RIDE SRI LANKA Why Navigation Apps are important to Sri Lanka? BECAUSE NO ONE WANTS TO WAIT. Sri Lanka, as a being developed country, transportation is

one of the biggest matter in current days. Though we do have well-constructed roads and

transportation systems, are they being managed properly? The answer is NO.

Most of the Sri Lankans use public transportation such as busses and trains. Not only in early

mornings or in evenings the roads get crowded, but throughout the day. All most all Sri Lankans

have always this word in their mouths, which is ‘Delays’.

When anyone gets in to the road to go for their important work, and if they use public

transport for that, it is unpredictable to say whether they get that particular place on time.

Most of the people do not know what time the busses arrive to a particular place, what is the

starting city of the bus, is the bus crowded or not. No information is available at all. Everyone

has to get victimized with this bitter experience. All most all the Sri Lankans have victimized at

least once in their lifetime. Therefore Sri Lanka is quite famous to this information

unavailability.

Assume someone from a rural place comes to Colombo. Do they have the information about

bus routes, the availability of busses in which time, what time is the last bus, the starting and

ending city of the bus, alternative paths, the bus fair, if the bus is crowded, in how many

minutes particular bus arrives in particular bus stand, at what time he/she can arrive at her

destination by going in the particular bus route, if destination takes multiple busses, what are

the transit bus stands, how is the road traffic and etc. Every information first he/she needs to

ask from someone, or should be experienced. And to her/him to get used to it, it takes time. By

that time, he/she may have lost most of their important times, maybe chances etc.

Therefore in order to stop this delay, in order to stop this information unavailability, Sri Lanka

highly needs this proposing full featured public informative navigation mobile application.

Why we need a mobile application? Since now a days everyone uses smartphones are used to browse internet, bill payments, for

social media, as their private diaries for reminders, as fitness unit, for professional photographs.

So why can’t it be used for something more worth such as a time saver, such as a city guider?

Obviously it should be. When travelling, no one opens a laptop, get connected to internet to

see a bus route other than asking from someone. Therefore the mobile navigation app should

be ideal since this is real time.

It is a way better option for mental health

Most of the Sri Lankans in road are impatient, high tempered. Anyone hardly wears a smile in

the road. Everyone wants just to rush. Whenever government increases the bus fair, people get

in to road for protesting campaigns. It is natural to do that because people’s requirements in

the rapidly developing world are not being satisfied in Sri Lanka. It always goes a tortoise walk.

But when we have a time saving such application like this for general public, it would decrease

the number of rushing people in the road from some percentage.

What are the existing informative navigation apps in Sri Lanka? The Sri Lankan Android app market is still being developed. As per research, the number of

navigation apps in Sri Lanka are very less. In the Google Play following apps are found.

Sri Lanka Bus Route

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bus.main&hl=en

This is an informative android app which provides user to enter any bus route and it outputs

all the destination halts that bus goes. Since there are no real time information available

about this bus routes, this would be very beneficial for user.

The version 1.0 is published in year 2013. For android devices which have greater than or

equal to SDK 2.1, which is Froyo and up, this app is available. Currently there are 5000-1000

of installs. The current version is still 1.0.

Some user reviews:

“Great idea.. But execution is unsuccessful The routes are not available. Should have been a

great app if the routes are covered. Ended up looking at Wikipedia “

“Update it Good idea but ut doesbt even contain the info about sri lankas main routes No 1 and

2”

“U need to add more bus routes & a map for this app to be useful. Nice effort though.”

“No way of searching for the route you need Only works if you already know the route number.

No way to search from point a to point b.”

The Features provided

- Search any bus route and get all the destinations under that route.

What is lacking

The user needs to know the route number in advance. If the route number is not known

exactly, this app is no longer useful. There is no way to search the route numbers. This could

have been implemented by giving a drop down list for user to select the relevant route number.

