Bobby Cao Interactive Digital History of Antigua Pre-Proposal

Interactive Digital History of Antigua

Background

The project is about introducing scholars, tourist, and others that are interested in visiting Antigua,  a Caribbean island, or learning about its rich Antiguan and Caribbean histories and the Antigua mills. So people will learn about Antigua and the Caribbean region’s unique and particular histories through a map interface which will include photos and text for people to learn. Currently there are no comprehensive digital/online resources that present the history of these mills in an aesthetically pleasing or engaging way.

In order to solve this problem this can be done a few ways. In order to to aesthetically pleasing the underlying map needs to be colorful and include the right amount of detail in the map that is not too overbearing for the user but at the same time not too lacking. Either the team working on this project can create the map, get the map off of Google Maps with some edits or get a drawing of the map with ideal level of details. Then the team will be able to create a database to store all the needed photos of Antigua and the mills along with all the need factual text. Along with this there needs to be the development of an intuitive User Interface so that the users can navigate the map and learn without frustration. Navigation would include the mouse and the map will move in response to the mouse movement.

The environment this system would be used would be on a website on a web browser. I mobile application would be useful but for this project proposal, the following proposed system would be too cluttered on a mobile screen and there would have to be a consideration of application size as well which might hinder the amount of information stored. Also navigation will have to be replanned as it might get unintuitive.

Executive Summary

For the problem identified above, the most best solution would be creating a web application which has a map interface which includes  an intuitive and interactive user interface. So my idea for this is to have a detail colorful map (perhaps hand drawn or made via a program) filled with important locations, areas, and streets. Along with that we have to make an area, depending on its importance, more detailed. Then apply a user interface which includes buttons, textboxes, photos and etc. So based on using the provided database of information (stated in project proposal), once a user clicks on a button that is over a particular area, the user will see photos of the area which will include mills or any other important locations. Then the user can read more about the mills, the location or any other facts provided from the database). Along with the user interface, the map has to be navigable so the map has to be zoom in so the user can be encompassed in a large expansive map (which can be useful to tourists). In order to accomplish that, I think a few user control options will have to be implemented, for example, the ability to move the map via, mouse, keyboard and etc.  This will provide an comprehensive and visually appealing online resource for people to use. To promote the web application, we will promote this on campus to students and professors. This is a valid solution because it puts the user base in mind. People love interactivity and visuals in an application. So making this as visually appealing and intuitive as possible the user can be able to come back to this and learn. Also this web application will be simplistic so the user is not overwhelmed and the the user can  able to learn what they want to learn.  

Goals

• Create a colorful and detailed map
• Make map navigable
• Add multiple ways to control movement of the map
• add user interface overlaid on map
• Have functional buttons
• WHen the user clicks on the button, display images and facts about the certain location
  • Have the ability to learn more by displaying more information
• Make the web application visually appealing and simplistic at the same time

Viability Analysis

This project can be accomplished by developing the application and interface through Java, Servlet, and JSP. There will most likely be the use of SQL to handle the given database (if large enough). So development of the actual application is accomplishable in a fair amount of time using Java and GUI skills learned throughout the semesters. The real challenge is actually having the website up and running. To have this up and running we can use a web server such as Apache or Bucknell’s servers. Another constant is that we cannot load all the information and graphics all at once on the web page because it will hinder the application’s performance and prolong initial loading time. Another difficulty will be how we would want the the map, do we want to use an already rendered map of Antigua or create one using a third party software or by hand.

Risks and Rewards

Some risks that we could take is actually have an artist (either a professional or a student)  draw the map of the area and we could use that as the map. The risk would be areas of the map might not be drawn to scale, drawn to our liking, or not visually appealing to an number of people and of course that would be a waste of resources. But the reward (if everything goes well) is that the map is very visually  appealing and it includes all the detail we wanted and it stands out compare than using  google maps.

Another risk would be that the website would not have a lot of traffic, however with the right exposure especially though students and professors this will not be a problem.

I noticed that in the proposal that the project has a very similar idea and concept to a similar map interface for Mount Vernon. We as a team will have to be careful in not copying or utilizing any ideas that they have in full to avoid copyright issues. This is good because we can ultiple some of our creativity for this project.

Closing

This project is can be accomplished without much use of resources nor much learning of new material. The only thing that needs learning of new material is using web servers and clients to make this web application running. But it will be worth it because it will be a useful tool that can be used in a classroom setting or used to learn and explore the area of Antigua  before visiting. It can also look very visually appealing and that can lend itself to me promoted and used more widely. Since there are not a comprehensive online applications like this to learn about Antigua, this is a worthwhile project.

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