As promised, the COVID-19 Symptom Tracker is now available also for Android users, in the Google Play Store.
Thank you and stay safe!
Last week the DESIGN-IT together with experts from the University Medical Center Freiburg released the mobile app COVID-19 Symptom Tracker available for iOS. The app is a mobile study whose aim is to better understand COVID-19 symptoms through anonymized data of volunteers. The basis for the mobile study is a tool, also developed by DESIGN-IT, namely EUREQA.io.
The app is composed of an eligibility test (17+ years) and a consent process, followed by an initial questionnaire, which assesses the participant’s medical history regarding a possible infection with COVID-19. Once these steps are completed, the participant can track his symptoms daily. The data gained is used solely for research purposes and is the basis for a better understanding of the symptoms and possible developments of the disease. We kindly invite you to check out the information about the app and take part in the study. Thank you!
The platform on which the app is based, EUREQA.io enables users to create a study for browsers and apps in minutes using a modular principle. EUREQA.io allows great flexibility, meaning that researchers can create a variety of study paths according to each possible scenario and answering the pattern of the study subjects. Single questionnaires can be set as a one-time questionnaire, while others can be triggered customarily every day, week, or month; depending on the purpose of the whole study.
Specific types of questions (yes/no, multiple choice etc.) help to improve collected data and each question can also be set with conditional transitioning, depending on the answer path and focus of the study. Once the study is published, you can monitor the process in your account but also download the results. EUREQA.io does not try to be an analysis tool, as we believe that researchers have each their own set of tools for this; EUREQA.io provides them therefore with the collected data.
Participants can be invited via imported email addresses, custom links or study codes or as in the case of the COVID-19 Symptom Tracker via a custom participant app.
The next step for the COVID-19 app is to release the app for Android users on the Play Store. This would enable a larger participant pool because the COVID-19 Symptom Tracker is available also in the following languages: German, English, French and Spanish.
Everywhere in the world people are facing the biggest health crisis challenge of 2020. It is a shared responsibility for those of us, who can work from home to stay home. This way we can help in the fight against the virus, but also protect the people who do not have the possibility to stay home.
Therefore we at DESIGN-IT thought about sharing our personal experience working from home in the IT field but also to give some personal notes on how we cope with productivity and social distancing while trying to keep a sane mind.
There are already a lot of helpful articles out there with useful tips on which apps and software help and in what way, but we want to focus more on our personal experience in the IT branch. Social distancing and doing home office does not mean you will be alone in your tasks; there are a lot of different ways in which to stay on track and in contact with your colleagues.
Our team, as you might have seen from our self-presentation page, works on two different continents: the project management team in Germany and software engineers in Uruguay. And some of us have been doing home office for a couple of years now. It can be challenging but it also allows you to be more flexible regarding your set work hours and the time dedicated to yourself, since e.g. the commute falls out of the picture.
Read below our experience and how we schedule our working routine as well as what we do to disengage from a day of work.
And a fourth partner has been connected to the Deutsche Bahn Group Interface. With the implementation of real time communication, Schulz Hotel can now share availabilities, prices and bookings with DB Klassenfahrten & Gruppenreisen. By linking the two partners together, .design-it helps to reduce processing times and transcription errors.
Previously connected partners were: Meininger, aletto and a&o.
Design thinking emerged in the 1950s and has since become central part of every stage in business, computer science and even education. David Kelley (Founder of IDEO) is a famous promoter of this method. To sum up the essence of design thinking:
The last twelve weeks were all about design thinking methods here at DESIGN-IT. We decided to take these methods and put them to test ourselves. Some of them were already known between team members while others were used without knowing that they are formalized as a design think method. Goal of this was to see how methods applied consciously, help in stages of development or design; if and how they help team building.
Read more about our experience these past 12 weeks below.
And last week of the 12 week series is here. We conclude our design thinking method journey with „Paper prototype„. This method is the first and foremost step after getting to know the project and after having a brainstorming session. By creating low fidelity prototypes on paper or whiteboard you can get a first impression of your concept.
Task: Having pen, paper, glue and scissors or a whiteboard sketch your concept by screens. This should follow the flow of the app and focus on usability in a fast, easy and fun way.
