OffRoads Mobile Demo

The phone is a tricky thing because it does so much more than just dial! You can get games, messaging services, email, and even maps on a standard mobile phone. PDAs broaden the horizon by allowing more developed software to run on the mobile device. So if phones are being advanced and widely used in function, why not expand our project to the mobile world?

You can click here to view a small demo video of what OffRoads would look like on the phone. We could not make the program viewable on the web due to program restrictions. Feel free to contact us if you would like the downloadable files.


Here is some information about the design and implementation of OffRoads Mobile from our report:

The OffRoads Mobile website allows users to view the calculator via a mobile device that is WAP enabled. Many phones and PDAs are able to access WAP content, but are not able to access html content, so OffRoads Mobile allows more people to use the calculator.

System Requirements:   Different mobile devices display WML content in different ways, so a very simple interface must be used in order for the majority of users to be able to view our calculator. The Nokia Mobile Internet Toolkit allows web developers to test their code on multiple PDA and cell phone SDKs, giving feedback on whether the code is compatible. Nokia provides SDKs for each of their phones in production, so I was able to test the functionality on the Nokia 3300, 3410, 5100, 6310i, and 7210. While certain graphical interfaces are available on the Nokia 7210 SDK, they can’t be run on the 3300, so I chose to design the interface around the 3300’s capabilities, which were compatible with all later models.

Implementation As of now, the actual calculations are not implemented. A CSS page would be needed to calculate the actual savings given the user’s inputs, along with the functions that provided the calculations. An actual implementation would communicate with the CSS page and be sent back the resulting answers, all viewable on the mobile device. All of the links are enabled however, along with user input and variable selection. Since a WAP-ready server is required to host the content, our team is unable to give demonstrations via website. Testing is possible through WML simulators, like the Nokia Mobile Browser 4.0 shown in the screen shots below. The simulator reads the WML page and displays it as a mobile device would, and simulates the limited functionality of a phone or PDA. OffRoads Mobile can be divided into 4 main sections – the homepage, the calculator, the results, and “about OffRoads”. Using the arrow keys, users are able to select between links and input fields, and are able to enter information via keyboard or numbered keypad represented on the phone. The screen shots below were taken using the Nokia 3300 SDK.