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This screen represents the landmark selection screen that allows users to choose the landmarks they would like to have included in their tour. There are several features on this screen that evolved throughout the testing and implementation phases. First, the names of the tabs changed several times. We believe the final naming scheme represents to the user what each of the tabs is meant for; select landmarks in the first tab, view/edit them in the second. Next, the text at the bottom was altered to ensure that users know the purpose of selecting landmarks on the map while also providing them feedback on the expected results they would find if they continued. Third, a small popup indicating the name of the landmark selected was added so users would know what they have chosen.
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This screen displays how users create new tours and add them to the database. Selecting landmarks will highlight them and add them to the current tour. Updated paths (with arrows) are drawn as users make changes to the tour. Below the map, users can edit the current state of the tour by either removing unwanted landmarks (by pressing the X) or reordering landmarks (by dragging and dropping using the dots). Although selecting a landmark (using the map) already in the tour removes it from the list, the X was added next to each selection to allow users a second way of removing landmarks. Additionally, the drag and drop selection area was increased since some users were unaware of that functionality. Pressing the "Save Tour" button brings up a popup window in which the user enters a tour name and description. This box, along with the error message displayed for insufficient or illegal information, was changed to make it more clear what the user was supposed to do. Also, when an error is made, Torch now returns the user to the "Save Tour" popup with the current information still in tact rather than closing the popup and making them reenter information.
Implementation
We developed for Android 2.3 using the Google Maps APIs and Eclipse. We thought that this would allow us to take advantage of recent improvements to the Android OS, but still support a majority of users. The server is PHP with a MySQL database. Requests are sent from the app, and the servers responds with XML, which is parsed by the app. We tested our app on the Nexus One, Galaxy Nexus, and several other models of Android phones. The test phones included operating system 2.3, but also version 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich.
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