Goal: It is a very inexpensive way to test out a lot of ideas and find the one that suits you the most. It also gives higher flexibility in changing or discarding an idea as opposed to changing the developed click-flow. It is also a great way to gather the team and foster communication and team spirit.
Read our experience below.
And here we are with our penultimate design thinking method in our 12 weeks series. This week is all about „Empathy tools“. It is a term used to describe physical objects and cognitive or social techniques that provide designers with a feeling and deeper understanding of users with various abilities.
Goal: With inclusive design it is possible to gain more empathy and understand better other user’s capabilities, by experiencing a product in a way that an end user with certain disabilities would. By using different tools to experience what end users with special conditions feel when usign the app, team members will gain „informed intuition„.
Task: There is no predefinite way of testing out this method. Team members have to think about abilities and special conditions end users who will use the app could have and then put these to test. These could be blindness or just bad eye sight, shaking hands but also technical difficulties like slow software, not enough IT knowledge etc. In the end they should see how user friendly the app is and what can be changed.
Read below about our experience.
Tenth week here at DESIGN-IT with another interesting feedback giving method. This weeks method is called „Five finger feedback„. This is another fun and creative way to gather fast, ondemand and informal feedback.
Goal: By assigning each finger a specific meaning quick but structured feedback can be achieved. Team member will give feedback on a chosen project.
Task: Here is the meaning of each finger when using this type of feedback. This can be provided written (by drawing a hand) or at oral feedback sessions.
Read more below about our experience and oppinion testing this method. (mehr …)
Week 9 here at DESIGN-IT. This week is all about correct and fair feedback in a structured grid. The „Feedback Capture Grid“ method is based on four quadrants labeled with easy understandable symbols, that are used as categories for the feedback. It is very useful for written, formal or prepared feedback since it is a written process.
Task: Either as an on-demand feedback gathering or internally after an external testing session, team member have to prepare in groups feedback on a selected project by using the four categories of the grid. They can do this virtually or on a white board with post-its. The symbols are as follows: [ plus ] Likes (positive feedback), [ lightbulb] Ideas (gathered during presentation), [ triangle ] Criticisms (constructive negative feedback), [ question mark ] Questions.
One time, each should moderate the session by explaining the method, if needed, and making sure the session focuses on the task. Next all members should be feedback givers and try to fill out each quadrant at least once.
Goal: Goal is not only to learn how a constructive and fair feedback should look like, but also to get the team involved in projects where not everyone is part of. As the roles switch, team strength and team work should be built up.
Read more about our experience below.
Development and especially mobile development have reached a stage where there is constantly a new operating system and new easy ways to develop features. There is no perfect solution neither a winner when it comes to choosing one path in developing a mobile app. Instead, discussion should be directed to advantages and disadvantages of the types of apps available.
There are three different types of applications: native, web and hybrid applications. Native apps are developed for a specific platform and web apps are generalized for multiple platforms. While native and web applications represent two different types, hybrid applications combine elements from both former types. Think of them as container apps.
In this post we dedicate our attention specifically to hybrid apps with its advantages and disadvantages. We have been using this option for some time. Among others we developed MoRe studies, FMS mobile as hybrid apps.
If you’d like to read more about our opinion, continue below.
„Power of Ten“ – this weeks method focuses on the reframing technique. It is based on the short film of the same name from 1977. The movie shows a picnic scene in Chicago with different magnitudes of distance from 1 meter up to 1024 meters and then down to 10-16 meters. Goal of this was to shocase exponential growth. Humans are used to think linearly although many things actually grow exponentially.
Task: Team members start by choosing a scale. Although the original movie works with magnitudes of distance, they can choose another scale which fits their purpose (distance, size, time or more various like cost, complexity or even abstract like rewarding points). After they will focus on their problem of choice by zooming in and out of it. By moving in powers of ten (adding or removing a zero at the end) they will try to really understand the problem. This moving through magnitudes should enable patterns which repeat at different scales.
Goal: In design thinking, this method helps changing our point of view. By looking at a problem from different magnitudes, basically by zooming in and out of your current situation, you will find the right framing for the different issues of your problem.
