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.

Last week I attended Web 2.0 Expo in New York to give a talk about dark patterns in user experience. This talk was somewhat the sequel of a talk I gave at SxSW earlier this year about “behavior design,” or the ability for technology to influence us so we live healthier, better lives. Just as we can use the web to improve our lives, though, the same persuasive techniques can be used against us.

This talk came about in part because of the concerns about my SxSW talk: there’s a fine line between persuasion and manipulation, and it’s important to figure out where that lies. I was inspired to frame the talk in the way that I did because of Harry Brignull’s site that collects and categorizes “dark patterns,” or techniques that are carefully crafted to work against a customer’s interests.

To the user, though, it might be hard to tell the difference between a UX designer’s mistake and a dark pattern. Many dark patterns exist to fulfill specific business goals that may make sense within the company, but through a lack of opt-out feature, or poor defaults, the execution is botched such that it results in negative perceptions of the company.

Compounding things further, some companies may actively use dark patterns, because they’ve successfully made a case that they will increase profit. And that may be true: profits, after all, are easy to directly measure, far more than customer goodwill. Companies may also implement dark patterns passively, through incoherent business strategies, strategic issues, or internecine fighting between stakeholders. In my talk I listed a handful of ways that we can determine goodwill, like repeat transactions from the same customer, which might work towards solving this problem. I also listed some ways to avoid dark patterns from happening in your product.

If you’re interested in learning more, I’ve posted the talk’s slides to my website.

Spurred by the success of the Front Office suite of fantasy baseball tools for the 2011 season, Roundarch and Bloomberg Sports have teamed up to release three new mobile apps, just in time for the fantasy baseball trading deadline.

During our first year working with Bloomberg Sports, we designed and developed an online suite of tools and a complementary mobile offering to help advanced fantasy baseball users manage their teams effectively. Beginning with the 2010 NFL season, we broadened the aperture of our fantasy advice to guide a wider range of user types, from novice through advanced players. These efforts resulted in the overwhelming success of the NFL Decision Maker applications, a multi-channel offering supported on NFL.com, and on the iPad and iPhone.

In our second season working together, Roundarch and Bloomberg Sports focused on providing prescriptive answers to key fantasy baseball questions, such as: “Who should I draft?”, “Which free agent should I add to my team?” and “Is this a fair trade?” This focused perspective translates especially well to mobile offerings, which should aim to help users to complete a single task easily and efficiently. For example, the 2011 MLB Draft Kit, released during Spring Training, assists fantasy baseball players with ranking their players before the draft, and quickly identifying their next targets during the draft.

After fantasy baseball players draft their teams in March, they transition their focus from pre-season to in-season tools, such as the Trade Analyzer, Free Agent Finder and Lineup Manager offerings within Front Office 2011. Roundarch leveraged user research to discover the key tasks that users would be interested in completing on mobile devices, and examined the competitive landscape to identify gaps in fantasy provider offerings (i.e., Yahoo! Fantasy Baseball for iPhone) that Bloomberg Sports could address with innovative products. The result of our research, design and development are three new mobile apps: iPad Trade Analyzer, iPhone Trade Analyzer and iPhone Fantasy Scout.

iPad Trade Analyzer

In transitioning the Trade Analyzer from the online toolkit to the iPad, we reintroduced a baseball card metaphor that was an original aspect of the 2010 Front Office product. The user experience and visual design teams worked closely to create a realistic wood surface that serves as the canvas for building trades. While the online toolkit uses text fields and drop-down menus to facilitate player selection, the iPad experience is much more tactile, allowing users to drag-and-drop baseball cards on the table. Recognizing that drag-and-drop can lead to visibility issues on a touchscreen device, we complemented this interaction model with an icon on each card that the user can tap to add or remove the corresponding player to or from the trade.

