Individual Assignment

RESEARCH METHODS FOR COMPUTING AND

TECHNOLOGY

Name : Chong Yeong Dee (TP 025657)

Intake Code : UC2F1402 (BIS)
Module Code : CT098-3.5-2-RMCT
Due Date : 3 NOVEMBER 2014
Lecturer : HEMALATA VASUDAVAN

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Executive Summary

With the number of population increasing in city, where it leads to the increment of vehicles. The
sufficient of parking spaces for the cars has become a big challenge for all the businesses. This
paper will identify the common problems faced nowadays in the shopping malls in Malaysia. An
idea (smartphone application) will be proposed for customers to book parking space before going
to the shopping mall, check the availability of parking spaces for certain shopping malls pay the
parking and enhance the payment for the parking facilities, to overcome the parking problems.
This application will integrate the parking facilities, where drivers can book the parking space, pay
the parking fees, avoid from wasting time and petrol in searching optimal parking space. The
application is to benefits the drivers to shopping malls and also enhance the service quality of a
shopping mall.

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Contents
Title: Integrated Smart Phone Apps for Shopping Mall Parking .................................................... 3

1.0 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 4

2.0 Problem Statement ............................................................................................................... 5

2.1 Insufficient of parking spaces respond to the growth of population ................................ 5

2.2 Distance of parking spaces to the entrance shopping mall............................................... 5

2.3 Time consuming in searching parking space ................................................................... 5

2.4 Common issues on the Kiosk machine ............................................................................ 6

3.0 Aim ...................................................................................................................................... 7

3.1 Objective .............................................................................................................................. 7

4.0 Research Questions .............................................................................................................. 8

4.1 Domain Questions ............................................................................................................ 8

4.2 Technical questions .......................................................................................................... 8

5.0 Research design ................................................................................................................... 9

5.1 Observation ...................................................................................................................... 9

5.1.1 Sample questions for questionnaire .............................................................................. 9

5.2 Observation .................................................................................................................... 13

5.2.1 Process of observation ................................................................................................ 13

5.2.2 Observation details ..................................................................................................... 13

5.2.3 Observation Checklist................................................................................................. 15

6.0 Personal Reflection & Conclusion ..................................................................................... 16

7.0 References .......................................................................................................................... 17

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Title: Integrated Smart Phone Apps for Shopping Mall Parking

1.0 Introduction
This is a descriptive research on the parking behavior and common parking issues facing by the
drivers in a shopping mall.

Shopping center is consider as a commercial building that provide a trading environment for
buyers and sellers. The preparation of facilities is one of the key elements that going to affect the
service quality that providing to visitors and users. The first service that shopping mall provide to
the shoppers is the parking facility. The ability to the shopping mall in providing sufficient and
convenience parking system has become a challenge for them. As the number of population
growing in an urban area such as city, and the urbanization has led to the increasing of travel
demand, parallel with the increasing of number of transports. The insufficient of number of parking
spaces problem has raised according to the increment of population. Some shopping malls
provided season parking pass that offering cheaper parking chargers for the working in the
shopping malls, and reserve a parking space. But, this is only for the permanent workers that
working in the shopping mall. When a customer goes to the shopping mall, his/her does not know
the availability of the parking spaces. He/she might spent up minutes or hours to get a parking
space.

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2.0 Problem Statement
2.1 Insufficient of parking spaces respond to the growth of population
The increasing of motor vehicle amount has led to parking problem is increasing outstanding,
especially for urban central area. (Wu, 2011) This statement also stated in another research paper-
The Research on Optimal Parking Space Choice Modal in Parking Lots. The development of living
standard of population has increased the number of vehicles. The researchers stated that the worst
parking situation in big city in China, 26 cars can only share 1 parking space.

The availability of parking slots has become a consideration when shoppers going to shopping
malls. The lack of parking spaces is keeping the crowd away. (Borneo Post Online, 2011) In this
manner, the insufficient of parking spaces would causes problem to businesses, whereas the
customer could not park their car and turn up their mind to not visiting that shopping mall.

2.2 Distance of parking spaces to the entrance shopping mall

Smith and Butcher defined that the criteria to determine level of parking facility service
performance is based on the walking distance to the destination from the parking space. According
to the study of Stephen M. Sutherland from University of Oklahoma, customers will only visit
various shops that near to the entrance of their parking space and the estimated average walking
distance will traverse is approximate 300-400 feet. Customers will favor the parking space that
nearby the entrance, so the parking space that far away from the entrance will be ignored. This
statement simply means that the total amount of parking spaces and the division of entrance should
be within a ratio. But, when there are too many entrances in a parking lot, it might confuse the
customers and may not remember where they parking their car.