When working on virtual and design problems, you need to construct a whole model in your mind to be able to work on it. „Powers of Ten“ helps you in this complex process to find and develop different patterns with different magnitudes.
The ideation process always has a sketching part as the brainstorming process rapidly unfolds itself. So this week we dedicate our attention to the design thinking method called „thirty seconds sketch“. It is an easy quick way to visualize ideas in the first stage before producing a design prototype. Through hand drawn sketches team members can explore different concepts and abandon some ideas if a new better one comes up. It is set to thirty seconds per sketch. This should enable the identifying of critical details in a short time.
Task: Using a timer set to thirty seconds team members have to sketch their ideas on a piece of paper for a project they choose. They can either do this alone or with more people involved. Important is to adjust the focus on the sketch depending on the phase of the project they choose. Another variation is called „crazy 8″: by folding the piece of paper three times in half in the end you get eight fields to fill out. For this the timer is set to 5 minutes.
Goal: It is not important if the sketched idea will be usable. More important is to gather as much ideas on the topic as possible.
Read more about our experience below.
This weeks method is derived from Zen Buddhism. „Beginner’s mind“ is a state of openness and lack of preconceptions. It is a design thinking tool used in the process of ideation. It is said that through developing expert knowledge in a field, we also automatically apply assumptions, perceptions and stereotypes with it.
Goal: This method is used in order to discover new, maybe before unseen solutions. Last but not least it is also a great tool to empathise with beginners. By questioning assumptions, but without judging, and opening oneself towards the new, it is believed that innovation is a step closer.
Task: Team members have to apply this method either themselves or by asking a real beginner. They can use it for ideation or for validating certain prototypes and ideas.
Read more about our experience below.
New week here @DESIGN-IT. We dedicate our attention to the method called „letter to grandma“. This method is used in the first stages of ideation to better share and understand the requirements. It enables knowledge transfer without forgeting any detail of a project. Usually it is dedicated to a person who is not involved in the project and has no knowledge about it.
Task: Team members will have to write a letter to their grandmother, or a fictional pen pal if they prefer. By deliberately chosing a person who has no knowledge about the project or in general not advanced knowledge about IT, the letter becomes more all-encompassing and detailed.
Read more below. (mehr …)
Another week with a new design thinking method @DESIGN-IT. This week we dive in to the „five whys“. It is an interrogative tool used to discover the root cause to a problem.
Goal is to foster communication between team members and understanding of a product.
Toyoda Sakichi invented this method for the industrial manufacturing. Nowadays it can be used in many other fields. The idea behind this method is to go further than discovering the symptoms. In most cases the real problem lies behind the symptoms.
Task: By asking five whys in a certain problem, the root cause will finally reveal itself.
Read more about our experience and results below.
This weeks method is called „Customer journey“. The journey of an end user throughout a certain product stands in focus of this method. Goal of our team is to foster product understanding and empathy towards our customer.
Task: Using the personas of last weeks „Character profiles“ teams on a specific project will be formed. Our team members will have to draw and fill out the journey map of a persona using one specific use case of an app of choice. Team members will have to put themselves in the shoes of the end user.
Goal is for team members to gain better understanding of end users and foster empathy.
Read more below about our experience using this method.
This weeks design thinking method is about character profiles. This method is used to gain insight into the product by the perspective of an end user. Empathy therefore is a key component.
„Character profiles“ is based on fictional characters from data research on real end users. By interviewing and observing a target group a persona is created to represent this end user.
Task: The team will receive information on these fictional characters. Based on these information and from the perspective of the chosen character they will then have to evaluate one of our product or current designs and projects.
Goal is to gain empathy towards our customer. Re-evaluating the product from other perspectives is also task of this method. Read more below abou our experience.
Beginning with this week the DESIGN-IT team evaluates for 12 weeks various design thinking methods (applied for business purposes by David M. Kelly, founder of IDEO; in the 1960s first use in academics by L.Bruce Archer). Each week a new method will be presented. Team members will have to put them into practice in groups or alone – depending on the method. Methods will be applied to a current project, project management or other tasks. At the end of this 12 weeks period, our experience will be summarized with benefits and disadvantages of each methods and overall opinions.
