PhraseRCommunicating with convenience

Project PlanProject Name: PhraseR 1.0

Description: An iOS app that will assist people suffering from speech impairment

Submitted by: Project Group 8

Group Name: Kaska Technologies

Team Members: Affan Malik (301108617)Project Manager

Andrew Wong (301151125)Kaylyn Garnett (301110764)Kylie Loo (301170345)Steve Ooi (301157633)

Course: CMPT-275 E-100

Project Website: http://kaskatech.wordpress.com

Table of Contents

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Revision History……………………………………………………………………………. pg. 3

Project Summary……………………………………………………………………………. pg. 4

Project Overview…………………………………………………………………………….

pg. 5

Project Planning

Communications Plan………………………………………………....................... pg. 6

Team Meetings………………………………………………................................. pg. 6

Documentation……………………………………………….................................. pg. 6

Project Schedule

Project Tasks……………………………………………….................................... pg. 7

Project Gantt Chart………………………………………………........................... pg. 8

Risk Management…………………………………………………………………………... pg. 9

Project Organization and Staffing Plan……………………………………………………... pg. 12

Appendix 1: Group Meetings

Meeting # 1..………………………………………………………………………... pg. 13

Meeting # 2..………………………………………………………………………... pg. 15

Meeting # 3..………………………………………………………………………... pg. 17

Meeting # 4..………………………………………………………………………... pg. 19

Meeting # 5..………………………………………………………………………... pg. 20

References…………………………………………………………………………………... pg. 21

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Revision History

Revision Description Revision Date

Member(s) Involved

1.0 Creation 18/09/12 Kylie Loo

2.0 Meeting Minutes for Meeting #2 added 19/09/12 Kylie Loo

3.0 Meeting Minutes for Meeting #1 20/09/12 Affan Malik

4.0 Meeting Minutes for Meeting #3 21/09/12 Kylie Loo

5.0 Meeting Minutes for Meeting #4 & 5 25/09/12 Kylie Loo

6.0 Project Summary 25/09/12 Steve Ooi

7.0 Project Overview 25/09/12 Andrew Wong and Kylie Loo

8.0 Risk Management 26/09/12 Kaylyn Garnett

9.0 Various Assignment 2 related changes:See Meeting 6 minutes

3/10/12 All

Table 1: Revision History

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Project Summary

PhraseR is an iOS app that creates and maintains a database of commonly used phrases. For the speech-impaired, instead of writing on a piece of paper over and over again or using sign language which not many people understand, it provides a very convenient way to communicate. The user can access built-in phrases as well as add new phrases organized in categories through their iOS devices. These phrases can then be shown or read aloud with the text-to-speech capability to the audience.

The unique feature of PhraseR is that it uses GPS location service to provide a list of most recently used phrases in the vicinity of that location. The app combines an easy-to-use interface and an extensive database to give the speech impaired a voice of their own and enable them to …

“communicate with confidence”

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Project Overview

The goal of PhraseR project is to provide the speech impaired a convenient way to communicate using a customizable database of expressions. With the built-in selection of basic sentences a person may need in day-to-day living, the user can choose what they want to say or even add their own phrases in an intuitive manner. In addition, a key aspect to the application is to take advantage of GPS technology to suggest useful phrases according to the user location.

The stakeholders in this project include the developers, sponsors and those who interact with the app’s users (i.e. the community). For users, the target audience is those with speech impairments such as physical vocal cord damage or high functioning sufferers of mental disorders; namely psychosomatic. This app will also be useful to people who have very limited spoken skills in the English language. Unfortunately, users will need to have basic English reading and writing skills in order to use all the app’s features.

According to a research thesis done on the effects of speech disorders on social development of people (Back, 2010)[1], “individuals with communication disorders may feel a divide between their operational abilities and their need for connection and relationships because they cannot effectively communicate their ideas and personalities to others”. Our vision is to bridge this communication gap between the speech impaired and general community so that they can live an improved life and contribute as a valued part of society.

PhraseR will give the user access to a database of commonly used phrases that they can use to perform everyday tasks, such as ordering food from a restaurant or asking a question at the local supermarket. When user over a period of time, PhraseR will accumulate new phrases used by the user and phrases will be categorized under different categories to make them retrievable in a matter of seconds.

These categories will also be customizable by the user, allowing them to have a useful, easily accessible means of communication at the touch of a finger. Under each category itself, the phrases will be ordered with the most recently used at the top. All these different phrases and categories will be stored in an online database, where the user can freely add or change any phrases they would like.

