Mobile Food Ordering App

INOORERO UNIVERSITY PROJECT REPORT ON: MOBILE FOOD ORDERING APPLICATION NAME: BORU PHILIP JOSHUA ADMN NO: IU/11/05211 UNIT TITLE: PROJECT PLANNING A Project submitted In Partial Fulfillment of the Regulations Governing The Award of a Diploma in Information communication and Technology ? Table of Contents

DECLARATION4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT5 DEDICATION6 ABSTRACT7 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION8 Background8 Problem Statement9 Project’s Objective9 Mission9 Vision10 Justification10 Project Scope10 Gantt chart10 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW11 Introduction11 Mobile and Handheld Device11 Review of Food Ordering System12 i. Manual Food Ordering System12 ii. Mobile Food Ordering System12 Benefits of Mobile Food Ordering System13 Limitation of Mobile Food Ordering System13 Feasibility Study14 Operational Feasibility14 Economic Feasibility14

Technical Feasibility14 CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLGY15 Introduction15 Data collection methods15 I. Questionnaires15 II. Interviews15 III. Observation15 Data analysis15 CHAPTER FOUR: SYSTEM ANALYSIS TOOLS17 Flow chart of Mobile Food Ordering Application17 Context diagram of Mobile Food Ordering Application18 Data flow Diagrams19 Level 1 DFD19 Entity Relationship Diagram20 CHAPTER FIVE: SYSTEM DESIGN21 INTRODUCTION21 Splash form21 Customer details21 Menu21 Bill21 Option form122 Option form222 Report22 Error / Confirmation Message22

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CONCLUSION23 Recommendation and Suggestion for Future Research23 REFERENCES24 ? DECLARATION This research project is my original work and has not been presented for assessment by any other person in any institution. Student Name: BORU PHILIP JOSHUA Signature……………………………… Approved…………………………….. Date………………….. Supervisor Name: Signature……………………………… Approved…………………………….. Date………………….. ? ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Firstly, I praise GOD for guiding and blessing me with perseverance and strength to complete the project. Apart from the efforts of me, the success of the project depends largely on the encouragement and guidelines of many others. I take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the people who have been instrumental in the successful completion of this project. The special thank goes to my helpful supervisor Pius Walela. I can’t say thank you enough for his tremendous support and help. Without his encouragement and guidance this project would not have materialized.

My grateful thanks also go to my parents and siblings, who held faith in me and pushed me to succeed. A big contribution and support from you is very great indeed. Special thanks also go to my friends those who supported and motivated me during the project completion was vital for the success of the project. May GOD bless you all. ? DEDICATION I dedicate this work to my mum, siblings, classmates, my lecturers and myself for the love and moral support without which it would not have been possible to complete the project. ? ABSTRACT

Mobile devices and wireless technologies are making a large impact on our lives. Companies that develop mobile applications are continuously evolving their products, aiming at satisfying the customers’ needs even more comprehensively and at higher levels of quality. The Mobile Food Ordering Application proposed in this paper is one of the tools that intend to provide a food ordering application on mobile devices for ordering food from a restaurant with the option of both delivery and pickup within the central business district of Nairobi.

With the rapid growth of mobile technology, nowadays people are looking forward for an application that makes life easier and faster. While in restaurants industries, most businesses people look for any mobile application that improve their business functions for the customers as well as increased the profit. Normally in manual system, human error, waiting time, wasting foods, wrong menu preparation, ordering management and menu selection are the main issues in any restaurants.

This paper presents the integration of mobile technology for small medium restaurants mobile food ordering application. This application offers many useful features to customers, including the detailed menus, and previous order lookup. By using this application, the users do not have to wait in a queue at the restaurants. This study also presents the background in terms of new technologies in handheld devices, and current research in human-computer interaction for mobile applications.

It also surveys several applications of handheld devices and discusses their characteristics. This thesis also explains the main functions, key usability aspects, intended users of Mobile Food Ordering Application. ? CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION Technology is making a large impact on the human life. It feels so strange when we hear that it is only 25 years since the first commercial cellular call was made in the United States, and today there are more than 17 million wireless subscribers in Kenya alone.

