As you know, the class has decided to implement a Travel Agent System for a travel agency. I expect five things from you to successfully complete project 1:
Here are some examples from real travel agency Web sites:
For a popular portal approach, look at Expedia.com.
For another popular portal approach, look at Travelocity.com.
For a simpler home page, look at Away.com
For another home page, look at REIadventures.com
For a third home page, look at STAtravel.com
All five of the above examples URLs are certainly satisfactory as home pages. I am hoping we have
some creative types in our class who will far outdo the examples (I am hoping everyone will to
some extent), especially in providing clearer usability. Please email me
As for the forms, each HTML page should incorporate as much as possible to make the form work when the
time comes to make functional forms later this quarter. I am looking for you to choose the best HTML
form controls for each item (and use reasonable NAME attribute values). 'Best' means easiest for the
customer to use without making a mistake. 'Easiest' means least amount of work the customer has to do.
If you think your control is not clear, add the appropriate text to instruct the customer. I am not worried
about network bandwidth on this assignment so be thorough (yet not messy).
I highly recommend using TABLE elements to make your forms appear cleaner and orderly (though there are
other methods you can use if you find them). I also recommend using TABLE elements within your home page to make sure
your page appears well in all browsers (although I will only be using Internet Explorer 6 to review your work).
According to our discussion in class, the Trip Profile Form will be used by trip organizers to make
a trip available for customers to reserve a seat. A trip organizer can be anyone who wants to manage the
list of customers interested in the trip. So, one customer can create a trip for friends to sign-up for, or
a travel agency employee can set up a trip on behalf of a third party (professional chartering organization).
The Trip Profile Form will allow customers to actually sign up for a charter trip should we decide to implement
that process for Project 2.
For Project 1's requirements, we decided on the following minimum requirements for the forms in class:
The Trip Profile Form should request the following items:
- Travel Start Date
I agree with the suggestion in class that the Trip ID should be automatically created (not entered via a form) but
you can add a form control for it if you think it should be determined some other way. I also agree that the Contact
information would be some Person ID value for frequent trip profilers. You can implement it that way or request
a person's name.
The Customer Feedback Form will be used by customers who want to offer information (suggestions, complaints)
back to the travel agency after going on a trip. The form should request the following items:
- Customer Name
The Trip ID will need to be made available to the commentator. One way to do this would be to connect this form
to the Trip Report so the comment form would automatically fill in the Trip ID based on which trip the customer
clicked on within the report. The Contact Type chosen (Email, Phone, Letter, etc.) would define what type of
information you should expect to be submitted in the Contact Info field. For the Trip Rating, you can offer a
simple scale from 1 to 10 or you can present multiple controls that would then calculate a rating from those
controls. The Comments should allow a customer to type 1000 characters in the field if they had the inclination.
The Customer Preferences Form should have the following items on it:
- Climate
Please be creative with the options you make available to the customer. For example, in the Time field, you could
request season or time of day or time length, etc.
The Trip Report should look attractive yet be organized in a way to assist the customer in finding more
information (or providing more information) relative to the trip they are going on or have gone on. The report
should have at least four trips shown (you make up the data in your example report) and should include the
following items as columns in a table:
- Trip ID
Make up some Trip IDs and then make some dummy links (which would likely link to the full itinerary for the trip).
You can make up a dummy link by starting with the tag <A HREF="">. We will likely tie the links to something
useful for Project 2.
Please do some substantial Web surfing if you can't think of something creative to implement for your project.
There are many examples of attractive, functional, and flowing Web sites out there. Please have some fun with
your project. I will appreciate your sense of humor if you come up with something clever that you would not
really ever put on the Web. I mean, do anything that motivates you to learn by doing, but remember that you
are being graded on your role of minimum requirements implementer for Project 1. I'll relax that requirement
for Project 2 (where you will be more of a business owner and do anything that is justified by good organization
common sense). If something does not make sense to you, please email me or ask in class as soon as possible.
- Travel End Date
- Locations
- Trip ID
- Targeted Age Group
- Capacity (number of travelers)
- Contact
- Estimated Cost
- Description
- Contact Type
- Contact Info
- Trip ID
- Trip Rating
- Comments
- Landscape
- Transportation Method
- Time
- Price Range
- Trip Start Date
- Trip End Date
- Location
- Price Paid
- Feedback Link
- Rating