2.3 Time consuming in searching parking space

Looking for a parking spaces is a time consuming activity for day life of citizens that living in
urban cities. Finding for a proper parking space would spent up for unpredictable period, wasting
both time and fuel. (Alession Bechini, 2013) Another researchers agree with this statement in his
research and stated that there is no proven and affordable technologies exist for assist drivers to
get an empty parking space. Especially during the peak hours, like lunch hour, weekend or sales

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period, we can easily find out the insufficient parking spaces that nearby the restaurant. Customers
might linger in the parking lot for a period of time to get a parking space. Not only that, the existing
car parking system in Malaysia usually require the drivers to find the parking space by themselves
without providing the details direction toward the available parking space. (Soh Chun Khang, 2010)
Nowadays, most of the parking malls have multiple level of parking lot, customers may come
across the difficulty in looking for an empty parking space in the large car park. This statement
also supported by another researchers for the Innovative Smart Car Park System (iSCAPS). The
researchers claim that multi-level car park is still using in Malaysia, even better technology such
as sophisticated car park system has already invented in other countries.

2.4 Common issues on the Kiosk machine

The parking system that we using currently with time printed on the ticket can easily go lost or get
damaged and become unreadable in the payment kiosk machine. So, the particular customer has
to pay for a greater amount for the forfeit of losing the ticket. Another issue is the timing of the
operation in paying the parking charges. The time of queuing, machine only accept coins or notes,
which force the customer to find someone to exchange the money and the time for the ticket
printing. (Giuliano Benelli)

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3.0 Aim
Evaluate the parking behavior of drivers in parking lot, propose an idea (application) which can
helps users to check the parking spaces availability shopping malls and reserve the parking spaces
that could save their time and money in searching for optimal parking space that near to the shops
they wanted to visit. A parking space can be booked through the application from anywhere with
internet connection, users can know the parking spaces left before they going to a shopping mall.
Parking details will be storing in the application, user can retrieve it when needed. The objective
of the application is to convenience the users when they park their car in the shopping mall.

3.1 Objective
- Identify the current parking system in shopping malls.
- Evaluate how customers searching for a parking space in shopping malls.
- Enhance the payment of parking system in shopping malls.
- Save time for customers in searching parking slot.

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4.0 Research Questions
4.1 Domain Questions
a) Investigate the processes involved when a customer go to shopping malls to parks his
or her car.
b) Identify the issues reported when the parking system failure. ( Example, money note
rejected, parking card cannot be read)
c) Identify the payment methods that user favor.
d) To examine the methods of presenting the proposed parking system. (Example, Kiosk,
smartphone, tablet)
e) Research on the integration of parking facilities. (Example, book parking, find parking,
pay parking all in one.)

4.2 Technical questions

a) Identify the hardware, software that required for the proposed system.
b) Determine the most effective method to overcome the issues reported with the support
of technology.
c) Collect the user expectation and choose the suitable development tools for the proposed
system.
d) Identify the approaches in doing the online payment.

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5.0 Research design
In this descriptive research paper, observation and questionnaire data gathering methods will be
practiced to collect the quantitative data. The sampling respondents will be the car drivers that
drive to shopping malls. Stratified sampling method is using in this research. The respondents are
divided into 3 categories which is the customer, staff and others. This 3 groups of people the
primary users that using the parking facility provided by shopping mall.

The questionnaire will be distributed to the sampling through the internet or physical paper. Open-
ended and close-ended questions will be prepared in the questions based on the objective of that
question.

In order to conduct the observation, we will prepare few checklists for observe different situations
or areas in the shopping malls, for example the checklist for parking payment and checklist for
parking behavior. ‘Participant as observer’ type of observation will be practiced in the observation
process. The behavior of respondents will be recorded down to produce a narrative account type
of report.

5.1 Observation
5.1.1 Sample questions for questionnaire

Question 1 What is your role when you going to shopping mall?

Answer : a) Customer
b) Staff (Skip questions 2,3 and proceed to question 4)
c) Others : _____________

Objectivity: To categorize the common users that using the parking facility of a shopping mall.

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Question 2 How often you go to shopping mall in a week? (By driving a car)

Answer: a) Once a week

b) 2 to 3 times a week
c) More than 3 times a week
d) Others: ______________

Objectivity: Investigate how often customer go to shopping mall and use the parking facility.