With the increasing number of cellular subscribers, cellular technology is also becoming more advanced. With increasing popularity and capability of mobile devices, new applications are being launched every day. Today, many things that can be done using computers can also be done with mobile devices. But simply copying computer applications to mobile devices does not work, as user characteristics of computers and mobiles are quite different. Even hough mobility and compactness are major advantages for mobile applications, the small screen, and the small and few buttons of mobile devices are among limitations that make it necessary for mobile application developers to study human computer interaction for mobile devices and develop their applications accordingly. Mobile shopping or ordering is one of the most popular areas now-a-days. One can buy songs or any applications right from one’s mobile. One can also bid or buy items from the internet straight away using one’s mobile. Similarly, food ordering is also one of the major areas of mobile application development.

Some companies have already launched their food ordering products in the market. But these applications haven’t fully exploited the current capabilities of mobiles and missed on some of the required features which would benefit the end users. Thus, I have decided to design and develop a mobile application, Mobile Food Ordering Application, using human-computer interaction principles for mobile devices. As they say, time is money! This application will greatly benefit customers as they don’t have to waste time going to the store and waiting in the queue.

They will able to place food orders using their mobile device from anywhere. By using the proposed application, users can have updated menus on their mobile devices and they do not need to go for the inconvenient ways of listening to the options on phone, or finding a newspaper flyer. Background Before developing a mobile application, a thorough research needs to be done on which mobile device(s) one wants to target. As there are so many different mobile devices currently available in the market, each device may differ in screen size, operating system, and/or supported programming language.

So studying the currently available handheld devices and their technologies is a must for a developer for figuring out his or her target audience and selecting the appropriate development tool(s). The modern mobile phone market offers different devices for a wide variety of customer tastes and lifestyles. Some phones are small and sleek, and are popular for their ease of carrying, while some are chosen for their appearance so they can become a form of fashion symbols. Mobile manufactures are still developing new devices to attract different age groups and cultural groups.

These devices will not only look different but also possess capabilities to attract specific groups of people, for example, phone manufactures are trying to portray their phone as a game console to attract the youngsters. They attract business users by providing productivity tools such as Word, Excel, E mail, Organizer and they also include a virtual pop-up QWERTY keyboard for easy typing. They also attract general mobile users with their still camera, video camera, music player, radio, voice recording, games and internet browsing features.

Hence, considering the promising future of the mobile phone market, it is beneficial to write applications for this devices that target large groups of people. Research has shown that simply transferring a regular computer application into a mobile application almost always leads to a suboptimal mobile experience. Hence before starting the development of applications for handheld devices, a developer should consider the mobile device user’s characteristics as well as the limitations of mobile interfaces. Problem Statement

The rapid growths of mobile computing in the business area make customers intend to demand for applications that able to reduce their waiting time for the waiters or waitresses to take an order. Using manual system, it was less economical because it involved the cost of preparing note pads, blank papers, and custom made papers including menu and pens which were used for taking order and may cause error by the waiters or waitresses. Furthermore taking order manually by the waiters or waitresses also will increase human errors where there are possibilities of typing errors by the waiters or waitresses.

They also have hard time to remember each price of menu when calculating customer’s food, cook misread to the handwritten orders written by waiters or waitresses and missed communication between waiters and customers when customers repeat order if they do not get the foods but waiters assume that customers added the foods in the order. When customers intend to select the menu before make an order, they have to refer to the many menu list options which sometimes do not attract them, fulfill their choice and make them difficult to choose.

So this application will reduced the selection options from the list on the menu by categorizing it to standard list and special list by packaging the menu into certain types. This option will provide an easier selection and give such a pleasure to the customers in enjoying their meals. Furthermore, the manager also has to request and track the order record and order report from administrator at a certain time but sometimes mistakes always happened where the ordering record hard to track due to the missing of the ordering cart or misplaced the printed record but using computerized system they can access it anytime they want.

