On Tuesday Instagram launched their new app, Hyperlapse. In true Instagram style, Hyperlapse aims to remove all the complexity from taking amazing looking time-lapse-style videos.

High-quality time-lapse videos often require rigs, dollies, and tripods, not to mention expensive cameras. But using some interesting image stabilization techniques, the Instagram team developed a way to compensate for the photographer's shaky grip, resulting in an impressive picture that's clean and smooth.

Of course, our design team couldn't wait to try it out, so we created a hyper lapse of our office space and surrounding neighbourhood.

So... what's our verdict?

First of all, it's fun and impressive. It's easy-to-use and lets you take great personal videos you can share on Instagram.

From a professional standpoint, while it's not quite the same quality as a high-grade camera, it's a great tool for prototyping and rapid experimentation. We can see it used for test shots, scouting locations, and making high-quality proof-of-concepts before bringing in the expensive production equipment.

We're really looking forward to seeing the Instagram community take hold of the technology and run with it. Our prediction: Expect interesting things.

The omni-channel universe is expanding—customers interact with brands in more ways than ever, across a multitude of devices, social channels, mobile apps, loyalty programs, and more. Universal Analytics, the latest iteration of Google Analytics, provides a new level of clarity into these complex customer relationships. Available as a free upgrade to all standard Google Analytics users, Universal Analytics gives you considerably better insight into how users are interacting with your business across multiple devices and channels. We'll explore key advantages of Universal Analytics and show you how to check which version of Google Analytics your site is currently running.

Google Analytics's code has changed. Have you?

Your job has likely changed a lot since the last time you updated your Google Analytics code. You have gone from not worrying too much about mobile to making it a top priority in your digital marketing or e-commerce efforts. Offline and online marketing were once two totally separate departments that barely spoke to each other. Now, you are at the centre of the storm trying to co-ordinate omni-channel efforts in the name of a delightful customer experience (like Disney).

Your demands on your Google Analytics implementation may have changed as well. You probably lived with a certain amount of inaccuracy in your visitor counts. Now, you'd really like to understand what is going on as customers traverse your digital marketing universe on every flavour of device. If you haven't already, it is time to move migration to Universal Analytics up your priority list.

Track the same user across multiple devices

Continue reading "Exploring the omni-channel universe with universal analytics"

We are incredibly honoured to announce that OpenRoad, in partnership with the Transportation Investment Corp. have been selected as the winners of the 2013 BCTIA Adoption of Technology Award. This award recognizes the installation of a product or solution that has significantly improved the productivity, competitiveness, or profitability of the customers company. As a technology consulting firm, we take pride in the success of our clients', and we are very proud to receive this level of recognition for the success of TReO.ca.

Winners were announced last night at the BCTIA awards gala with over 1000 members of the BC's technology community in attendance. In their 20th year, the awards celebrate the companies, peoples, innovation, and achievements that are driving the BC technology industry forward. Winners include Layer 7 for Company of the Year, Global Relay for Community Engagement, QuickMobile for Emerging Company of the Year, and several others (see the entire list from the Vancouver Sun).

See the full photo album.

Most importantly, we want to thank our amazing team members who worked for over two years to make the TReO project an outstanding success. An enormous thank you to the team here at OpenRoad. We also want to recognize TI Corp for being great partners to work with and for believing in customer-centric design and pursuing innovation in the public sector. Congratulations to all the winners and finalists and a big thank you to the BCTIA!

Learn more about our technology solutions projects.

We're excited to announce that OpenRoad, in partnership with our client Transportation Investment Corporation (TI Corp.), have been selected as finalists for the British Columbia Technology Industry Association (BCTIA) Technology Impact Awards for our design and development of the TReO website. In their 20th year, the BCTIA awards recognize companies and people who foster innovation and growth in the BC technology sector. Each year, the BC tech community celebrates the achievements of nine winners across the categories of technology innovation, company achievement, and personal recognition.

Our nomination is in the Adoption of Technology category, for demonstrating innovation in the tolling website design of TReO.ca. The Port Mann / Highway 1 Project is the largest transportation infrastructure project in British Columbia’s history. With technology having all but eliminated the toll booth and in-person payment, the website is the only touch-point most toll customers ever have with the toll operator. The tolling website is the toll booth, invoice, call centre, and payment centre all in one. Examining past tolling website projects, we found that trying to pay a toll online could be very frustrating, resulting in public dissatisfaction, low registration rates and a high volume of calls into customer care. There was clear opportunity to rethink the experience of paying a toll online. This is a great example of how the public sector can innovate by providing a compelling and highly usable service experience, while at the same time meeting the goals of reducing channel costs and managing large amounts of transactions.

Continue reading "OpenRoad and Transportation Investment Corp are finalists in the TIA Awards"

We're currently growing our User Experience team at OpenRoad. This is always an exciting process as it's great to see the different perspectives that each potential candidate brings. One of our favourite interview questions is "What makes a great UX practitioner?" The responses are as varied as the candidates themselves.

There are many different UX programs at local schools and no end of great books and websites that focus on the skills that people working in user experience need. Websites and higher education can teach people how to create wireframes, design an IA, and conduct a usability study. These foundational elements are important, but we feel that to really achieve success there are other "soft" skills that help define great UX people.

Empathy

Empathy for the user. Good UX people are able to understand the pain that users feel when using systems, and why those pain points exist. They uncover people's motivations and goals. Good UX people want to solve these problems. The solutions that are then provided address those pain points.

Outgoing nature

Not all users are the same—good UX practitioners can extract requirements from people in a natural manner. The best observational research and interviews happen when the people don't know they are being observed or interviewed. A good UX practitioner is able to put people at ease, not be intimidating and be natural.

Advocate for the user

UX team members are the voice of the user back in the office. This means working with business, technical and visual design team members to help collectively design features that balance the needs of all stakeholders. Being able to communicate the true user need in a concise manner is important to ensure the user needs are not forgotten. Sometimes this means pushing back on ideas, and often it means getting creative to come up with solutions that balance many different requirements. The key role of the UX person is to ensure that the overall solution has not lost sight of the user problem that it was meant to solve.

If you've got these skills, we'd love to talk to you!