No map is available. If the user is very primitive (a foreigner who is in Sri Lanka for 1st time), this

app is a challenge to him to find a route or a bus. The user interface is poorly designed. The text

and the layout is not properly aligned. In first screen, the length of the ‘Search’ button should

be aligned with edit text bar and it should be longer. The result layout, the text color is not

clear. The text size is large enough. Other than as a paragraph, it could be displayed as a list. No

padding has been used for buttons. Other than going for a new layout, it could have been used

android Toast, which is like a pop up, to display the list. Going for another layout may contain

more memory than going for a toast. User friendly color scale should be used than this. No real

time navigation or map data provided.

Catch a Bus in Colombo

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.busroutes.android

This is another informative android application available in Google Play which can be

downloaded free. This provides user to select the departure town and destination time through

a drop down list. Then it will list down which bus should be taken from which halt, where he

should get down.

The current version of this app is 1.1. This can be used for users who have android sdk 2.2 and

greater which are Froyo and after that users. Current installs are 1000-5000. The developer is

R.W.G. Piyasena. It has been last updated in year 2013.

Some user reviews:

“Should update to the least UI Good app. But this app should update to the latest Android UI

design. Specially KitKat or JB. App UI not attractive. Also I think if it has Google Maps navigation

path integration, it's more easier.”

Very few no of destinations Need to add more destinations at least inside Colombo. Instead of

drop down, use a text box to type, then auto complete the destination name.”

Time Saver! A must have for any Android user who depends on public transport in Sri Lanka.

Google Maps integration is in the wishlist for V2”

The features provided in it

- A drop down search for departure town

- A drop down search for destination town

- Information about from departure to destination which bus should be taken, in which

halt should be get down.

What is lacking

The first impression of informative screen is confusing for the eye. The user experience side of

this app is low. Many colors have been used which decreases the reading interest of the user.

The text size is not visible enough. The user interface components are poorly designed. Some

texts are not readable. In the first screen, the layout should be centered and well padded. The

developer name is displayed bottom of every screen which is not a best practice. The name of

the app should be short and simple.

There is no real time navigation or any map data provided. This app does not need any

connectivity. The advantage of that is user can get information offline. That is a major benefit

when user stays in area which does not have any Wi-Fi connections, or if the mobile data is

unavailable, this app is a super user beneficial app. The disadvantage is this app uses the SQLITE

in build database. All the information, the logic, algorithms are stored inside the inbuilt

database. The memory consumption of the application goes high unnecessarily. Since all the

current users do have smart mobile devices with 4G or at least 3G connections, it is more

suitable to use an online database and simply read data from that. These kind of informative

apps should be updated at least twice a year, nature of information is always updating. This app

has been last updated in year 2013 which is almost three years back. If apps do not get

updated, the data may be inconsistent.

Bus Routes

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.esoft.busroutes

The next static informative app is Bus Route which can be downloaded for free from Google

Play. This will provide all the bus route information in western province. User is provided to

select all the cities under district wise.

This application is developed by student group in ESoft Metro Campus. The current version is

1.0 and last updated in year 2014. The current installs are 1000-5000. Froyo and grater users

can use this application.

Features provided:

- This app lists down all the cities under each district in Western Province.

- When user clicks on one city, it will list down all the busses passing that city.

- User friendly user interface.

- The layouts are well aligned.

- Android toast (pop out) is used when selecting a city rather than going for a different

layout.

- Some user reviews:

- “Nice app Im also a old student of ESOFT and this is gd to see thy developed a sft wr, gd luck

guys and keep it up”

- “Doesn't seems to have a point in using this application.”

- “Good but Bad There are only link, you can do trace the current location and like that...ok

anyway wish all the best”

- “Poor Development Looks like it is just their assignment. just one province with lack of data.”

- “Only limited areas of the Districts can be found”

- “Need more details This just giving the bus route number of pre defined list. More

information cannot be obtained.”

What is lacking:

This is once again a static app. No real time navigation or map details or provided. All the

information are stored inside the app which takes higher memory consumption. In developer

point of view, it can be said that this information is hardcoded, which is not a good

development practice. The application header names are not user friendly. This is only updated

in year 2014, which means kind of another outdated app.