Project’s Objective The main objective of this study is to propose a Mobile Food Ordering Application for small medium and micro enterprises (SMME) restaurants. This objective is supported by the following sub objectives: •To design the navigation model for easier mobile food ordering Application with a minimum errors in the small medium and micro enterprises (SMME) restaurants. •To develop an application which demonstrate the navigation of the mobile food ordering application in a small medium and micro enterprises (SMME) restaurants. To produce an effective accessed to schedule reports for administration staffs. Mission To eradicate order placement related time wastage in restaurants and offer improved service to the customers Vision To be a leading food ordering service within the CBD of Nairobi with the provision of Quality service and secure orders Justification The project will benefit target group living in and adjacent areas of Nairobi Central business District.

Faster delivery of service as you pre-order your food so you can grab your food as soon as you set your foot in the restaurant, be it take away or, thus reducing the risks of time wastage and queuing. Project Scope This project will be focusing on developing and implementing mobile food ordering app for the small and medium restaurants which will be developed using J2ME programming language connected to MySql database server. The cashier will be responsible to view the confirmed order and prepare a bill and receipt. The kitchen Staff will be responsible to view the order for menu preparation.

The administrator will be responsible to monitor overall application, add, update or delete the user, menu, order, and report for the system. Gantt chart TIME IN WEEKS ACTIVITY123456789101112 Introduction of the project Problem Statement Objectives & Justification Scope Gantt Chart Literature review Feasibility study Research Methodology Data diagrams(Analysis tools) Design Conclusion ? CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW Introduction This chapter presents an overview of the previous works on the related topic for providing the background of this study.

The discussion starts with the review of mobile and handheld device and history of mobile food ordering application for the restaurants. Discussion on the operation of manual food ordering system is continuing with the architecture of the application through wireless mobile and the limitations of system. Discussion also covers the advantages and disadvantages of mobile ordering application. Mobile and Handheld Device According to Lee, Sceinder & Schell (2004) Mobile is defined as: “The capability of being able to move or moved easily.

Whereas in context of mobile computing, mobile pertains to people’s use of portable and functionally powerful mobile devices that offer the ability to perform a set of application functions untethered, while also being able to connect to, obtain data from, and provide data to users, applications and system. ” Whereas Ballard (Ballard, 2007) outlined that mobile is a device or service used by a user who has the potential to move to a new location, even a new building or city, during use which includes both automobile and phones.

Hudson told HumanIPO: “although takeaway is popular in Nairobi, the restaurant delivery space is incredibly underdeveloped. Given the city’s general chaos and traffic problems, this is surprising. We aim to connect the dots, allowing busy, hungry people to eat in the comfort of their homes, hassle-free and also while the firms are doing a great work, nobody offers a delivery option that takes full advantage of the internet’s capabilities. The current options put a great deal of responsibility on the customer, requiring the use of email or phone to place orders, and sometimes only offering cash on delivery. Originally, the Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) was intended to be an earlier electronic version of a handheld “personal organizer”; however, with the introduction of more powerful central processing units, operating systems and memory, today's the most popular personal organizer is smart phone which are being customized for great variety of applications for the users (Dejin et al. 2006). According to Kulkarni (Kulkarni, 2009) outlined that Smart phones attract both business and general users by providing productivity tools such as Word, Excel, E-mail, Organizer and include a virtual pop-up QWERTY keyboard for easy typing.

They also attract general mobile users with still camera, video camera, music player, radio, voice recording, games and internet browsing features. The discussion also expanded with the characteristics of mobile user as outlined by Ballard (Ballard, 2007) as follow: •Mobile users are mobile, as they users are not sitting attentively at a desk, like desktop or laptop users do. •Mobile users are interruptible and easily distracted. Mobile users use mobile devices while they are mobile hence they easily can get distracted by the physical world.

Sometimes mobile applications can be self distracted by the mobile device itself (e. g. phone) for instance when receiving a call or message. •Mobile users are always available. Unlike the desktop or laptop computer, the mobile phone is always with the user and always ON (sometimes users can set it on silent mode, but still most of the time the user has it ready to ring loudly). •Mobile phones are identifiable. Unlike the desktop computer, the mobile phone is a personal device, with unique identification features. As discussed by Wendeson (Wendeson et al. 010), the advantages of Windows mobile applications are as follows: • Powered devices contain mobile versions of consistent. • Easy to use • To demonstrate the capabilities of the particular platforms. • Everyday tools such as Microsoft Office Outlook, Office Word, Office Excel, and Office power point are supported • Currently this platform is familiar. • If application is written once, . NET framework has the potential to generate different languages. Review of Food Ordering System Basically food ordering system in the restaurants industry can be classified into several types: i.