One of the key features of PhraseR would be the ability to put it into an “intelligent mode”, which makes use of GPS location tracking to see what types of different services are nearby and pulling up the corresponding categories. For example, if the user walks into a small plaza that has a bank, a grocery store, and a fast food restaurant, the application would pull up the categories relating to these places, listing them in order of most commonly used. If a user finds that one of these location-specific phrases can be useful elsewhere, they can import it into any of their categories. There will also be a “Favourites” quick menu that the user will be able to access with a simple slide of the finger from any edge of the screen, which will have a list of user-specified phrases which are used extremely frequently, like “Thank you”.

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Project Planning

Communications Plan

Target Audience/ Stakeholder Group

Aim / Message Method of Communication

Responsible individual

Frequency

Project Team Provide updates on progress with scheduled tasks

Face to face meetings

Project Manager

Weekly

Group Members

Professor Provide update on progress Face to face meetings

Project Manager

Weekly

Request feedback on deliverables

Escalate issues and risks that have arisen

Advise of any requested scope changes

TA Advice on technical issues Email Project Manager

As necessary

Table 2: Communications Plan

Team Meetings:

There will be at least one in-person meeting every week on Monday. Further meetings will be scheduled as required.

Documentation:

All documentation will be shared through the Google Docs service for easy accessibility to all members.

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Project Schedule

Project Tasks:

Table 3: Project Schedule

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Project Gantt Chart:

Figure 1: Gantt Chart

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Risk ManagementTable 4

Risk Probability Impact Action to prevent/manage risk

Absent from meetings Medium-Low

Low Contact absent member through phone calls, texts, Skype, and Google docs to make sure an absent member still has input on decisions and project updates during the meeting.

Lack of developer participation

Medium High Make sure all members enjoy working on the project and feel they have appropriate responsibilities and accreditation throughout development. Hold regular meetings to monitor each other’s workload/interests.

Underestimate time required for given task

High Medium Use regular meetings to catch these issues. Make sure no task is scheduled to start directly after a task that it depends upon, this will avoid delaying the later task.

Overestimate time required for given task

Low Low Create a list of tasks that have limited prerequisites and do not serve as a prerequisite itself. Anyone who has extra time can work on these smaller independent tasks.

Overworked/under-worked group members

Medium-Low

High Make sure all members feel they can not only accomplish the tasks they are given, but that they are also challenged to do their best. This will ensure everyone shares an equal workload throughout development.

Delays due to lack of experience (iOS, objective-c, team projects, etc)

Extremely High

Medium Use meetings as a way to share experiences and reference documents throughout development to share any tips or tricks people have found, as well as problems they encountered and how they overcame those problems. This will prevent group members from wasting time repeating mistakes someone has already made

Assumptions about Low High Make sure to have alternative features or

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iOS/programming that leads to product failure

alternative implementations of features. If we assume iOS does/doesn't have a certain feature/capability, then we will already have plans for alternatives.

Lack of App-User participation

Medium-High

Medium Our phrase database relies upon users creating and adding their own phrases into the database to share with others. By making the app easy to navigate and providing a large foundation for our phrase database, we can attract users to our app so that they can help the app grow.

Compromised quality due to lack of experience

High Medium We avoid implementing complicated and hard-to-program code by basing our app on a collection of convenient and simple features. Also group meetings to share experience will be essential to overcome lack of experience.

Small database of phrases

Medium High Since we will be using a set of pre-constructed phrases for our app, selection for users will initially be limited. By use of GPS-location and user contribution of public phrases the app will grow on its own without contribution from developers. Future and/or extra features may include a phrase that requires a fill-in-the-blank to increase the amount of phrases available without wasting time to type.

Lack of user interest Medium High If people don't like our product, the product won't be able to grow. Combat this issue by making the app easy to navigate to avoid fumbling and frustration. Also include features that are unique to this app such as location-based public phrases.

Table 4: Project Risk Plan

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Project Organization and Staffing Plan

Project Team

Affan Malik Project ManagerWeb Administrator

● 4th Year MSSC Major

● Tech at SFU IT Services

Andrew Wong User Interface Developer ● 3rd Year CS Major● Graphics Designer

Kaylyn Garnett Lead DeveloperCoordinator

● 2nd Year CS Major● Game Developer

Kylie Loo Database Administrator ● 2nd Year CS Major● Tech Blogger

Steve Ooi Testing & Quality Assurance

● 2nd Year CS Major● Game Developer

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AppendixGroup Meetings

Meeting #1

Date and Time: Sept. 17 2012; 2:30pm~3:30pmPurpose: introductions and early brainstorming