Colombo Bus Route

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cbr.arima

This is well developed app for Sri Lanka which provides quite a lot updated information. The

current version of this app is 1.2.1. This required android SDK 3.0 and up to run which is

honeycomb and later users can use this app. The current number of downloads is 10000-50000.

Some user reviews:

“Helpful app, but still has some wrong paths Most of time very helpful me to travel in Colombo,

but some routs are providing wrong information eg 112,135, 140, 142 etc... I dnt no why not

updates... plz make it usefil by provide accurate information.”

“Routs to be addedAirport(katunayake),foreign employment service, Route no187,275& etc. and

some minor areas also to be added in some bus routs.”

“Very useful and more information The app very useful and has more bus routes than other

apps. Though its UI not attractive. Better to update UI to new material design.”

“Fealing proud Thank you friend who create this application.i ts realy helpful us and I would like

thanks again you as a sri lankan person.do wel more things whitch relate with srilanka .”

“Very good could improve A very useful app has many routes but some major stops are omitted

from some routes. This causes the app to recommend longer routes than is necessary. Also some

routes need to be updated(eg: 154)”

“I love this app. This is a must have app, if you go for public transport in Sri Lanka. However, it

could be improved. For example, Normally busses goes in one route and comes by another. but

for now this app shows only one route. also features such as fare rates could be integrated.”

The Features:

There are four main functionalities in the app.

Start to Destination

This feature provides user to enter any departure location and any destination location. Then it

will show which bus you should take from which point. In the map it is nicely displayed. Assume

you want to travel from Boralesgamuwa to Wettala. Given that input and get the information in

map or it is available in statically as well.

This is the static view of the route. By Green

color the departure location of user is displayed

which is Boralesgamuwa. By Purple color, the get

off location is displayed. As in this example user

can get down from Thummulla or near Colombo

Campus and get the next bus, 104. It will reach

the destination city Wattala.

In map view, the green color pin is Departure city, which is Boralesgamuwa. The bus route 120

is displayed in blue pin. The purple pin is the place where user need to get off and take the next

bus, 104. Red pin points display the route of 104.

Current Place to destination

This will identify the current location of the user and it will

provide the suggested identified location to select be

selected by the user as the departure city. It will prompt user

to enter destination city. Once the departure and destination

is properly selected, the rest of the things work as described

earlier.

Bus Route

This will ask user to enter any bus route and it will display the route information in static and

both map view.

Busses in current place

This will identify the current location of the user and it will output the available bus routes for

that location.

Validation

What is lacking:

Though this app uses Google Maps details, it does not navigate the user to the destination. This

could have done by calling Google Navigation API. The user interface of the application is not

mobile friendly. It is more into desktop type application. The button sizes, font styles and font

sizes need to be further looked into. This application is last updated in January 2015. Since it is

almost two year, the updation of this app needs sooner.

Pick Me

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pickme.passenger

This is the most going forward app in Sri Lanka which handle Sri Lanka taxies. This allow users to

book a taxi. The current version is 2.15.0.3.L203 and last update was on September 2016. The

android SDK version is 4.0.3 and up which is ice cream sandwich and later users can get

benefitted from this.

First user needs to get register for this app. Once the user is verified, he would be receiving the

confirmation code. One time login is enough for a device which is great feature. Then user is

provided the tuktuks, mini taxi, medium type taxi and cars near his area. This is done based on

current location of the user. It will notify it any Tuks are available, how many minutes it would

take to come to current location. For the other vehicle types the scenario is the same. Then

user will be asked to book the taxi. Before confirming, the drop off location needs to be

entered. Once confirmed, the user is provided the deails of the taxi driver on the map along

Since this app does not work without the network

connection, it first validates if the app is connected to

the internet. Without getting surprising force close

messages, which is very common in android apps, this

validation point in done.

with the text message saying the reference number, Driver name, Driver mobile, taxi type and

taxi plate. The user can call the taxi driver through the app. Once the taxi arrives the starting

location of the user, he gets a confirmation message when taxi driver confirms through his

mobile app. The texi driver’s app is navigating with the fair displayed. Once they arrive the

destination, taxi driver confirms it through his app. Then user receive a text message saying that

he has arrived his destination and the taxi fair. An email will be receiving with all the details

finally.