This weeks method is the human-centered „Personal inventory“– approach. Goal of this design method is to introduce the routine and working habit of each team member and also end user. This involves showcasing their relationship to physical and digital products.
Task: Team members and end users take a picture of their working space. This is of course their desk, but it can be also a whiteboard, or the kitchen. This way they show their daily routine with any hard or software they use throughout their day.
Goal: Empathy towards the team but especially the end user will be herewith created.
Read more about our experience below.
Um mit Schutzrechten Geld verdienen zu können, gibt es zwei Wege:
DESIGN-IT hat für die DART gGmbH ein neues Frontend für die bereits vorhandene Plattform DART entwickelt. Diese ist eine interne Anwendung, um Daten über arthroskopische Eingriffe zu erheben.
Auf der Benutzeroberfläche wird ein behandlungsspezifischer Fragebogen ausgefüllt und anonym gespeichert. Um die Anzahl der ausgefüllten Fragebögen zu erhöhen, wurde als Ziel eine verbesserte Nutzererfahrung gesetzt. Dies wurde durch ein neues Layout, intuitive Benutzeroberfläche und optimierte Interaktionspfade erreicht.
Wir haben BRAVO von Grund auf für Deutsche Bahn Klassenfahrten & Gruppenreisen als ein einzigartiges Buchungstool entwickelt. (mehr …)
Am 28.09.2017 haben wir in Frankfurt am Workshop „Produktentwicklung mit Startup-Methoden selbst ausprobieren“ des RKW Kompetenzzentrum teilgenommen. Die Location war für einen Workshop hip und zugleich kreativ. Das Makerspace Tatcraft können wir auf jeden Fall weiterempfehlen. In dieser offenen Atmosphäre haben wir uns mit Mittelständler darüber ausgetauscht, inwiefern Design Thinking Methoden in Ihrem Unternehmen für die Produktentwicklung genutzt werden. (mehr …)
Seit Sommer 2016 arbeitet DESIGN mit der Universität Freiburg an einer Plattform zur Planung und Durchführung von modulare mobile Forschungsstudien. Forscher können komplexe Studienabläufe abbilden und Probanden per Link einladen. Probanden nehmen mobil oder mit dem Browser an der Studie teil. (mehr …)
Die Integration unserer Software für DB Klassenfahrten & Gruppenreisen wird weiter ausgebaut. A&O Hostels wurde an die Bettenverwaltung angeschlossen, um Verfügbarkeiten und Buchungen auszutauschen. DB kann so schneller auf freie Kapazitäten zugreifen und Buchungen werden ohne manuellen Übertrag in die Buchungsverwaltung der Hotels eingespielt.
„Mach‘ es anders!“ ist der Slogan. So wurden mit biologisch abbaubaren ®treecups bereits mehr als 40.000.000 Einwegbecher wurden bereits eingespart. DESIGN-IT entwickelte für das innovative Unternehmen einen neuen Webshop, um Verkauf, Logistik und Kundenservice zu optimieren.
Besuche den Shop hier: https://nowaste.eu/nowaste-shop
Wir haben alle unsere Produktivsysteme zur Überwachung an Sentry angeschlossen. Entstehen Fehler bei der Benutzung unserer Systeme, ob sichtbar für den Benutzer oder nicht, wird ein automatisch ein Fehlerbericht erstellt. So erfahren wir früher wenn Fehler entstehen und können mithilfe ausführlicher Logs die Ursache schneller beheben.