An arrow at the top of the interface swings in either direction to provide immediate feedback on balanced trades, while a limited control structure offers a clear workflow for analyzing trades (i.e., select a trading partner, select the players on both sides and view the resulting analysis). Given the time-sensitive nature of the fantasy season, the design team identified opportunities to use out-of-the-box controls, while the development team highlighted built-in components that could increase the playfulness of the application (e.g., shaking the iPad to clear the trade, evoking memories of an Etch A Sketch).

iPhone Trade Analyzer

While the iPad and iPhone Trade Analyzers were designs and developed concurrently, the limited screen real estate on the iPhone required streamlining the user workflows even further. Early design concepts supported both landscape and portrait versions; however, we quickly realized that the position of the user’s thumbs while switching between their team and their trading partner was more naturally facilitated in the landscape orientation. The iPhone app maintains the table metaphor from the iPad version, but does not support dragging-and-dropping baseball cards, an interaction model that proved cumbersome during our prototyping stage.

Although screen size dictated that not all iPhone Trade Analyzer components could be displayed simultaneously (e.g., the three elements of the final analysis), we identified interface elements that could be supported on the iPhone and iPad versions with only minor changes, if any. For example, the processes by which users log into the applications and load their fantasy teams are virtually identical across both platforms. By devoting time to supporting a multi-channel strategy during the conceptual design phase, we were able to reduce development time and improve learnability for users that purchased the applications on the iPad and iPhone.

iPhone Fantasy Scout

Complementing the trading apps, the iPhone Fantasy Scout app provides users the ability to identify top free agents across all of the scoring categories in the user’s fantasy league. Starting with the interaction model from the iPhone Draft Kit, we replaced pre-season information such as player outlooks, with breaking news and analysis on every MLB player. Statistical leaderboards, based on year-to-date performance, proved more relevant than pre-season player rankings, although we did elect to include the groundbreaking Fantasy Factors, which spotlight key player attributes, such as injury history and schedule strength, that continue to provide value in-season.

Conclusions

One of our key design tenets was to ensure that the navigation remained consistent both within and across each of the mobile applications. Early feedback has shown that new users have found the interfaces to be intuitive, and easy-to-use, while returning Bloomberg Sports customers are pleased with the applications’ focus on simple, prescriptive guidance. We have designed a user interface model that is flexible enough to apply to future sports (e.g., NBA, NHL) with only minor adjustments, while the development framework can scale to support additional platforms (e.g., Android). As the fantasy baseball trading deadline approaches and users begin to divert their attention to the football season, Roundarch and Bloomberg Sports plan to continue supporting fantasy players looking for the competitive edge, whether at home or on the go.

Each of the in-season mobile applications is available for purchase through the iTunes Store:

• iPad Trade Analyzer
• iPhone Trade Analyzer
• iPhone Fantasy Scout

Quickly following the success of the first Waters iPad application, the second version of the app is now available in the app store.  The first version contained three Selector Tool capabilities for vials, filters, and plates.  These capabilities allow users to intuitively navigate to the products they need, while providing the sales team with a powerful way to display the Waters brand.

The next generation Waters iPad app includes all the same great features and functionality from the first release, but now includes enhancements and an all new Selectivity Chart capability.  Waters customers and the Waters sales team can use a “map” interface to find and research single or multiple columns.  The Selectivity Chart provides users with the ability to build custom kits, view Waters kits, and then compare the kits side by side.

The second release of the application is a breakthrough for how columns are researched and selected, and will no doubt be a game changer in the scientific community. Selectivity Chart feature highlights include:

• Search for single and multiple columns via guided process or through map navigation
• Pinch and zoom to see additional details
• Build custom kits, view Waters kits, and compare the kits side by side
• Save and send columns (combined with saved list for all capabilities)
• Contextual help for finding the best columns

Additional capabilities for Waters iPad are already being discussed and could be available in 2012.

It is no secret in the Federal Government that focusing on user experience is not a major concern within government information technology programs. In addition, some of its tenets seem on the surface to run counter to conventional wisdom in the acquisition community. Many times, federal agencies face the constraints of the government acquisition environment and thus don’t believe that its programs can have the same look and feel as commercial programs.

However, in Roundarch’s experience as a digital design organization, the techniques and tools of user experience can most definitely be applied in government projects and can be made to fit within federally mandated acquisition practices, regulations and processes. We often find in major government programs there are very large opportunities to improve with a relatively low investment.