Question 3 How many hours you spend in the shopping mall for every time you visit?

Answer: a) Less than 1 hour

b) 2 to 4 hours
c) More than 4 hours
d) Others: ______________

Objectivity: Identify how long time the customer stay in the shopping mall.

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Question 4 Rate the level of satisfaction of parking facility that provided by shopping malls.

Answer: Very satisfied Satisfied Neutral Dissatisfied Very Dissatisfied

Objectivity: Identify the level of satisfaction of users toward the current parking facility in
shopping malls.

Question 5 Do you ever experience any issue(s) with the current parking facility in shopping
mall?

Answer: a) No
b) Yes (Please mention the issue(s) for future improvement.)

Issue 1: ___________________________________________________
Issue 2: ___________________________________________________
Issue 3: ___________________________________________________

Objectivity: Collect the feedbacks from users of the current parking facility.

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Question 6 Would you prefer to pay the parking charges other than cash notes?

Answer: a) Yes (Please proceed to question 7)

b) No

Objectivity: To examine do the users can accept to pay the parking charges by using another
paying method in shopping malls.

Question 7 Do you agree that paying the parking charges in prepaid account is better than
cash note?

Answer: Strongly agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree

Reason (if any):

_______________________________________________________

Objectivity: To observe the level of acceptation of users toward the prepaid paying method for
paying the parking charges in shopping malls.

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5.2 Observation
Observation is a fact finding method that observe the current procedures of a particular area or
situation and give you a better understanding of what is actually happening.

5.2.1 Process of observation

1. Identify the particular area to be observed
In this study, the area that we going to observe is the parking facilities that provided by
shopping malls and the human behavior of using the parking facilities.

2. Observe the process of driver parks car

Record the parking spaces that most flavor by the drivers, calculate the time taken for
drivers to park their car, observe the payment process of paying parking charges.

3. Make a conclusion
Conclude all the result of observation and prepare a conclusion for based on the result.

5.2.2 Observation details

1. Observation of parking behavior

Who Customers and staffs of a shopping mall.

When 24-27/9/2014 (11am-9pm)
Where Parking area
What Parking behavior
Why To identify the parking behavior of the users.
(Objective)
How Observe where the users like to park.

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 2. Observation of parking facilities

Who Customers and staffs of a shopping mall.

When 24-27/9/2014 (11am-9pm)
Where Parking area
What Parking facilities provided by shopping mall.
Why Recognize the number of times of occurrence of common problems or issues of
(Objective) the parking facilities. E.g. cash note rejected, card unreadable
How Observe how the problem happens and the way users respond to it.

3. Observation during the peak hours (Lunch hour only)

Who Customers and staffs of a shopping mall.
When 24-27/9/2014 (12pm-2pm)
Where Parking area
What The number of parking spaces occupied during peak hours.
Why To find out the solution to solve the problem for drives of spending time in
(Objective) searching parking space.
How Observe during the peak hours.

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5.2.3 Observation Checklist

Drivers Behaviour
Do drivers choose the parking near to the entrance? YES NO
Do people often forget where they park their car? YES NO
Are the drivers satisfied with the current parking facilities provided? YES NO

Payment Machine
Do the parking payment machine having long queue during the peak hours? YES NO
Are the parking payment machine working well? YES NO
Are the parking payment machine accept every cash note? YES NO
Are the customer service able to serve the customer when the payment YES NO
machine not working?

Parking Facilities
Are the parking spaces enough during the peak hours? YES NO
Are drivers having difficulty in finding parking? YES NO
Are the people can find the entrance after they park their car? YES NO

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6.0 Personal Reflection & Conclusion
There are many similar researches that I can easily get from the website. Many researchers have
realize the problems of the increasing of population in urban cities, meanwhile the number of
vehicles were increased and raises the problems in parking. This research provides researchers an
understanding about the current parking trends of shopping malls in Malaysia. There are some
constraints in this research paper, which might be the limitations of this study.

Firstly, the information collected thru questionnaire and observation might not represent all the
shopping malls in Malaysia. Some shopping malls like IPC Shopping Center may have the
different parking spaces demand during the peak hours comparing with Sunway Pyramid. Sunway
was surrounded by few universities, the parking spaces demand could be higher during the lunch
hours; people who going to IPC Shopping Center may only go to the Ikea to get some furniture.
As we can see that, this research paper is not applicable for all the shopping malls in Malaysia.