Some user reviews

“Simple. Fast. Efficient. What more can you ask for? The app works exceptionally well. I'm a big

fan of minimal but clean-quality interfaces and PickMe offers just that! The actual service

intended to provide has been nothing but a great experience as well. A very minor

inconvenience is however the small list of drop-off locations suggested for queries. Specifically

typing a place may not show any results, and such scenario requires the user to manually

pinpoint. Apart from the above mentioned, I give PickMe a solid two thumbs up!”

“This is a very good app but recently i received a warning saying that the drivers can edit the

fares.. would apprecite if you could check on it and fix that bug..overall the app and the service

is great”

“I used it for the first time today. I love how the taxi driver gets tracked and it accurately shows

where he is . I also love the fact that they show nearby taxis as well. Also happy that they give

info about the drivers as well...like licence plate , name , name of vehicle etc.”

“Sluggish Seems very poor architecture. Can't even handle some amount of requests in evening

time with network traffic. It takes more time to book a pick up. Uber is more better with UX and

performance. Worst and time wasting app.”

“Recent updates made the app slower and it shows a wrong location. It takes forever to

complete a booking. It was working fine before the latest updates.look into this matter”

Though it is not regarding the bus routes, Pick Me is an app which made a major change is Sri

Lankan travel. It connected smart devices with day to day travel. This technology should be

introduced to busses since we do not have any mobile app which has this change.

What are the features already provided in them?

Together when it is come to a conclusion about above discussed apps, the following features

are already provided.

- The bus routes in the Colombo city

- Map locations of those destination cities

- Applications with best route selecting algorithms.

- Real time information

- The calling facility through the app

- Validation

- Getting the current location

- From current location, the bus routes to the destination.

- The fast responsiveness

What is lacking?

We have all these things developed. But we do not have proper time table for busses. These

information are not available in anywhere. These apps do not provide in which time the bus

starts its ride. What is the current location of the bus? In how many minutes the bus would

come to the current location of the user. What is the next destination point? Is the bus

crowded? Are there any seats available in the bus? What is the bus fair? What would be total

fair for trip? Location to location how the bus fare is getting changed? At what time it will reach

the destination with the traffic. Can any complains/comments be made to particular bus at

particular time? There is no device nor do proper system given to the bus driver or the

conductor in order to help this transportation make better.

What is going to be proposed? The proposed mobile application will have following features. This will be a hybrid mobile

application where android, iOS and windows users can be beneficial of.

This application consists of three parts which are a mobile app given to registered busses, a

mobile app to the regular users, a public website containing information about bus routes and

comments of general public.

The application which is given to registered bus drivers and conductors will do the following.

- When the ride starts from the particular departure city, it needs to click the OK button.

- When the bus arrives the destination, press the OK button.

- At each bus stop, update the number of passengers.

The application which is given to be normal users will do following.

- Search a trip plan

This will ask user to enter departure and the destination cities. Onece user clicks the search

button, it will provide the bus route numbers with the Google Map information with pin

points. The departure and destination cities will be displayed in Green Color. Interchanges,

where user needs to get down and take the other bus, will be shown in purple. The

different bus routes will be displayed in different pin points. The bus fare would be

calculated for the whole trip.

- Search for a Bus

This will ask user to enter the destination city while the current city is being located by the

device itself. The route plan will be displayed. It will display the busses which are on the way

to current location under one route. It will be displayed in the map. When a bus is selected,

it will popped out a screen, in how many minutes the bus will reach the current location of

the user. User can view the name of the drive, name of the conductor, the bus plate, the

number of available seats, time it will take to the interchange or the destination and the bus

fare for the relevant interchange/ destination. It will navigate the throughout the journey. If

the user meets an interchange during the journey, user will be asked to take a get off and

which bus to be taken. Then as described it will behave to the destination from the

interchange. Bus fare would be calculated and given to the user by interchange wise.

- Bus Routes & Bus Fare

This will pop out a drop down displaying all the bus routes along with the start and end

cities. Once user clicks on a route, it will display the whole route in the map by locating map

markers in each stop. Once user clicks on a map marker, it will display the bus fare from

departure city. The bus fare changing ranges (pins) would be added in red.