Here we address several common concerns that prevent government agencies from embracing user experience for information technology programs.

1. The Government is not selling anything, so user experience is not relevant.

In the private enterprise world, increasing revenue is only one of many quantifiable benefits of user experience. Other benefits that the government can enjoy include increased user adoption of cost-saving self service capabilities, reduced training and support costs, timeline length and risk—resulting mainly from reduced rework and defect resolution. There are many benefits specific to certain missions, such as increased recruiting leads for the military branches, reduced errors in military deployment that require rework and reduced supply chain cost through better visualization of data.

2. The Government actually needs more software developers, not “designers.”

Software programs more often fail not because they have too few developers, but because the developers build something that is inconsistent with the true success criteria for the program. The success of the program is almost always linked to enabling end users in some task, whether that is renting a car, scheduling a medical appointment or adding evidence to a case file. It is the role of the user experience professional to design a site or application focused on those end user needs. This will save development time throughout the project lifecycle.

3. “Iterative prototyping” sounds like it would cause “scope creep.”

Actually, most of the time the opposite is true and through a process of disciplined iterative prototyping scope is more effectively controlled. Sometimes the design team identifies features missing from the requirements that are actually critical to success and would have to be added as rework later in the project lifecycle. Sometimes the team identifies, usually through user testing of clickable prototypes and wireframes, features that add little value. In both cases, because the team is working with visual depictions of the functionality, it is actually easier to recognize when scope changes are introduced and then to facilitate their prioritization.

4. It does not matter because we can “require” our people to use the site/application.

There are relatively few systems for which the government can mandate usage and actually expect it to happen. And even in these situations, when the user experience does not compare well relative to expectations, the cost in backlash can be substantial. In most situations the government launches a new “tool” to replace something that already exists which may be a paper-based process or an online system of an earlier generation. Even if the new application is mandated the conversion will go faster and require less training and help desk support cost if the user base wants to use the new tool because there is something in it for them, like being able to do their jobs easier.

5. How do you ensure compliance with the requirements in the contract?

For most projects the team uses tools such as “requirements traceability matrices” and/or “scope maps” that map the design to the requirements under contract. Because the design documents are visual artifacts, user centered design makes it easier for program managers and delivery resource managers to identify changes or omissions in scope and thus react to them. In other words, the user centered design process and its design artifacts make it easier to manage scope and ensure compliance with the contract.

6. The “look and feel” is the easy part; anyone can do this.

If this is true, why is there so much variation in the quality of user experience among web applications? Any frequent user of the web can attest to the fact that some are uniquely useful and valuable to their users and some are impediments at best. Some of the most disparaged user experiences on the web, both within government and the private sector, were built by large, well-funded organizations who presumably were attempting to put their best foot forward.

7. We must focus on integrating the data.

Many government programs face tough integration challenges. This is often the result of building new technology silos for each information technology acquisition program. We see user experience as a way to address the integration challenges in the government. On the public internet, web applications frequently “mash-up” multiple back-end systems or “services” in a common user experience. This is an increasingly viable model in government as well.

8. We have to comply with Section 508 accessibility requirements, so we are very limited in what we can do on the user interface anyway.

Web development technology is advancing rapidly and it is now possible to implement a very elegant web user experience that is fully accessible. This can even include very advanced Javascript-enabled features that in the past could not be made accessible. It is simply no longer true that Section 508 requirements mean the team must design to a lowest common denominator. There is tremendous flexibility to meet accessibility requirements today and we expect that this trend will only continue forward with future releases of development platforms such as Adobe Flash, Adobe Flex, Microsoft Silverlight and HTML 5

9. We do not have time to do user experience since our delivery timelines are very short.

A user centered design process well executed by skilled professionals, will speed the project, not slow it down. This is especially true once re-work is factored in. When there is no focus on user experience someone still has to design the user interface. So that is generally done by a developer/engineer who is unfamiliar with best practices in interface design and who is not equipped with the right inputs from users to “inform” the design. The person is not using tools specialized to the task or creating the kinds of artifacts that can most easily be tested with end users and reviewed by stakeholders. So the design work happens anyway, but it is just severely handicapped.

