While the blog is fairly functional, the calculator portion of the website needs work. Due to time constraints, it was deemed prudent that a form for calculations would be developed in Flash and not HTML. With the good amount of experience this semester developing various Flash applications, creation of a form that could display these calculations in an attractive interface was not a difficult task for the group, but it is far from complete.
HTML is the preferred development tool to make the website more accessible. Using HTML would not require the user to have any specific plugins or need to download a software package to view our website properly. This is a goal that our group is working towards for a final implementation.
Many interfaces still need to be implemented although there is no portion that is prohibitively difficult. Once development is complete on the various interfaces, uploading the calculator portion of our project should be fairly simple and create a smooth transition for the user working with our project. None of the calculations is difficult, but data will need to be acquired and stored and periodically updated to support the application. For example, current gasoline prices and car maintenance costs will need to be verified for changes on a regular basis.
For the future, the website needs to be reviewed and evaluated periodically, probably once or twice a year. This needs to be done for several reasons. It should be given a fresh look periodically to keep users interest, especially those who will have used it regularly for a long time. A new look and new facts will help with this goal. Also the blogs will need to be archived regularly. If there are new users to the blogs and there are too many, it might be perceived that it’s too much information at once and they might be turned away.
While the OffRoads Mobile interface is in place, it still lacks the functionality of real, calculated results. As well, the .wml file would need to be hosted by a WAP enabled host in order for users to access the site, and extensive advertising would be required for users to find it. Mobile device oriented searching is still in its early stages, and not nearly as advanced as html searches, so sharing links with similar web pages, and advertisements on phone networks like Cingular and Nextel would greatly increase the accessibility of the mobile calculator.
With advancement in cell phone technology, a new GUI mobile page could be put into place in the future, when more phone SDKs are compatible and the phones themselves are able to handle more advanced graphics. As well, either an opening page, or an auto-detection script could route users to the appropriate page for their phone.
For current improvement, the page should be tested against more phone SDKs, as not all phones will display the page the same way. The code should be optimized as to be able to be displayed on the majority of mobile devices, and the areas of commute should be expanded to apply to a broader area.
The first task that would need to be completed when this project continues would be to do usability testing for the mobile device for a first time and again for the website since significant modifications have been made since they were originally performed. Appendix 1 has been included to show the materials that would be of use for this task, as they were designed for the original usability testing, although they may require a small amount of updates. Unfortunately, the prototype was not completed enough to use all of these materials as they were designed at that time of usability testing. The survey included was used, however, an online survey was created for the project website using the www.surveymonkey.com website, which is very effective for getting feedback from web users who won’t be testing the website out under official usability testing circumstances but who would come from a wide background. This will greatly broaden our base of users for usability testing, as anyone on the web who happens to come across our project website could be a tester.
The authors hope that the development of OffRoads can continue into the future as the value of it will increase over time as more people become aware of and become concerned about our global health. OffRoads hopes to be a part of solving this problem in the near term and continue into the future.