Manual Food Ordering System Zhangyuang and Weibing (2010) outlined that the traditional restaurant service mode relies on a lot of manpower to handle customer reservation, inquiry, ordering food, placing order, reminding dishes, and chefs are usually not clear because of the writing and the attendant distress. It is supported by Yong (Yong et al. 2010) where Manual Food Ordering System uses waiter to take order from customers. During peak hour, customers may be too many to be served by waiters. The quality of the service may drop thus causing dissatisfactory of customers.

However, if there are too many waiters are hired, it may be a waste of resources during non-peak hour. ii. Mobile Food Ordering System As discussed by Zhou (Zhou, 2010), utilizing information technology to upgrade the service quality and management efficiency has always been received great concern in information development of catering industry. This is supported by Khairunnisa (Khairunnisa et al. 2009) where a number of personal digital assistant based mobile applications have been designed, implemented and developed for commercial use in a restaurant environment.

So the mobile food ordering system is the best mobile application that can help catering enterprises reduce the costs of human resources, improve work efficiency and leap forward from the external image to the internal service quality. Hence for mobile food ordering system, according to Sun (Sun et al. 2009) the information technology developing constantly gives an impulse to industrial expansion such as in the restaurants, the method of electronic ordering dish is adopted widely. Using the high technology method can improve the profit of economy and achieve an efficient management technique.

Besides that, smart phone and other handheld devices are being preferred as device for business applications because they are highly portable, have the ability to communicate with personal computers accessed information from remote locations. Additionally, food ordering system using latest handheld devices is the latest trend in helping customers to order their foods, beverages, dessert and etc. (Patel et al. 2007). Furthermore by using handheld technology it is able to increase the speed of restaurant services dramatically (Lim et al. 009). This supported by Mahmoud (Mahmoud et al. 2009) where an integrated mobile ordering system is expected to enable faster and more efficient order processing, efficient and easy orders editing and reviewing with the customer, minimizing human and billing errors, reduction in the number of staff required and easier communication between the users of the system. Such systems increase the number of customers that are satisfied with the service. Benefits of Mobile Food Ordering System

Kulkarni (2010) addressed that the major benefit of mobile food ordering system are mobility and compactness to the users itself. With the development of this system, the enterprise will not only save labor costs, more the management will be towards information, intelligence and it will bring long-term economic benefits as highlighted by Yu and Zhu (Yu & Zhu, 2010). In the other hand, Sun and Zhou (Sun & Zhou, 2009) also agreed that using the high tech method in the ordering system can improve the profit of economy and achieve efficient management technique.

As discussed by Stanford (Stanford, 2003), the current ordering system can be categorized into four groups of users; customers, owner, staffs and architect. With the development of the system, it benefits the customers in providing the faster services, reduces the errors and offered a calm technology. While for the owner, the system can reduce the management cost and provide a better inventory management. Process of taking order, sending order to the kitchen, serving the foods, preparing a bill and managing the order changed made by the customers easier with the system.

The system is also able to reduce the problems amongst the staffs in attending the customers and can contribute the income to the restaurants by attracting the customers to visit the restaurants with their services. It will be a challenge for the developer to develop the system successfully. Hence the system also is working in a pervasive computing. It will update the status of menu items if the ingredients running out for the menu ordered by the customers. Limitation of Mobile Food Ordering System

The limitations in implementation of the system to be considered as the following: •Wireless Network: even if we have seen great advancements in wireless networks and technologies. Still there is a limited bandwidth problem. •Issues with mobile phones: there are thousands of different brands mobile phones with different capabilities and constraints, like hardware constraints are, such as memory, screen size, processing power, battery consumption, resolution and display color. •Content creations: as we know the term mobile phones refers to any portable device including smart phones, PDAs, mobile phones, tablet PCs, and laptop.

Technically, creating materials which can be rendered in all of these devices is a big challenge. (Niazi, 2007). To address this problems, extended-life battery cradle that supporting a full shift with intensive backlighting, networking and a strong tether to secure the PDA or cell phone (Stanford, 2003). According to Kulkarni (Kulkarni, 2010) the small screen, and the small and few buttons of mobile devices are among limitations that make it necessary for mobile application developers to study human computer interaction for mobile application.