10. We require CMMI Level X, so we are getting this level of support already.

The popular CMMI process quality certification does not require skillsets, tools or processes specific to the design of user experience. If a CMMI Level 5 certified software development organization followed its processes but did not incorporate user centered design and specialized user experience skillsets, they are likely to deliver a system that meets the letter of the customer’s requirements but serves users with a subpar experience and thus fails to achieve success.

In Roundarch’s experience with a wide range of private and public sector clients we have found that focusing on User Experience not only delivers better business/mission results, but does so in less time and at lower cost. Moreover – focusing on User Experience reduces the risk of simply missing customer expectations. The iterative, early prototyping and testing inherent in a well-run user interface project ensures that the features are on target with the expectations of stakeholders as well as the very granular needs of each user community. Unfortunately, today very few government information technology acquisitions include User Experience skills in their requirements or evaluation criteria. This represents a tremendous opportunity to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of government and it is one we hope government organizations will avail themselves of.

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

Enhancing Customer Experience and Retention in the Digital Realm

In recent years, customer frustration of converting a purchased product into an actual usable experience has given rise to the concept of “unboxing,” a stage in the customer journey focused on assisting the customer in product delivery, setup and use, after the purchase. Retailers have seized this opportunity by investing greatly in unboxing offerings like Best Buy’s “Geek Squad.” By fulfilling this complete end-to-end service, customers are more likely to report a positive experience leading to increased brand loyalty. Our experiences at Roundarch with designing and developing cutting edge solutions for some of the world’s largest brands have shown to us that this same principle can be applied to online and digital experiences.

When designing and deploying new digital offerings, retailers can  follow three key unboxing principles to maximize customer retention and  brand loyalty;

• Avoiding “wrap rage”
• Choosing when and how to provide an “instruction manual”
• Assisting a customer with effective setup and configuration

Avoiding “Wrap Rage”:

Unwrapping a new product is exciting but cleaning up the shipping and packaging materials can be tedious and annoying. Similar to physical products, digital applications also come with wrapping, from legal disclaimers to complex user registration processes, splash screens, and disruptive advertising. Taking creative approaches to when, where, and even how to present users with these important and often necessary site components will help to avoid “wrap rage” and lead to a more pleasant experience.

As examples, first start by deciding if the customer needs to go through any disclaimer steps at the onset of their first visit. Some forms and registrations could be delayed, allowing the customer to quickly immerse themselves in the site first. For the necessary information, consider creating a more translucent and asynchronous panel-based approach rather than an obfuscating multi-screen experience, to allow for a simple and pleasant user experience.

Providing “Instruction Manuals”:

Most often instruction manuals are quickly glanced at then tossed aside, demonstrating the customer disregard for their need. However, simply finding the manual is critical – it tells the customer that help is available if needed, and often times it is. With the emergence of new digital technologies, some retailers are increasingly concerned that a new customer to their site will not understand how to use its various features and will require an instruction manual.

Like an instruction manual, a splash screen approach during the first use of a website can often insult the customer as to their web intelligence; they typically end up equally disregarded. However, help may still be needed, and providing an effective visual site layout and design, including imbedded “how-to” information architecture will allow for this help to be easily attained without becoming an obstacle or insulting the user.

Setup and Configuration:

Often times purchases are based on an existing product or demo, be it in the store, from a friend, in advertising, or otherwise. More often then not, the purchased product will not be exactly the same as the demo when first taken out of the box as is a certain amount of setup, configuration, and customization that went into the demo.

Many site experiences either require or benefit from customization for instance: the ability to alter the site skin, selectable pertinent content modules, change entering site preferences and personalize defaults. When designing the site, take the time to determine appropriate default configuration profiles and develop a strategy for default states and configurations such that when a customer visits for the first time, the site is already configured for use. A site that is already customized for use will yield a more positive customer experience and improve brand loyalty.

Though the physical product realm and digital offerings continue to mature as equal partners, to date, their relationship is predicated on the digital realm’s role in serving mostly as a conduit to the acquisition of the physical product. In improving our digital offerings, however, it is important to place equal emphasis on the two – the digital experience should be thought of as a product itself. As such, we can learn quite a bit from lessons in the physical realm, including the power of unboxing in improving customer experience and brand loyalty. Helping a customer more quickly, painlessly, and enjoyably experience a new digital offering by providing adequate support along the way can make all the difference as to whether or not they come back.

