Roundarch is proud to have hosted a special event for the Interaction Design Association’s (IxDA) Chicago chapter this past Wednesday. IxDA is a global network dedicated to promoting user-centered design, most visibly through its annual Interaction conference, but also through active local chapters like ours. I’ve had the privilege of being a board member of our chapter for the past two years, helping to organize our monthly events to promote and share the great work of Chicago’s designers.

Kicking off the monthly IxDA Chicago Chapter meeting at the Roundarch offices

Garrett Hrncir, UX Lead of Roundarch, presented a taste of our work in creating digital experiences that span multiple networked devices. This concept known as Multi-Channel Design focuses on how everyday people now use many devices as a part of their daily lives–a PC at work, a tablet at home, and a smartphone within arms reach at all times. In a perfect world, these devices all work together to make our lives easier–helping us work, providing entertainment, and keeping us in touch. When executed correctly, the transition from desktop web app to iPad app is totally seamless to the user. Garrett shared how creating such an experience, while sure to be complicated, doesn’t need to seem daunting.

Garrett Hrncir presents the USAF conceptual iPad app

Our presentation began with an overview of the state of the mobile industry and Roundarch’s capabilities in this area, highlighting our work with clients like Avis, HBO, and Bloomberg Sports.  It is estimated that by 2012 tablets will outpace laptops sales in the US, and by 2015 more users will access the Internet in the US by mobile devices than PC (Forrester Research, Inc., Tablets Will Grow As Fast As MP3 Players, January 2011). With this changing landscape, it is more important than ever for organizations to understand how to use these devices to meaningfully reduce friction and not add to user frustration.

This event was special in that it gave us a rare opportunity to share learnings from our recent conceptual design work for the US Air Force on potential Multi-Channel strategies. The goal of our research and development effort is to discover how the iPad can best be deployed to provide our servicemen and women with access to mission-critical information. Based on features and functionality of the enterprise web applications we’ve built with the Air Force, a new prototype iPad app explores use of streamlined data analysis tools, interactive infographics and Augmented Reality (AR) . Garrett’s presentation and demo of the prototype highlighted the methodology employed by our co-located team, including on-site contextual research with users, translation of common design patterns to a new platform, and rapid iterations of design and development.

All in all, an audience of about 50 local designers and developers stayed throughout the hour-long presentation and peppered Garrett with questions for another 15-20 minutes. At Roundarch, we’re excited to work at the forefront of technology and tackle the challenges it presents. To be able to partner with and deliver a meaningful solution to the US Air Force is unique and rewarding in and of itself. But to have the ability to share and discuss it with the local design community is an opportunity we don’t often get, and we’re glad to have spent the evening with members of IxDA Chicago.

The United States Air Force is spread out over hundreds of military bases worldwide making analysis of inventories and operational readiness challenging. Roundarch has developed a logistics dashboard that seamlessly integrates one of the world’s largest data warehouses in to one place. The Air Force Logistics dashboard allows Air Force personnel to assess for operational readiness, track progress across the entire Air Fleet, and view aircraft, vehicle, equipment, and munitions information operated by the US Air Force worldwide through one convenient and comprehensive user platform.

Historically, Air Force personnel had to access multiple systems, across different user interfaces with limited functionality, to capture a complete picture with which to make a decision and inform leadership. This process was often timely and largely ineffective as statuses were likely to change over the data collection period.  The logistics dashboard designed and developed by Roundarch provides the Air Force with a reusable RIA framework based on SOA and Web 2.0 design principles that brings together the near real-time data in an enhanced common user interface with substantially increased performance and functionality.

Air Force personnel can access information on aircraft including; the aircraft’s current status, capabilities, maintenance information, and availability. If the aircraft is not mission capable, the dashboard provides reports on current maintenance, including what parts are on order, their arrival date and current location, and provides valuable insight into when the aircraft will be mission ready.

This information is critical for operational planning and evaluating fleet and inventory status. By having all the information channeled to one easy to use dashboard, Air Force personnel are able to quickly and effectively deliver mission logistic analysis reports across the entire Air Fleet up through the chain of command for execution.

Tony Tran, vice president

Emily Lemmerson graduated from Algonquin Regional High School High School this past May with an AFCEA Scholarship which included a summer internship working with the Global Combat Support System – Air Force (GCSS-AF) at Hanscom Air Force Base. GCSS-AF tasked Emily to create a “widget” on the AF Portal all users could add to their Workspace. The Workspace area (found under the Personal Space tab) allows users to create custom workspaces or dashboards by adding and configuring widgets from the widget gallery.

