TourUVa iPhone Application

This was a project for an elective course called Web Information Systems Engineering (WISE). The course covered Service Oriented Architecture with a semester long project designing a mobile phone application that used web services created by the class. We were assigned the task of creating a digital tour guide for the University of Virginia. Each group could choose between developing for a Windows Mobile or iPhone OS device, and my group chose iPhone OS because of the high-quality development tools published by Apple.

The main screen of our application shows a map centered on the Central Grounds area of the University annotated with many pins. Each pin represents a building at UVa and can be tapped to see more detailed information about it. The pin colors represent the function of the building; green pins are academic, purple pins are athletic, and red pins are administrative or historical buildings.

The set of buildings can also be shown in a list that allows for easy searching. If you active location services using the compass icon in the bottom-left corner, the list will be sorted by the buildings closest to your current location. Tapping this button a second time will active a compass next to each building, showing the bearing from your location to it. This feature was primarily designed for visitors to the University who are can see a building but do not know its name or function.

When you tap on a building pin or name, you are presented with more detailed information about it. It features a picture, type of building, date built, any departments located in the building, and its abbreviation. If available, a short history of the building and some interesting facts are shown as well.

The main map can also show the locations of nearby bus stops instead of buildings. If you tap on the pin or name, you can see the stop's numerical ID code and the routes that service it throughout the day. The bus arrivals in the next 30 minutes are shown below with the most recent arrival first.

This application was never released to the App Store, however it was a great way to get some initial experience with Xcode and the iPhone OS SDK.