Once the General Session let out on day one, the iRise booth was a hotbed of activity. We even had to convert our center video screen to accommodate a third demo station as attendees were queuing up to see iRise in action.

We produced two custom videos for SAPPHIRE, one of which focused on the mobile capabilities of iRise and how it can impact SAP projects. The video played on iPads in the Mobile section of the conference floor:

iRise was honored to win the 2012 SAP Pinnacle Award in the Software Solution Newcomer of the Year category last month. The beautiful trophy was proudly displayed in our booth (click to enlarge):

SAPPHIRE was a great opportunity to show off iRise to those who’ve heard the buzz but haven’t had an in-person demo yet. We also got to put faces to many names from around the globe that we’ve been trading emails with. Thanks to all our friends at SAP, and to everyone else that stopped by. It was an amazing event, as always.

The conference ended with a special concert by the mighty Van Halen. If you couldn’t make it, here’s Eddie’s solo to give you a little taste of what you missed…

Then this six-part series is for you.  Sign up for all six, or just one, and you’ll get a deeper understanding of how to succeed with iRise visualization.  Each session will focus on a different topic, as outlined below, and will include content for the beginning, intermediate, and advanced iRise user. All webinars are on a Thursday from 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM PDT.

Session II:  Getting to Functional Fidelity
Thursday, June 14, 2012 – 10:00 AM PDT (60 Minutes including Q&A)

Session III: Getting to Visual Fidelity
Thursday, July 12, 2012 – 10:00 AM PDT (60 Minutes including Q&A)

Session IV: Collaboration and Facilitation
Thursday, August 2, 2012 – 10:00 AM PDT (60 Minutes including Q&A)

Session V:  Keeping up with a Mobile World
Thursday, August 30, 2012 – 10:00 AM PDT (60 Minutes including Q&A)

Session VI: Extending the iRise Platform
Thursday, September 20, 2012 – 10:00 AM PDT (60 Minutes including Q&A)

Sign up now and begin your journey to becoming an iRise black belt.

As you examine the changes made, you realize how easy they would be to miss without the benefit of accurate feedback. Does the decision to have Title and Phone fields on a form seem like an important one? Removing both from the Haiti donation form resulted in an 11% increase in money collected per page view. Here’s some other interesting results…

The original page design placed an image above the donation form. Creating a two column layout (seen below) moved the form to the top of the page and resulted in an 8% increase in money collected per page view.

Increasing the font size on the form (shown below) resulted in 2% more money collected. The single biggest impact was a simple change of the button language. Changing it from “Submit” to “Support Haiti” increased the money donated per page view by 16%!

One of the most surprising findings was that removing the Security icon resulted in a 5% drop in money collected per page view. That’s a huge impact when we’re talking in the millions.

The problem for so long was that businesses had no cost effective way to test their applications before building them. You can’t get accurate feedback on an unreadable requirements document. Users need to experience an application before they can give the type of meaningful feedback seen in Haiti case study. This is where the speed at which iRise allows you create ultra-realistic simulations, test and collect in-line user feedback, and iterate until you get it right is so valuable.

Makes you wonder what revenue you’re missing out on?

You can read the full article here.
 

Don’t have the time right now to watch the full webinar? Here’s a recap of what you missed: The iBloc Expo in 233 seconds.

Here’s the preview video:

Here’s the full iBloc Expo webinar (well worth the time):

“It’s time to get down to the nitty-gritty and begin designing the structure, flow and features that will combine to form your finished mobile app. But actually performing these tasks isn’t easy — there are tons of moving parts and project management aspects to keep in mind during development. Developing a functioning and enjoyable mobile app requires discipline and practicality. If you don’t tend to the nuts and bolts of production, you’re putting yourself at risk for disaster.”

Here’s some highlights of his “don’t” list, and how it relates to iRise functionality…

1. Don’t Begin Wireframes or Designs Without a Flowmap

“Have a well-thought-out user flow ready to go before wireframes and designs begin. Even simple applications should have a well-considered flowmap in place to help ensure a logical and reasonable navigational structure.”

This is a great piece of advice, and exactly what the iRise Studio Whiteboard is for.   It allows you to quickly create scenario-level requirements and build out application flow.  It can serve as the foundation for product iteration.

4. Don’t Undersize The Hit Area

“Remember that most users’ index fingers are 1.6 to 2 cm wide. Take into account the width of a finger, plus the fact that users are moving quickly and aren’t able to reliably tap a tiny area of the screen. It’s all too easy to pack lots of buttons and functionality into a screen, but be sure to always make buttons big enough — and spaced enough — to be easily tapped by users.“

This is an area where allowing users to test mobile apps on the device itself using iRise is incredibly valuable.  That button might seem to have a large enough hit area, or they may seem to be spaced far enough apart, but putting the phone in the users hand often tells a different story.

The ability in iRise to create a section above a button or any linked area (see graphic below) and use it as a hotspot really comes in handy in this regard.

7. Don’t Blindly Copy Style From Other Operating Systems

“Every mobile OS has its own style and the OS’s creator has probably published detailed Human Interface Guidelines that have codified their unique aesthetic…”

The free iRise Apple and Android content iDocs can certainly help with this.

9. Don’t Assume Everyone Will Use Your App The Same Way You Do

“Usability testing is a must, no matter how good your app looks. Consider organizing a closed beta to small group of trusted people (including a few experienced designers) and update the interface before releasing the app to the public.”

What a great piece of advice.  Now if only there were a way to create mobile apps simulations that users could test before you go through the expense of coding and mistakes are already made…

You can read the entire article on Mashable here.

We successfully showed off the power of our iRise Visualization software for both mobile and desktop platforms. As the FOSE mobile app sponsor, we also got a lot of buzz about our free Studio MX download.

The biggest hit however, was our cool new mobile phone grip holder.

Here’s a MarketWatch roundup, in case you’re interested.

Check out more here: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/irise-receives-2012-sap-pinnacle-award-2012-04-03

It was then that Hahn got to thinking: The best software testers are often very detail-oriented and fixate on problems that others overlook. And the same is true for many people with autism and Asperger’s syndrome, who even in good times suffer from unemployment rates many times the overall average.What if there were a way to harness the intense, detail-oriented focus of these individuals to spot deficiencies in software, and parley it into careers?

Chad decided to run with the idea, and the first three candidates are undergoing a 60-90 day training program, working ten hours per week at Square One offices. This is where iRise came in…

“My training materials were pretty text-based, and it’s hard for three trainees to interpret text requirements well,” he says. “Since we’re iRise users, we decided to create visualizations that had bugs and deficiencies, so we could show them how to spot new problems,” he says. That did the trick, says Hahn. “iRise visualization helps people with autism and Asperger’s syndrome for the same reason that it helps business users understand software requirements: Everyone understands a picture,” says Hahn.

The results so far have been very promising. “We are seeing very encouraging results from the pilot, with all of the three candidates demonstrating the required proficiency needed to test software in a commercial setting,” comments Hahn. “We think we can use their strengths, now that we’ve figured out how to train them.”

Congratulations to Chad and everyone involved with the program.

So you can’t decide whether to decorate your room as a distressed goth playroom or an upscale Manhattan loft? The choice will become clear once you can VISUALIZE it…