It’s been an interesting year for Bloomberg Sports. They introduced themselves in a big way to the world of sports after announcing partnerships with both MLB Advanced Media and NFL.com, and are out to prove they can revolutionize the way both fans and professionals consume statistics–just as they did when they introduced the “terminal” to the world of financial services.  In one short year, Bloomberg Sports has already been named one of the top 10 most innovative companies in sports by Fast Company and seem to be  well on their way to playing in the big leagues.

With over 10 million fantasy baseball players all fighting for bragging rights, enter Bloomberg Sports – Front Office 2011. Totally redesigned for this season, Bloomberg partnered with Roundarch to design and develop a suite of tools that gives fantasy baseball players an edge on their competition through a multi-channel digital experience.  With Bloomberg’s statistical algorithms and an easy to use yet powerful interface for the web, iPhone and iPad, fantasy managers are able to lead their teams to the championship from draft day straight through October.

A key feature implemented in this year’s version is the ability to sync Front Office 2011 directly with each of the 3 major fantasy providers (ESPN, Yahoo, and CBSSports.com).  Once synced, fantasy team managers can see news, lineup recommendations and player rankings that are fully customized to their team.  To date there are more than r 25,000 unique league settings synced with Front Office 2011, which means an equal number of different player rankings.  With this type of customized analysis, draft preparation has taken on a whole new meaning.

Traditionally, fantasy users are most engaged at the beginning of the season with post draft day user engagement falling precipitously.  For many, the adage is that the fantasy season is won or lost on draft day.  We believe that doesn’t have to be  the case when  a season is 6 months long and a host of moves can  win – or lose – that league championship between April and October.  To capitalize on this, Front Office 2011 aims to not only change the way fantasy players  prepare for their drafts, but to also create a market for a companion tool set that users rely on throughout the duration of the 162-game season.

Stay Engaged to Win

Through fantasy user research Roundarch has found a significant correlation between league standings and overall engagement level.   Analyzing league activity over the course of a season has shown that as teams fall lower in the league standings, users essentially stop playing. This reaction is sped up by a fantasy manager’s failed attempts to improve team performance. At the other end of the spectrum, managers of teams performing well will stay engaged, and actually show an increase in activity as the playoffs approach. One logical way  to keep users engaged all season long is to keep them  more informed and competitive throughout the season by  making information easy to understand and utilize to their benefit.

Manage Intuitively with Confidence

Once a fantasy league has drafted and the baseball season is under way, there are two management areas that impact a team’s performance.

1.       Starting lineup/Roster Management

2.       Procuring new players through Free Agency or Trade

.  The challenges in fantasy baseball are the frequency of the games, the uncertainty surrounding an MLB player’s availability to play and the amount of time a fantasy manager needs to focus on their lineup to ensure they are making good decisions.  This is compounded by the need to make decisions daily, rather than weekly.  For a fantasy manager this can be quite a time consuming process, especially if the user conducts his or her own research and player evaluation. To help combat this time consuming process, Roundarch designed Lineup Manager Tool to help the user answer all those questions quickly, easily, and with confidence.

Lineup Manager algorithms analyze the user’s roster based on the season to date by calculating daily projected performance to derive the best starting lineup for each day’s games. The Lineup Manager tool then displays easy to follow recommendations to Start, Bench, or Swap players in and out of the user’s lineup. Each recommendation highlights the affected players, explains the reason for the move, and the statistical impact allowing the fantasy manager to be confident that every decision made is well researched.

Lineup Manager

Free Agent Finder

The most difficult decision for a fantasy manager can be deciding to drop an underperforming player and replacing him with a new player. This is done in two ways:

1.       Adding a Player from Free Agency

2.       Trading for a New Player

Both transactions require the user to select departing and incoming players. Many users feel that like the draft, dropping and adding a player is a do or die moment in their quest for the title. From the fantasy players  we have interviewed, we understand that there is a tremendous fear of dropping the wrong player, dropping a player ahead of measurable improvement, or adding the wrong player. The Free Agent Finder was designed to help the user in each of these areas.