- Bus time tables

This will display the time tables of all the bus routes. As an example if it is 120, Colombo –

Horana, what are the times to depart from Horana in the morning, arrival time in Colombo

for the each trip? It will be displayed in vise versa.

- Make a comment

If the user needs to make a comments about the service of the bus, the path is always open

for him. He will be provided cages to enter Route number, Driver name, Conductor name,

date and time, Plate number and the comment. Even though user is provided these

information, he doesn’t have to fill all. He will be prompted list of plate number when the

route number is entered. Once user selects the specific plate number, the drive and

conductor information will be automatically filled. The date and time will be automatically

recorded. The user has to submit the comment only. Once a user submitted a comment, it

will be published real time in the web site which is available for general public.

The User Interface Sketch The below are user interface sketches for Search a Trip Plan and Search a Bus functionalities.

High Level Architecture The architecture diagrams are proposed to each scenario as followed.

- Search for a trip

The user will inputs the departure and the destination. It will be sent to server 1. Inside the

server1, all the logic is written. It will return the best route plan in static manner. Once user

clicks the map view, it will communicate with the Google maps API and get the map data,

displaying the root plan on Google Maps.

- Search for a bus

When user selects this option, it will automatically fetch user’s current location with

communicating with Google map API. Then that information and destination input will be

sent to server 1 for get done the calculation of best route plan. The mobile device which is

provided for bus conductor and driver will input if the bus has started the journey. That

information goes to Server2. Server 1 communicates with Server 2 for requesting bus

information available in particular route. Along with that server does the calculation. It will

calculate how many minutes would take each bus in that particular route to come to the

user’s current location. User is displayed those information. In a map view, the user will be

displayed the buses according to the shortest time. Once user clicks on a bus, it shows the

name of bus driver, conductor, bus plate, the availability of the seats. Once user clicks on

that it displays the navigation of the app. The navigation it displayed until user reach his

interchange/ destination. So at each stop, it will calculate the time to destination.

The use case diagram

When the regular user starts the application he can perform those five activities. He can

perform Search Bus activity only when bus user performs ‘Confirm departure, seat availability’

operation. Along with that data, the calculations will be done in server side. There is no

relationship between regular user and bus user.

The Quality attributes and testing When looking in to application quality, the user interface takes an important part of the

development. Since this app is used by general public, it should be lesser to do. People do not

want to type long words. Learnability should be high since this is used not by engineers. This is

used by general public day to day normal people. Adoptability I another attribute that should

be focused. If users do not feel like adopting it to it, they just avoid and uninstall the app.

Performance is a major attribute of this kind of an application. How fast the requests are

provided responses. In which stress level, this application would fail. These should be tested.

Response time should be low. The application should be tested with all kinds of network. Wi-Fi

network, when lowering the quality of the Wi-Fi network testing should be done. When

transforming from Wi-Fi to mobile data how the app would perform. The user inputs needs to

be tested by providing more characters for input can break the functionality. The major test

that should be conducted is screen resolution. How the app would looks in different screen

sizes in different devices. Since this is a hybrid mobile application, it should be tested with

different operating systems. The installation and uninstallation testing should be done.

Proposed Test Scenarios to be tested Search a trip plan

- Validate if auto suggestions for input fields are suggesting correctly

- Validate the functionality of the Search Button

- Validate the bus fare is calculated as expected

- Validate the tabs in the results screen working as expected

- Validate the behavior when network is not available for auto suggestion

- Validate the behavior when network is switched to mobile data from Wi-Fi for auto

suggestion

- Validate the behavior when network is switched to Wi-Fi from mobile data for auto

suggestion

- Validate the colors of departure point, Destination point and Interchanges

- Validate if the map can be zoomed and data is displayed properly

- Validate when there are multiple interchanges the route colors are changing accordingly.