In conclusion, this chapter provided the background information about the mobile and handheld devices, manual system for food ordering, mobile food ordering system, the limitation of the manual system and the benefits of the mobile food ordering system. Feasibility Study Feasibility studies aim to objectively and rationally uncover the strengths and weaknesses of an existing or a proposed system, opportunities and threats as presented by the environment, the resources required to carry through, and ultimately the prospects for success.

It is usually carried out by a small number of people who are familiar with the information system techniques, understand the part of the business or organization that will be involved or effected by the project and are skilled in the system analysis and design process. It is intended to be a preliminary review of the facts to see if it is worthy of proceeding to the analysis phase. From the systems analyst perspective, the feasibility analysis is the primary tool for recommending whether to proceed to the next phase or to discontinue the project.

Operational Feasibility Operational feasibility is a measure of how well a proposed system solves the problems, and takes advantage of the opportunities identified during scope definition and how it satisfies the requirements identified in the requirements analysis phase of system development. This is dependent on available human resources for the project. It reviews the willingness of the organization to support the proposed system. The proposed system will first and foremost solve the problem of speed at which the current manual system is upon.

A bigger variety of Transactions will be performed in real time using live data and at the same time providing high levels of security. Economic Feasibility This is a cost/benefit analysis. It is the most frequently used method for evaluating the effectiveness of a new system. The procedure is to determine the benefits and savings that are expected from a candidate system and compare it with the costs. If a benefit outweighs cost, then the decision is made to design and implement the system. Otherwise further alterations are made in the proposed system.

Technical Feasibility A large part of determining resources has to do with assessing technical feasibility. The system will require input from the users. This data will be used in analysis and the analyst must find out whether current technical resources can be upgraded or added to in a manner that fulfills the request under consideration. ? CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLGY Introduction This chapter will explain the methodology that was used in this project to develop Mobile Food Ordering application. Data collection methods

These are tools that were used in the analysis, design, development and implementation of the system. I. Questionnaires These are facts gathered about the activities taking place in the restaurant. This type of investigation is done by use of well organized and simple questions which needs short answers. Some of the questions asked include; a. How many customers do you handle at once during peak hours of business? b. Have you ever placed a wrong order? Why? c. What are the Drawbacks of this manual system in your own opinion? d. Would you like if the ordering system is automated? II.

Interviews It’s a conversation in which the researcher tries to get information from the interviewer. The method assumes that the respondents to be interviewed have the information required; they understand questions, which are put to them and will be able to give answers face-to-face. III. Observation This involved observing the old system at work. The way staffs attended to the customers by taking order, sending order to the kitchen, serving the menu, handle the changed order by the customers, waiting time for the orders and handle payment from the customer was observed and evaluated.

The following was observed of the manual system: •Serving a customer could take up to about 20-30 minutes. •The waiter had to go from where the customers are placed to the kitchen to place orders, hence overcrowding at times. •During peak hours of business the waiters are overloaded with orders leading to placement of wrong orders. •During off peak the restaurant has many idle waiters. Data analysis This stage discussed the requirements analysis for the data collection as the user’s requirements. The purpose of the requirements analysis is to identify what are the user’s needs for mobile food ordering application.

From the managers and staffs view, they found that when many customers came at one time their quality of services quite reduced and they also admitted that when they faced with this situation, it made them feel unsatisfied with their services when there are a lot of complaints from the customers. ? CHAPTER FOUR: SYSTEM ANALYSIS TOOLS Flow chart of Mobile Food Ordering Application No yesyes yes No Context diagram of Mobile Food Ordering Application ororderrequest orderDelivery/ Bill Processed Order

Data flow Diagrams Level 1 DFD order Details Entity Relationship Diagram ? CHAPTER FIVE: SYSTEM DESIGN INTRODUCTION This chapter discusses the details of the Mobile Food Ordering Application. The discussion contains the platform for the application and the description of the modules in application. Splash form This form is shown when the customers open’s the application. The customer press’ next/enter to continue. WELCOME TO APEX BISTRO PRESS NEXT TO CONTINUE NEXT CLOSE Customer details