Am 24.06.2017 fand im Work Loft München unser zweites Networking Event statt. Wir haben dort unsere Leistungen von der Beratung einer Geschäftsidee bis zu der finalen Entwicklung vorgestellt. Anhand von Projektbeispielen wurden die einzelnen Schritte in der Praxis greifbarer gemacht. (mehr …)
Am 18. Mai 2017 fand in Berlin auf dem Freigelände der AiF Projekt GmbH der Innovationtag statt. Hier wurden Projekte von über 300 Ausstellern vorgestellt, die durch das Zentrale Innovationsprogramm Mittelstand (ZIM) des BMWi gefördert wurden. (mehr …)
Am 25. März in Köln haben wir zu unserem ersten Networking Event eingeladen. In kleiner Runde haben wir den Teilnehmern aus verschiedenen Branchen unser Leistungsangebot und aktuelle Projekte vorgestellt. Buzzwords wie Rapid Prototyping, Minimum Viable Product oder UI Testing wurden anhand von Praxisbeispielen diskutiert. Die inspirierenden Gespräche wurden im Anschluss mit Verpflegung und bei frühlingshaften Temperaturen an frischer Luft fortgesetzt.
Ein weiteres Networking Event in diesem Format wird im Juni in München stattfinden. Falls Sie daran Interesse haben, schreiben Sie uns eine E-Mail mit dem Stichwort „DESIGN-IT & Friends“.
Wir möchten uns nochmals für die Teilnahme bedanken und hoffen euch bei einem der nächsten Events zu sehen!
Im März 2017 haben wir in Berlin Tempelhof ein neues Büro eröffnet. Es ist ein großartiger Ort, um neue Ideen zu entwickeln und unsere Kunden zu empfangen. Kommen Sie doch einfach vorbei.
Wir freuen uns mit dem Beginn des neuen Jahres 2017, ein neues Mitglied in unserem Team willkommen zu heißen. Christoph Schwinghammer ist unser neuer Sales Consultant. Wir sind überzeugt, dass er unser Team bereichern wird!
Kurz vor den Winterferien möchten wir Ihnen erholsame Feiertage, ein schönes Weihnachtsfest und ein frohes neues Jahr wünschen!
Wir sind dabei eine neue hybride mobile App zu vollenden, entwickelt mit ionic und AngularJS, als Teil des Fluid Management Systems von IQ Fluids.
Durch die neue App können die Nutzer ihre tägliche Todo Listen abarbeiten, den Container Status einsehen und Messungen durchführen. Dies ist alles mit dem mobilen Gerät möglich, auch wenn man am Standort des Containers keinen Zugriff auf das Internet hat. Sobald man mit dem mobilen Gerät wieder online ist, werden die Daten abgeglichen.
In Zusammenarbeit mit der Winglet Education GmbH hat DESIGN-IT das Konzept, Design und Frontend für die medizinische Weiterbildungsplattform entwickelt. Diese Plattform ermöglicht CME (Continuing Medical Education) Punkte zu erhalten, die notwendig sind um fachspezifische Kompetenzen aufzubauen und dauerhaft zu erneuern.
Ärzte können an diesen Veranstaltungen (live oder post-live) teilnehmen und mit Abstimmungen und Fragen live mit dem Vortragenden interagieren.
Industriepartner können ihr Unternehmen und ihre Produkte in spezifischen Showrooms vorstellen.
DB Klassenfahrten & Gruppenreisen haben den letzten Schritt zu einer schnellen und vollständigen Gruppenbuchungsoberfläche abgeschlossen. Die neue Gruppenbuchungsplattfrom „Barny“ verwaltet das Angebote im Online-Katalog und ermöglicht die Bearbeitung von Kundenanfragen von der Partnerkommunikation über Angebotserstellung und Online Buchung. Darüber hinaus werden Kundenrechnungen generiert und Partnerabrechnungen geprüft. Barny löst eine komplexe Landschaft aus mehreren veralteten Systemen ab.
Modular Research Studies (MoRe) ist ein neues Projekt von DESIGN-IT in Kooperation mit der Universität Freiburg, geförtert durch das Land Baden-Würtemberg. Die Browser-Anwendung ermöglicht es Forschungssstudien online zu konfigurieren und innerhalb weniger Minuten zu veröffentlichen – und das mehrsprachig. Teilnehmer können über einen Browser und insbesonder mobil an Studien teilnehmen. Forscher erhalten so die Möglichkeit mit geringen Kosten eine große Anzahl von Teilnehmern unabhängig vom Standort zu erreichen. Forschungsergebnisse erhalten so eine valide und belastbare Stichprobenmenge.
