Date of Award

5-2021

Document Type

Master's Project

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

College/School

College of Science and Mathematics

Department/Program

Computer Science

Thesis Sponsor/Dissertation Chair/Project Chair

Vaibhav K. Anu

Committee Member

Aparna S. Varde

Abstract

Africa is a continent with incredibly diversified cultures, landscapes, and people. Due its vastness, it can be difficult to assess accurate travel related information about African countries. The purpose of this project is to build a website that will serve as an African destination information insider. African countries are drawing people from all around the world, and this is evident in the formulation of initiatives to attract people to the continent during the past decade. Prime examples of these initiatives include Ghana’s Year of Return initiative and Nigeria’s door of return. This project, that entails the design and development of the Diaspora app (a web application), seeks to educate, and gather information that is needed by travelers to expose them to the nuanced, varied narratives and richness of the African continent.

In addition to providing travel related information, the Diaspora app is also targeted at individuals who are planning to repatriate to an African country. Repatriating to a different continent takes a lot of self-determination. Repatriation comes with its challenges and the Diaspora App is here to provide valuable resources and in-depth information for a smoother transplant to Africa. The design, experimentations, implementations, evaluations, and future work of the project are delved into to comprehend how this project can fulfill its purpose of helping people travel or move to Africa. Analysis of usability test feedback from a sample of Diaspora App users provided answers to key evaluation questions like “Are you looking to travel as a tourist or repatriate to Africa in the near future?” With feedback obtained from diverse users from nationalities including Nigeria, India, Cameroon, and Nepal, subsequent iterations of the Diaspora App will be improved and also include more countries and information.

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