In this page customer will enter his/her details in the Enter your Details First name------- Last name -------- Cell no. --------- Address-------- Menu This page contains the menu that is available in the restaurants. The customer selects the menu, places an order and Submits. MENU Chips70 Sausages25 Samosa30 Buns20 Cake Black forest100 Press Submit to continue Bill This page contains the information about the order placed by a customer, it contains the bill report. Bill Report Your Bill is Kshs. 560 PRESS SUBMIT TO CONTINUE Option form1

This form contains the option that asks the user, the preference of delivery or dine-in. Option form1 Do you prefer:-(check the radio button) oDelivery oDine-in oTake away NEXT BACK Option form2 This form contains the option that asks the user, the payment mode of choice. Option form2 Do you prefer to pay by:-(check the radio button) oCash-on delivery oM-pesa (pay bill number 11888) NEXT BACK Report This form displays the order placed, total bill and choice of opotion1 and option2 and the time the order will be ready. Report

YOU ORDERED:- CHIPS Samosa Soda. Your bill is:- Kshs. 130/= You order will be ready for take away in 30mins Cash on delivery Error / Confirmation Message The Application provides error message and confirmation message so that it can guide the users to enter all the mandatory information and alert them. ? CONCLUSION The mobile ordering application has emerged increasingly and expected brought a big change in a businesses as well as other fields because users rely on it too much. Mobile applications also will be demanded by the users for its convenience and ease of functioning.

It also will improve the employee’s works performance as well as user’s satisfaction. The main contributions of this study include; • Exploration of current technologies for designing and developing software applications for mobile devices (Java 2 Micro Edition, MYSQL database and Php). • Mobile Food Ordering Application also addressed major problems in ordering process and restaurants management by reducing the customer’s time and the management’s time for food ordering process, reduce the cost of food preparation, reduce wasted foods, reduce cost for the pen and papers. Customers can give special order on the menu with preferred ingredients. • Helps the customers and management so that customers can have their pleasure for making order and management can improve their management . Recommendation and Suggestion for Future Research Based on the achievement of this study, the future research that may conduct for Mobile Food Ordering Application are: • To enable Mobile Food Ordering Application to interact with the mobile customers by replying the feedback for the customer’s requests such as confirm the customer’s order by sending a message to the mobile. To allow customer registration to Mobile Food Ordering Application and application can save customer’s details for future order. • To enable Mobile Food Ordering Application to function in a real mobile environment with the interaction between the App and users. • To enable Mobile Food Ordering Application to display a feedback for the running out ingredients when customers make an order. ? REFERENCES A food delivery app wants to ease Nairobi’s traffic(2012) Retrieved 12 July 2012 from http://www. humanipo. com Barbara, B. (2007). Designing the mobile user experience.

England:John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Chien, N. L, Daniel, J. H. , Hsio, Yi H. H. , & Chan, Y. Y (2010). IEEE, 39-43. A Mobile Meal-Ordering System on the Bus, IEEE, 39-43. Gu, H. , Shan, M. L. , Deng, J. X. , Wang, Y. & Zhu, C. P. (2010). Design of touching wireless ordering dishes system based on WinCE. Information Science & Engineering, 2010. ICISE 2010: Proceeding of 2010 International Conference held on 4 – 6 December 2010 at Hangzhou, China (pp. 203-2016). China:Hangzhou. Khairunnisa, K. , Ayob, J. , Mohd. Helmy A. Wahab, M. Erdi Ayob, A. Izwan Ayob and A. Afif Ayob. (2009).

The application of wireless food ordering system. MASAUM Journal of Computing, 1(2), 178-184. XU. H, Tang B. & Song W. (2009). Wireless Food Ordering System Based on Web Services. IEEE Computer Society, 475-478. Yu, Z. & Zhu, W. (2010). The Research and Realization of Wireless Ordering System Based on Embedded Technology. Computer Application and System Modeling, 2010. ICCASM 2010: Proceeding of 2010 International Conference held on 22 October – 24 October 2010 at the School of Mechanical Engineering & Automation, Xihua University, China (pp. v8-443). China:Chengdu. ?

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