- Validate the behavior when GPS is not available in the mobile device

- Validate the behavior of the auto suggestion when Wi-Fi signal strength is weaker

- Validate the behavior of auto suggestion when battery is low

- Validate the behavior of search button when battery is low

Search a bus

- Validate the detection of the current location when network is available

- Validate the behavior of detection of the current location when network is unavailable

- Validate if auto suggestions for destination city is suggesting correctly for multiple inputs

- Validate the behavior of auto suggestions for destination city when numeric values are

given

- Validate the functionality of search button

- Validate the route plan are displayed as expected

- Validate the route plan of map view

- Validate the prediction time for buses is correct

- Validate the informative pop up screen when user touches on a particular bus

- Validate the functionality of the navigate button

- Validate the colors of departure point, Destination point and Interchanges

- Validate if the map can be zoomed and data is displayed properly

- Validate when there are multiple interchanges the route colors are changing accordingly.

- Validate the behavior of the app sudden unavailability of network while navigation is being

done

- Validate the behavior when network strength goes lower while navigation is being done

- Validate if the user is informed correctly about the interchange while navigation is being

done.

- Validate when multiple routes available if it informs the next route to the user.

- Validate the behavior of auto suggestion when battery is low

- Validate the behavior of search button when battery is low

- Validate the behavior of navigation when battery is low

Bus Routes & Bus Fare

-

How it is important to general public in Sri Lanka? This application would be a turning point of Sri Lankan public transport. What would be newly

introducing?

The training for the public transport employees (Bus drivers/ Conductors)

A better training should be given to Sri Lankan registered bus drivers and conductors about the

use of smart devices. Then all the similar devices should be installed the mobile application and

training programs should be conducted district wise by selecting bus drivers and conductors in

particular cities. The trainers should aware the trainees about the smart device awareness. The

private sector who continues this program should have policies on data cards installed in

mobile devices of trainees. An anti-virus program should be installed in all mobile devices

before distributing devices. The trainees should thoroughly aware that their locations are

decently tracked through this app. Only thing that they need to be trained is click ok button

when bus departs from the starting city. Press ok button when bus arrives the destination.

Button that should be pressed if seats available in each stop.

In current days, it is a hard thing to drive or go in the road safely. Most of the times, it is

because bus drivers who drive carelessly. Sometimes they do not respect passengers. Most of

the times keeps the bus stopped unnecessarily. The passengers get their time wasted. No one

can predict at which time they can arrive at their destinations. Because public transport has

their own kind of behavior. Accidents may occur die to this behavior. They do not work in a

time table. One bus is trying to get over another. In Sri Lanka currently this public transport has

very primitive pattern.

For the betterment of the public transportation of Sri Lanka, these problems need to be

overcome as soon as possible. This kind of a mobile app is one of the best way for it. First of all

bus drivers, conductors are given awareness sessions. They can learn many things about what

the beyond world has. The social policies along with mobile policies can be taught in awareness

sessions. And those public transportation employees too given respect. And they too feel that

they are responsible for the technology growth of the country.

Since this proposed app has a feature make comments most of the disrespectful behavior,

braking laws in the road would be highly decreased. Since it can be tracked from the names of

conductor and driver, and the number plate, these information would be beneficial for police

too. Since the comments made by the passengers are published in a web site which is open for

general public, the number of misbehaving activities will be highly decreased. These

information would be better source for government if they think about the country and for

their decision making.

The passengers too would be saving the time at their best. As long as the negative comments,

the positive comments too will be posted for better service. The passengers will not have to be

impatient even if they miss a bus, because the other bus arrival time is too known. Passengers

can plan a trip before they start going somewhere. The needed bus fare can be kept with them

in beforehand. Since this app is proposed to cover the country as a whole, no fear of going to an

unknown place.

This would be a perfect app for a tourist who visit Sri Lanka and get caught to Tuk drivers for

ten times higher prices as normal journey.

From earlier applications, it is being shown how much thirsty the Sri Lankan smart device users

are. Even for an app which displays static very limited data with no proper user interface, there

were more than 100000 downloads. Most of the youth and adults go for it because they are

almost fed with the Sri Lankan transportation system. If this kind of an application is freely

distribute to users, we can really hope for a real change in the country.