Für mehrere Informationen besuchen Sie unsere Webseite: http://more-studies.de/
On May 25th, the second ever Laravel UY Meetup was held at out offices in Montevideo. Meetups are a gathering of people in a city for the purpose of discussing a subject, and this one was a great opportunity for the Laravel community in Uruguay to learn, improve, share a drink and have a good time. These Meetups are also ideal for making sure developers stay up to date with the latest this great framework has to offer. We look forward to hosting more of these events.
Das nächste große Release von IQ FMS ist live und läuft mit einer mit einer deutlichen Leistungsverbesserung. U.a. können nun Labormessungen erfasst werden und gesondert in der Graphik des Containers angezeigt werden. Kunden können ihre Kontoartikel und Regeln individuell verwalten. Als weiteres Feature werden wöchentlich automatische Statusberichte generiert.
DB-Gruppen.de has gone live!
Group trips are a highly complex product. In February 2016 a new online catalog for DB Klassenfahrten & Gruppenreisen went live. It allows the visitor to select accommodation, transportation and program services to configure his individual group trip. Connected to our group travel platform BRAVO, the online catalog calculates availabilities and prices on the fly. In an intuitive check out process the visitor can submit a request for his desired group trip.
TripHop has gone live – an internet platform help you plan, book and conduct group tours. With a few click you can compare prices and choose between alternative services such as accommodation, transportation and program.
Enjoy creating group and school trips.
Create your first group trip with TripHop by clicking here
We are proud to publish the very first research app in Germany utilizing Apple’s new framework ReserarchKit. This technology has the power to revolutionize research studies all around the world. It allows researches and developers to create mobile apps that gather information from the candidates‘ iPhones. Tracking movements, taking measurements, recording information are some of the features already available on the iPhone, making it the perfect tool to support your research study. We can create mobile apps for various fields of research, such as medicine, pharma or psychology.
To know more about research apps visit researchapps.de or read the University of Freiburg article here.
The new version of FMS is completed and released. It extends the available functionality substantially and includes overall usability improvements. The updates comprise file management (e.g. for technical fact sheets), generation of status reports as PDF, support of discrete parameter values and a powerful quality assurcance tool to analyze asset performance over time.
For more information contact IQ Fluids
We just upgraded our corporate design: introducing a new, simple and recognizable logo to represent our team, our work and our values.
The next hotel partner has been connected to the DB Group Booking Interface. aletto Hotels & Hostels (aletto.de) with three houses in Berlin can now communicate availabilities, prices and bookings with its partner DB Klassenfahrten & Gruppenreisen in real time.
Deutsche Bahn wins the European Group Travel Award 2015 in the category BEST RAIL SERVICE FOR GROUPS. Congratulations to our customer DB Klassenfahrten & Gruppenreisen.
Team Montevideo expands and is now set up in a new office located in Pocitos, a nice, secure and calm neighbourhood next to the rambla and 4.5km away from the historic center.
As part of new tool for DB Klassenfahrten & Gruppenreisen to manage hotel reservations and bookings with hotel partners acrosss europe, .design-it completed the implementation of a real time communication interface povided by Meininger Hotels. The use of the new interface allows DB to check availabilities and conditions and to submit requests and bookings. By linking the two partner together, .design-it helps to reduce processing times and transcription errors.
.design-it released a beta version of Placetel Connect, a Force.com application to integrate the Placetel cloud telephony system with Salesforce.com’s Service and Sales Cloud. The application is available for testing and will soon be listed in the AppExchange Store.
More space! .design-it will set up a new office in August this year. The new .design-it headquarter is located in Frankfurt Bornheim.
Everyone knows the hassle to plan and organize a trip with a groups of friends, family or a sports club. Now Deutsche Bahn offers groups trips all around Europe. Browse the online catalogue and submit your request. Deutsche Bahn handles the rest – powered by .design-it
Intelligent fluid maintenance for production machines, version 1.0 is available – a project by IQ Fluids and .design-it
The application allows production companies to easily manage and document their fluid maintenance. New measurement trigger rule-based counter actions. The due date and criticality of those actions determine the status of the container and machine.
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