Emily came to GCSS-AF with no programming background, so her first step was to learn how to program in Adobe Flex and Java. She spent about three weeks reading, watching tutorials and working on sample applications before starting on her first widget. Emily decided a user-customizable world time zone widget would be beneficial to the Air Force communities since the Air Force is spread across the globe.

Emily’s design allows users to select multiple time zones, rename them, and customize the ordering of the time zones. Her widget was then submitted to the AF Portal content manager to make it available in the widget gallery.

Since the widget was first published in August 2010, it has been added to ~17,000 workspaces and is now in the Top 10 most popular widgets used on the AF Portal.

AF Portal users may add the Time Zone Widget to their workspace by clicking the “ADD CONTENT” button, then click “ADD ITEM” next to the Time Zone Widget.

Workspaces can also be shared with other users on the AF Portal through professional networking. Users can navigate to a colleague’s profile, and then select a Workspace to view. The entire workspace, or selected Widgets can then be easily copied to your own Workspace by clicking “COPY WORKSPACE” or “+” on each widget you want to copy.

Coming in Spring 2011, the AF Portal will allow users to collaborate in groups. Portal Groups will have customizable workspaces, a network wall, and discussion forums. Included in the release is presence awareness so users can see when their colleagues or group members are online and chat with them through a new Beta AF Instant Messenger (AFIM) client built into the AF Portal.



Read the full Story here.

Read the full story here.

South by Southwest 2009 (SXSW) is right around the corner.  Several folks from Roundarch are heading down for the interactive portion of the show (March 13-17).  We are all getting excited to interact with some great minds in the design and emerging technologies space.  There is always such buzz around SXSW because there are so many opportunities to share innovative ideas, learn about really amazing new technologies, get a feel for the next trends in the industry and have a great time in the process.  I am especially excited Roundarch will have a booth this year because it will give us an opportunity to share some of the really impressive projects we have had the opportunity to work on recently.

The great thing about the interactive portion of the conference is that it covers everything from web design and usability to innovative technology business models and digital creativity.  SWSW is such a popular event because it is a five day festival of panels and conversations/discussions that trends away from the standard lecture circuit, making it much more interactive, and generally a great time.  As passé as it is to say, it’s truly an out-of-the-box thought process, limit-pushing environment.  And because of that, it makes for a very electric and exciting time.

There will be a whole crew from Roundarch at the event: Dave Meeker, Adam Flater, Pek Pongpaet, Saurab Bhargava, Mark Ferry, Paul Buranosky and myself.

Dave Meeker is one of our foremost thought leaders in the User Experience space; he knows more about the UX world than anyone I know.  He always has great ideas and can keep you entertained and excited even with a topic you may not have been interested in before (yes, his passion is that high).  He and Adam Flater will be showing some demos of Merapi.  Also, Adam Flater will be speaking on a panel with Chuck Freedman of Ribbit to demo the use of Merapi to capture audio in Flex.Check it out…very cool stuff and really impressive live demos.

Pek Pongpaet is one or our interactive developer/UX guys and has a few projects in the works he is planning on unveiling at SXSW.  I haven’t even seen them yet, but they are guaranteed to impress, I can’t wait.

Saurab Bhargava will be showcasing our innovative work with Avis.  There are many aspects to the project including an iPhone app, but this site shows a whole new way to think about car rental online, and is really improving their business and marketing strategies.

Mark Ferry will demo an app we did for a major mobile device manufacturer that is just in the process of being deployed.  This new system will diagnose and repair phones from any windows-based computer with an internet connection.  The solution is expected to save the company a fortune on administrative costs while also improving overall customer service. He will be at the Roundarch booth throughout the event and the Microsoft Silverlight booth at the following times:
Sunday, March 15th 2-4pm
Monday, March 16th 2-4pm

We also will be showing a few interactive timelines we did for The History Channel and some of our work we did for the USAF, both of which have amazing visuals and UX.  These have really redefined what a timeline can be, and have a nicely integrated CMS system to support it.

Please hit up Paul Buranosky if you want to plan a visit during the event or just stop by our booth (#611).  A group of us will be blogging throughout the event too, so be sure to check back for updates.