Research Method for Computing & Technology Essay

2.0 Introduction Nowadays, people prefer to look information online instead of looking at catalogue or books. For example, woman would prefer to look for sales event online instead of looking at the catalogue that delivers to the house. Not all of the household will get the mails for promotion of the month because some postman will throw the mails away as these cases had already happened according to The Star news on Sunday, 21st of July 2013. This website is proposed for user to shop and enjoy shopping easily. The main purpose of this website is to provide the information of the malls in Malaysia. The information includes sales event, performance organize by third party or particular mall, the mall map etc. There are few similar websites like www.midvalley.com.my , www.onestopmalaysia.com and www.offerstation.com. These websites only show either their own particular mall information only or sales promotion only. This website is a combine and improve version of these existing websites as there are many improvements are needed for it. Besides, it will include social function like allowing user to post comment or sharing status by using Facebook account at the sales event area so that others can read and up to date anytime instead of go to the location personally to check out the event as not people now spend most of the time working and rest at home after that. Other than that, user can check out the mall map as well so they could able to know whether the store they looking for exist in the mall. The details of the store include the location of the store in the mall, store’s telephone number and brief explanation of the store. The picture of the store entrance and the shop sign will be provided too. In conclusion, this website will act as a shopping and event guide that allow shoppers to shop smart and save on time. 3.0 Project Background I got this idea to create the website while I am looking for promotion online. There are many similar websites but the information are not complete. One of the example is user cannot post comment for the particular event which I always wanted to know what is going on the event or how is the  atmosphere there. I always hope that there is a photo sharing function under the event post. This proposed system is created for user to shop easily and hunt for sales event easily. Many people do not know when the sales will be but once they browse this website, they could easily get the information they want. As well as they have some inquiry about products or others, they may just give them a call by searching the phone number from the website. This proposed website basically act as a shopping guide for user by showing all the related information. There are some difficulties while deciding the structure of the proposed website. My idea was providing information but I was told that my course is Web Media Technology. Hence, I should include multimedia or social network. Then, I have change my idea from only information to posting up event poster, flash banner etc. User can as well as connect with Facebook and post comment at certain area. 4.0 Problem Statement The common problems that faced by shoppers are where is the location, what is the operating hours, how is the atmosphere there, what promotion is going on etc. They will spend some time to search for the information and reconsider whether it is worth to go. 4.1 Problem Description This proposed website will include information that is needed by shoppers. For instance, shopper might take some time to walk around the mall when they are not familiar with it. With this website, it could become a guide for them so they do not need to waste time walking around the mall and might end up with nothing. Besides, the information like telephone number is useful too. Shoppers do not need to worry when they face any problems about the stuffs they bought. They can just call to the store for inquiry just by only browsing this website. 5.0 Project Aim To provide users every useful information in malls. 6.0 Objective To allow users to look for the information in each mall within Malaysia. To help users to save time on shopping and shop smartly. To give more information on the events which will hold in the mall. To share the tips about the event which is going on. To provide the floor plan to user and assist them to shop. 7.0 Research Question 1. How social networks are useful for website? 2. What kind of information will be show in website? 3. What are the guidelines to help shoppers to shop easily? 4. Can the store’s telephone number be found on other websites? 5. Which methodology is suitable for this proposed project? 6. How long will it takes to develop this website? 7. Which software tools are needed to develop this website? 8. What are the functions of the software? 8.0 Project Development Plan 8.1 Domain Design The major information of my project is about shopping malls in Malaysia while the minor area is allowing social network user to post comment for the event, which will be showed if there is. My targeted domains for this project are local residents, travellers and shopaholics. One of the similar website is One Stop Malaysia. This website contains most of the information of Malaysia which are like foods, education, travel guide etc. For instance, their travel guide blog post allows visitor to post comment. The comment area is embedded with Blogspot while for my project, I will allow Facebook user to connect for posting comment so that they do not need to create account or fill in their particular details just to post a comment. To sum up this, my project contains most of the shopping information such  as malls location, sales event, performance event and so on. Visitors can post comment for the sales event. Therefore, the others can take the comment as reference. Comment like â€Å"left only big sizes† might help those who are petites, so they do not need to waste time and petrol to head over the sales event location after their working hours. This feature is specially made for visitor to share their experience or status about their shopping trip. Visitors can also share the useful tips at the comment area. Other than that, visitors also can have other information from the website such as the malls information. For example, visitor can look for the particular store location from the website. It will show the exact floor and the store telephone number as these information cannot be easily search. 