Secondly, the improvement of public infrastructure in the future might affect the number of
vehicles in the road. Although the existing public transportation in Malaysia is not that
convenience and unable to access to all the locations, but some people still willing to use it. Also,
the new public transport- MRT is constructing their routes and stations. Trust, the amount of
vehicles on the road will be reduced when the MRT can be used to travel around Selangor and
Kuala Lumpur area.

Thirdly, users of the proposed system have to own a smartphone with internet connection to use
the application. ‘No service provide’ is always shown in the signal bar of the phone when we in
the parking lot. Usually mobile phones are unable to detect the network in the basement parking
lot. But this can be easily solved, if the shopping mall willing to provide the wifi connection in
the parking lot.

As conclusion, there are some alternative in order to achieve the aim in this paper instead of
developing an application. There are some automated parking system that can be implemented to
the shopping malls. But, shopping malls in Malaysia refuse to implement might mainly because
of the huge sum of money to build and high maintenance cost. Also during the implementation
time, the shopping mall will lost customers and businesses.

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7.0 References

1. Alessio Bechini, Francesco Marcelloni, and Armando Segatori , (2013). A Mobile

Application Leveraging QR-Codes to Support Efficient Urban Parking. In Sustainable
Internet and ICT for Sustainability (SustainIT), 2013. Palermo, 30-31 Oct. 2013.
Palermo: IEEE. 1 - 3.

2. Giuliano Benelli, Alessandro Pozzebon , (2010). An Automated Payment System for Car
Parks Based on Near Field Communication Technology . In Internet Technology and
Secured Transactions (ICITST), 2010 International Conference for. London, 8-11 Nov.
2010. London: IEEE. 1-6.

3. Jae Kyu Suhr,Ho Gi Jung, (2014). Sensor Fusion-Based Vacant Parking Slot Detection
and Tracking.In TRANSACTIONS ON INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS.
USA, 30 January 2014. USA: IEEE. 21 - 36.

4. Jin Teong Ang, Siew Wen Chin, Jia Hui Chin, Zyn Xian Choo, Yu Ming Chang , (2013).
iSCAPS – Innovative Smart Car Park System integrated with NFC technology and e-
Valet functio. In Computer and Information Technology (WCCIT), 2013 World Congress
on. Sousse, 22-24 June 2013. Sousse: 1 - 6. IEEE.

5. Männi1 , U., (2010). Smart Sensing and Time of Arrival based location detection in
Parking Management Services . In 12th Biennial Baltic Electronics Conference
(BEC2010) . Tallinn, Estonia, October 4-6, 2010. Estonia: IEEE. 213-214.

6. Michel Ferreira, Lu´ıs Damas, Hugo Conceic¸˜ao, Pedro M. d’Orey, Ricardo Fernandes,
Peter Steenkiste, (2014). Self-Automated Parking Lots for Autonomous Vehicles based
on Vehicular Ad Hoc Networking. In Intelligent Vehicles Symposium Proceedings, 2014
IEEE. Dearborn, MI, 8-11 June 2014. Dearborn: IEEE. 472 - 479.

7. Mingkai Chen, Chao Hu, Tianhai Chang, (2011). The Research on Optimal Parking
Space Choice Model in Parking Lots . In Computer Research and Development (ICCRD),
2011 3rd International Conference on (Volume:2 ). Shanghai, 11-13 March 2011.
Shanghai: IEEE. 93 - 97.

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 8. Soh Chun Khang, Teoh Jie Hong, Tan Saw Chin, Shengqiong Wang, (2010). Wireless
Mobile-based Shopping Mall Car Parking System (WMCPS) . In Services Computing
Conference (APSCC), 2010 IEEE Asia-Pacific. Hangzhou, 6-10 Dec. 2010. Hangzhou:
IEEE. 573 - 577.

9. Taylor-Powell, Ellen, 1998. Questionnaire Design: Asking questions with a

purpose. Program Development and Evaluation, Page 3-14.

10. Wu Yizhou, (2011). Analysis of Present Status and Prediction of Future Demand on
Parking in the Central Area of Medium and Small City . In Remote Sensing, Environment
and Transportation Engineering (RSETE), 2011 International Conference. Nanjing, 24-
26 June 2011. Nanjing: IEEE. 57 - 60.

11. Yulong He, Xiaoduan Sun,Lizhen Dd, Ruan Jinmei, Subasish Das, (2012). Level of
Service for Parking Facilities. In 2012 15th International IEEE Conference on Intelligent
Transportation System. Anchorage, Alaska, USA, September 16-19, 2012. USA: IEEE.
Page 1161-1165.

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