Topic

Introductions

Discussions

→ Member Intros

→ Overview of project requirements

→ Discussion of ideas:

Phrase Finder: for speech impaired. An app that stores/creates common phrases/questions/sentence structures that one would use in their day-to-day lives

Target Users:● hearing impaired● dexterity issues (able to text/type using phrases)● speech impaired (intense stutter, etc)

Features:

● Easily navigation between categories of phrases● Phrase builder - allows construction of new phrases not already in database● web feature - allows someone(app user or not) else to send the app user new phrases● deaf can use it to display messages to others● Possible integration with a powerful web service (e.g. Wolfram Alpha)● use gps to have location specific phrases

“Stakeholders”: Medical staff, councilors

Colour Identifier: a camera based app that identifies the colour of any images taken when the user touches it to help anyone with colour blindness.

Location Logger: for memory impaired. This app would record coordinates of visited location and tag them to help people suffering from short-term memory loss recall their past activities.

→ Team Meetings

Weekly meetings, communicate through group email/textsPossible meeting days: MWF 1:30~

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Decisions

Think about more ideas or expand on already discussed ones. Start up project plan document and Wordpress website.

Member(s) and Deadlines

Brainstorm: all members; Sept. 19 2012 (next meeting)Wordpress: Affan; next meetingProject plan document: Kylie; next meeting

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Meeting #2

Date and Time: Sept. 19 2012; 1:30pm~3:30pmPurpose: to discuss and nail down a project idea.

Topic

Brainstorming project ideas

Discussions

→ Finetuning already presented ideas:

GPS phrase finder: to locate and return commonly used phrases.

Location Logger: add other functions like people met, activities done etc. As well, being able to set time intervals that check location. Also check if events were attended through GPS, or intuitive reminders if a place is frequented (recognizing regular events). Geared towards the memory-impaired (for example, the elderly).

→ Presenting new ideas:

Emotion Tracker: to pinpoint a place on the spectrum of emotions that can either log or help remedy certain emotions; i.e. to help improve situations that cause anxiety in the future by logging causes of emotions or giving solutions, like numbers to call.

Accessibility guide for specific areas: user-built map database that helps lead users to the nearest elevator, ramp etc.- Risks: users do not participate (there is not much incentive besides feeling good about yourself) or are not reliable. Changing landscapes. GPS accuracy and dependability. Accuracy of directions; how do we fine tune the directions to avoid buildings, streets etc.?- Discussion of whether to generalize to larger locations (not specifying how to get there but where accessible buildings are) or to localize so the maps can be detailed and give more specific directions.

Using the camera to identify colours, words etc.: to aid with people that have difficulty reading or blindness to colour.- Risks: already been done, and very well.

Speech to sign language: converting speech to text and text to sign language.- Risks: speech to text technology is not very accurate; there is little use to convert text to sign.

Reading Teacher: reads a piece of text and listens to the user's pronunciations of the words, to notify the user of mispronounced words with its own text to speech technology. Aimed at ESL students (who have accessibility issues in a communication aspect, or the learning disabled).- Risks: faulty text to speech interpretations.

Decisions

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Expand on the Location Logger idea to discuss more at the next meeting: fleshing out the features, risks etc. for more roundtable analysis.

Member(s) and Deadlines

All members; Sept. 21 2012 (next meeting)

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Meeting #3

Date and Time: Sept. 21 2012; 2:00pm~3:30pmPurpose: to discuss the details of our idea.

Topic

Features for the Location Logger app.

Discussions

→ Features for the app

Recognition for regular activities: notices frequented places and suggests them back to the user around the same time.

Journal-like input: allows user to elaborate on activities and set up reminders for events, regular or special, that can also remind the user of things to bring, directions etc.

Guardian-access: another person, for example a parent can access the log and info from the app. Must be secure (using Apple's cloud?) to share that information.

Profiles: people met can be entered into a profile (with a photo, phone number, name etc.). Perhaps the app can access the phone contacts.

General routine events: general events that are regular and remind the user of more specific events within the event (for example, morning routines).

→ Visualization of app use

First screen: username and password for guardian only. First time only profile/ sign-up for user. Remembers this data so the user doesn't have to remember any log-in info.Then shows links for journal, events and contacts.

- Journal: shows the time and location.- Event list: general timeframe; clicking an event leads to a more detailed description (time, location, purpose, title).For events that don't have a specific time (like whole day events), a reminder (flashing pulldown notification) will set off asking whether they are doing it already or whether to send another reminder later (after a certain time interval).

→ Risks

App integration (apps within app).

- General risks:If team members can't or won't contribute.None of the team members have any iOS experience.