8.2 Technical Design Now days, there are a lot of software development methodology such as SDLC (system development life cycle), Rapid Application Development (RAD), Agile Methodology and others. I will choose Prototyping Methodology for this project as Prototyping has more benefits for a web-based system as it is more suitable for system develop by website. Prototyping methodology is usually used for system that tends to be modified during the development of the system. By using this type of methodology, the development of it will definitely get a higher user satisfaction results because the errors are fixed when it is found during the development process. This action can actually lower down the percentage risk of failure. This methodology required to collect feedbacks from user. This could exposes developers to potential future system enhancements because they know and gained the problems feedbacks as well as bad comment. Next, the tools that I will be using for development of this project are Adobe Dreamweaver, Adobe Flash and Adobe Photoshop. All this software functions are taught by my lecturers. Therefore, I am familiar with the functions and feature from the software. I will be coding and designing the layout of the project by using Adobe Dreamweaver. It is a website development tools which has most of the features. While Adobe Photoshop is an editing software for photos and pictures. I will be using it for Posters  editing. Last but not least, Adobe Flash is for creating the banners for advertisement or greetings. I will be using it to make my project more interesting. 9.0 Data Collection Plan 9.1 Primary Data Collection Focus group would be good for carrying out the primary data collection for user requirement of the website. This technique requires a group of people that met the requirement and fulfill the criteria which is related to shopping in order to carry out a good research. These participants are required to spend some time for a short survey. This is to find out what real consumers think and what they feel according to the questions asked. After that, participants will gather around the table and start discussing some topics and provide a range or views. Participants should express their own emotions and feelings honestly and openly as the answers are all private and kept confidential. Next, the questionnaire is also an ideal technique to perform quantitative and qualitative research. This is an inexpensive way as it does not cost too much and it saves a lot of time. The questionnaires can be distribute at shopping malls and collect from shoppers after they are done for it. By showing the appreciation, a small gift like discount vouchers could be given to the shoppers and it is also a way to attract shoppers to do the questionnaire. Focus Group Discussion 1. What function do you need in malls guide and promotion website? Explain why do you need that? 2. If this website is build, how often will you browse it? 3. What kind of information do you wish to see in this website? 4. Which is your ideal similar website now? Explain why? 9.2 Secondary Data Collection There are few sources for secondary data like books, journals, website, newspaper etc. People now do more reading on internet as most of the  information can search through there. Researcher can actually read or reference the work in website to get some inspiration there. Example websites are offerstation.com, midvalley.com.my and etc. 10.0 Personal Reflection Limitations and challenges are the problems that researcher will meet during the development. Researcher has not much knowledge on building a functional website. Thus, this will be affecting process. Researcher has to look and understand the coding from websites or other projects that are done by expertise, as the information could be helpful. Studying the code and understanding them has become a challenge for me in order to complete the proposed system because I have not done any website which is linked to social networks like Facebook and Twitter. This feature requires special coding to embed them to the website. I will have to reference the other websites that has similar function. Lastly, different browsers like Firefox, Safari, Google Chrome, Opera and others have their own technical issues and structures when browsing websites. This will take some time to test the proposed website in each browser and check the problems occur. As mentioned, there are many different browsers but Google Chrome is the most common browser in market. Thus, I have choose Google Chrome for the ideal choice to build this proposed website. 11.0 Conclusion In conclusion, this proposed website is proposed to help users on shopping. There are few similar website but they have not much information. I have jotted down all the useful information which gather from other websites and will apply them to this proposed system as an enhancement. 12.0 References 1. BEH, Y. H. 2013. Thousands of undelivered mail dumped in leafy Ukay Heights ravine. [online] 21st of July. Available at: http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2013/07/21/Postmans-service-goes-downhi