The Free Agent Finder is a tool to help the users identify players that can help their team in statistically weaker areas based on statistical splits, projections and side by side player analysis. This is not just a list of the best players available, but recommendations based on in-depth analysis of exactly what the fantasy player’s teamneeds based on their league standings

Free Agent Finder

Trading Between Teams with Trade Analyzer

An area that goes largely untapped by a majority of fantasy users is trading between teams. Roundarch has learned that users shy away from this strategy largely because they are unable to confidently evaluate trade offers. Trades that are accepted generally consist of players that are similar and ultimately do not improve either team, or worse, a user may accept a trade that is unfair and weakens their team. Once a user has been burned by a bad trade, the typical response is to reject every trade offer and utilize the free agent pool exclusively. Trades in fantasy baseball, just like in the majors, should be exciting opportunities to get players that will make an impact and help their teams.  Roundarch saw this as an opportunity for fantasy users to engage in every aspect of the game, and consequently created  the Trade Analyzer tool which allows users to easily view recommended trade ideas or evaluate any trade based on fairness and statistical impact.

Trade Analyzer Dashboard

Trade Analysis View

Trade Analyzer, like Free Agent Finder, will recommend trade ideas that will help the user’s team in underperforming areas. These trade ideas are based on past and projected performance as well as league standings. All trade ideas displayed are beneficial and balanced for the user and their trade partner. The Balance calculation looks at each player’s ranking and the value of the player to each team’s roster. A balanced trade involves players who are similarly ranked but are not necessarily similar players. A warning is displayed when an unbalanced trade is evaluated and the Trade Analyzer cautions the user against making the trade. Statistically, both teams improve from the trade idea, but each trade idea is customized to the user’s team needs. Beyond the recommended trade ideas, users may enter any combination of players from their roster with any other team in their league to evaluate the balance and statistical impact of trade offers. With these tools, users can now evaluate and offer trades knowing that they will improve their team.

Bloomberg Front Office 2011 featuring the new   Lineup Manager, Free Agent Finder and Trade Analyzer tools helps to keep  fantasy managers informed, competitive, and most importantly engaged through all 162 games of the baseball season, giving everyone a shot at fantasy baseball championships with just a few clicks.

Jeff Maling, president and chief experience officer
Hendrik Kleinsmiede, senior vice president, user experience

B2B has long been an afterthought when it comes to digital marketing. Yet while consumer digital marketing still gains the lion’s share of attention, a quiet revolution is occurring in the business-to-business space. B2B marketers, who historically have relied on offline processes and large sales forces, are increasingly fueling growth while reducing the cost of sales with digital.

Until recently, the typical B2B company viewed a Web site as a necessary evil, believing that the real action happened when the customer (or sales person) picked up the phone and initiated contact. Although facilitating contact remains central to digital marketing, B2B companies are recognizing the Web channel as a strategic asset that can support the process from awareness through post-sales servicing. To achieve this goal, B2B organizations must undertake the mammoth task of translating the entire traditional sales process for the digital realm, both from the organization’s and customer’s perspective.

Geoff Cubitt, president and chief technology officer at Roundarch, explains how Roundarch helped ClubCorp transform the country club experience.

Country clubs used to be all about “who you know.”  But as memberships and time spent at private clubs decline across the country many of these businesses are struggling to both attract and retain members.

ClubCorp, the world leader in private clubs with 150 across the country, has recognized this alarming trend and decided to revolutionize the way this traditionally conservative and exclusive country club and resort industry attracts members and event business.

ClubCorp’s strategy is to bring the best in marketing and service to the industry—largely by making technology investments.  Their ambitious plan is to digitally enable the entire club experience, everything from becoming a member to monitoring course progress from your smartphone.

By partnering with Roundarch, a leader in digital design and implementation, ClubCorp has begun this process by redesigning the online offering at ClubCorp.com and at its individual affiliate club sites to meet the demand of potential members, existing members and event planners.