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Scheduling: what are the priorities? Who will do what?

→ Title ideas and catchy phrase

D-Diary (D for dementia)

→ Setting up a proposal to ask the prof of our idea so far

Decisions

Ask Herbert for his initial feedback on our idea via email.

Member(s) and Deadlines

None.

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Meeting #4

Date and Time: Sept. 24 2012; 2:30pm~3:30pmPurpose: to meet with Herbert to discuss our idea.

Topic

Office hours with Herbert.

Discussions

→ Pre-meeting

Discussed what features we’ll present: emphasis on the diary portion rather than the GPS location logger portion. Discussion on how the app reflects past activities.

→ Meeting with Herbert

First idea: the D-diary: many concerns discussed, such as privacy (how to obtain informed consent) and data storage (for metadata). The app seemed to boast too many features.

Several other ideas: need to deal with several problems such as privacy and usefulness.

GPS-enabled Phrase Finder: providing an improvement on the regular phrase finder app with GPS-based intelligence; based on location the app can provide suggestions on phrases to use. With this key feature and the usefulness of the concept, this idea received good feedback.

Decisions

Meet again to expand on the Phrase Finder idea.

Member(s) and Deadlines

All members; next meeting.

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Meeting #5

Date and Time: Sept. 24 2012; 7:20pm~10:30pmPurpose: to discuss the details of our new idea.

Topic

Features for the new Phrase Finder app.

Discussions

→ Features for the app

Location-intelligent aspect: using GPS, the app can provide generic phrases according to what is around the user’s location, instead of saving “frequently used” phrases. The “location” is determined by the specific spot the user occupies plus a certain radius.

User inputted phrases: user (or user’s guardian) can add phrases into the database according to the user’s specific needs (and add them into a category).

“Priority” phrases on top

Decisions

Split the Program Plan into sections:Summary: SteveOverview: Andrew and KyliePlanning and Schedule: AffanRisk Management: KaylynWork on the Staffing section together.

Member(s) and Deadlines

All members; finish assigned sections by Sept. 25 2012.

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References

[1] Back, Heather M., "The Effects of Communication Disorders on Social Development" (2010). CMC Senior Theses. Paper 77.http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/77

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Meeting #6

Date and Time: Oct 3 2012; 2:00pm~4:20pmPurpose: Assignment 2 discussion and work plan

Topic

Homework 2 discussion and ideas

Discussions

● developers should work on Design document since that has to do with the coding● lead developer (Kaylyn) will assist with QA documents with code-testing● Affan + Kylie best suited for instruction manual● Entire team has input on Requirements doc● Version + features:● Goal: UI complete, basic usable phrases

Basic phrases with Categories● Goal: More extensive/personalized phrases

User created phrases, Fill in blank, More categories (seasonals, etcc..)● Goal: Bonus Features

GPS – enable a refresh command to get current gps-location, text-to-speech● Heard there were issues with testing GPS without paying Apple● Affan had issues with creating app developer status with Apple due to an unrecognized

University● UI:

First screen:- set up un+password- login screen (username + password) - password recovery options: answer security question + email (internet/website integration)Main screen:- you’re basic phrase screens, with settings button/tab/somethingPhrases Screens (gps/basic):List of categories- select category -> list of phrases (organization based on tabs)- swipe will give list of favouritesList of phrases:- star button beside phrase adds/removes it from favourites - favourites is a special category that is available at any time - one option = quick type (no phrases, pure typing) - contains user-selected phrases- pencil button or hold phrase will open editing screen for the phrase- contains both basic phrases and “fill in blank”Display Phrase Screen:- shows message- tab buttons: go home, go back to category

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● GPS capabilities – be its own category that stores locations as categories- each category will be a name of a location object, and current location will be the category listed at the top of the list- selection of location category will go to a normal phrases list- split up gps into objects with specific ranges (a location object that holds gps-grid objects)- whenever any phrase is used in a gps location grid for the first time, OR user opens gps category without a grid that exists, a gps grid object is instantiated.- upon grid creation, user is prompted to create a “location category” to add it to, OR add this grid location to a current location, must create name for location upon grid creation-

Decisions

Roles:Kaylyn + Andrew = Design DocumentSteve + Kaylyn = QA DocumentAffan + Kylie = Requirements

Version Goals

UI and features

Affan + Kylie will search for phrases/phrase books to build our database

Talk to Herbert GPS testing and App Developer Issues

Member(s) and Deadlines

By Next meeting (on Friday Oct 5th @ 2pmRequirements for next meeting:- Each member begins forming their own document information

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