Software Engineering Showcase | Whakaaturanga Hanga Pūmanawa 2019

SE Showcase |  SE Showcase 2019 |  SENG302 Abstracts |  SENG402 Abstracts |  People

SENG302 Project 2019

Product: A Travel Application Assistant

The SENG302 project for 2019 explored the creation of an application to help travellers with various aspects of their travel.

Travel is increasing worldwide with more people than ever engaging in some form of international and/or domestic travel. According to the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), in 2018 alone, worldwide international tourist arrivals totalled 1.4 billion, two years ahead of forecasts. The highest growth was in the Middle East (10%) and Africa (7%), with Asia, Pacific, and Europe increasing at 6%. As an interesting note, the number of international travellers has increased substantially 1950 (25 million), 1970 (166 million), 1990 (435 million).

In New Zealand, according to the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment, international tourism reached a record high of nearly 3.9 million visitors in 2018 and is forecast to reach 5.1 million in 2025. Auckland Airport alone had 21.1 million passengers during the year.

However, organising travel is difficult. There are different types of travellers who have different needs. For example, a corporate traveller would have very different needs to a backpacker. There are a few apps that help with parts of the travel process. For example, booking flights or accommodation, blogging, photo/video uploads, and social media to keep friends/family up-to-date on things that happened en route.

However, it would be good to have an application that combines some or all of these aspects to provide a useful travel experience.

In this project, teams had to create a travel application, where individual travellers could log in, create a profile, and organise various types of travel. This included the ability to then upload media during the trip.

Working in a team to develop a piece of working, usable, and useful software is difficult. Doing this with a set of changing requirements, even though realistic, makes it even more challenging.

From a common basis with a restrictive set of user requirements, the eight teams delivered very different and interesting pieces of software. Students learnt how to develop a professional product and add their own touch by proposing user stories depending on potential specific audience requirements.

Photos/Video

Photos and/or video might be taken at this event. These will only be used for promoting the university and courses. Please let the event co-ordinator know if you do not want your photo taken so that your face can be blurred out.