International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887) Volume 99– No.3, August 2014 8 Fulfilling Needs of Newly Enrolled Students: A Cultural Study of a Mobilized Guidance System Firas Omar Software Engineering Department, Zarqa University, Jordan Tareq Alhmiedat Department of Information IT, College of Computers and Information Technology, Tabuk University, Saudi Arabia Ahmad Al-Qerem Computer Science department, Zarqa University, Jordan ABSTRACT Mobile technology is becoming more popular around the world. The importance of such technology relates to its capability of allowing the user of performing many different Tasks simultaneously on daily basis. Nowadays, travelling from one place to another became easier than before. This is due to the availability of Electronic maps and guidance systems for different users. Despite the progress adding to the mobile application field, there are still some boundaries and limitations in using such devices. Some of the difficulties are connected directly to culture. Other difficulties are related to the lack of experience in using such technology and how far would a user trust such technology. In this research, light will be spotted on the idea of providing a guidance mobile application for the newly enrolled students to Zarqa University. Additionally, main restrictions and obstacles which limit the use of the mobile handset as a guide system will be taken into considerations. The research aim extends to studying the effect of cultural issues on the proposed system. Index terms Culture, HCI, Usability, Trust 1. INTRODUCTION Day by day the need to computerize and simplify your life comes to take place in our life as a necessity. Many students around the world specially the newly enrolled ones, might possibly face hard time in knowing where to head to different places within the university. Therefore, it was our vision to develop and introduce a mobile application that would possibly help and support these students in their life and make the university a better place for them .to insure such beneficial outcome, the design and implementation of this smart mobile application has taken so many considerations in our account. Issues such as trust, culture and usability were considered through the process of design and implementation of the application 2. RELATED WORKS The work presented in [1] includes a navigation system that relies on Bluetooth and Wi-Fi simultaneously. This kind of systems offers a number of advantages including: low cost, minimum hardware installation requirement, and the availability in most handheld devices. However, the navigation systems based on Bluetooth technology offers high localization error in the sum of ten meters. The work presented in [2] includes web-based e-guide system for tourism using offloading and mobile integration. The designed system aims to help tourist accessing tourist information using smart devices. However, the proposed system does not offer any navigation facilities. The advantage of the work presented in this paper offers an advantage of error high utilization in a precise number of three meters which give an advantage of other results comparing to the nature of the work. 3. LITERATURE 3.1. Culture According to Hofstede, culture can be defined as “the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one group from people from another” [3]. Additionally, culture cannot be clearly understood by studying a single person or individual; it can only be dealt with as a set of shared characteristics within a group of people that affect the behaviours of individual members by providing rules for that group. Additionally, culture combines itself on both the visible aspects of a group and a wide range of elusive aspects, including values, thoughts and behaviour. Culture can be conceptualized as a set of major variables that informs the responses of individuals in that culture to new practices, ideas and technologies, such as mobile data services. One of the earliest definitions escribed culture as “That complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man” [4]. One of the most important definitions of culture was given by Kluckhohn, who declared that “Culture consists of patterned ways of thinking, feeling and reacting acquired and transmitted mainly by symbols consisting of the distinctive achievements of human groups including their embodiments in artefacts, the essential core of culture consists of traditional and historical derived and selected ideas and especially their attached values” [5]. Hofstede highlighted “Values” as the building bricks of any culture which are set early in childhood and shapes subjective definition of rationality. Hofstede added that values have both strength and direction, or alternatively they have a size and a sign [4]. Culture can be defined as a way of life, how people in a specific area or society learn how to dress, eat and communicate together. Particularly, it refers to socially learned and absorbed behaviours, beliefs and values that member of the same group or society share with others. It is absolutely a fact that different cultures exist in the world, each of which has its own cultural aspects and features, such as symbols and language, rules and values.