for Travel Portal: The key technical requirements for the system are as follows. The scope of the system is to develop and implement a complete contacts database system with the following capabilities: – A system that can store, share and retrieve all contacts info in one centralized database. – The system can retrieve contacts information even from remote area through web based interface.
– Automatic alerts on the important alerts and To dos with contact list. – Contacts can be segregated and viewed according to the type and can be formed as communities. – Contact the contacts in database from different browsers and platforms – Different modes of contacts like-email, phone, SMS, teleconference is possible with the possible availability of communication method with the contact – Various levels of data export into CSV (for opening with MS Excel), HTML (for publishing as web pages) and TXT (for importing to all kinds of databases) for other applications like Outlook Express, MS Excel and FileMaker etc.
Bulk mailing and mass campaigning to various contacts with a single mouse click. Commercial contacts database creation through the Travel Portal: There is a growing need for contact management and information sharing for every small and large organization which is in the way of expansion. Such organization looks to create more contacts to improve its business operations. Hence the need for seeking consultancy services to create such databases is increasing as a firm may not have that reach and capabilities to collect the data on it contacts and to store them.
The endeavour to offer customer relation management services are also pushing the market demand for the commercial contacts databases. Requirement for Agency and Traveller database design: The UTEA is in need of developing commercial contacts database for the following reasons: • A contact management system that allows for an unlimited number of travellers per agency, in one centralized location. • Correspondence templates for pre-merged business letter, proposals, and estimates. Includes a label generator and the ability to fax or e-mail from within the program.
• The resource locators or the project seekers need to get the contacts list in community wise (bus, air tc,) Business goal to implement commercial contacts database system: Personal contact list according to the agency type Access to general forum for business discussions Search for local and global traveller contacts Create and manage individual networks Join networks and take part in discussions Be part of a large and growing travelling-oriented networking website Extensive tools enabling to network with other members Recommend a company /Service Submit own events for all members to see
Add and manage classifieds Add and manage products or services Traveller Management for Business to Business sales. Proposed Business Model for Travel Portal: The key technical requirements for the system are as follows. The scope of the system is to develop and implement a complete contacts database system with the following capabilities: – A system that can store, share and retrieve all contacts info in one centralized database. – The system can retrieve contacts information even from remote area through web based interface. – Automatic alerts on the important alerts and To dos with contact list.
– Contacts can be segregated and viewed according to the type and can be formed as communities. – Contact the contacts in database from different browsers and platforms – Different modes of contacts like-email, phone, SMS, teleconference is possible with the possible availability of communication method with the contact – Various levels of data export into CSV (for opening with MS Excel), HTML (for publishing as web pages) and TXT (for importing to all kinds of databases) for other applications like Outlook Express, MS Excel and FileMaker etc. Bulk mailing and mass campaigning to various contacts with a single mouse click.
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