Stage 1 - Develop it.

Scope the project
The first stage of development, scoping the project is done in conjunction with our wayfinding experts and your own staff members - this ensures that the project has the best possible foundation. During this stage we work through a set of questions which allows us to understand the nature of your organization and what your expectations are for this project.

Scope the project

After scoping the project we have a better understanding of the project and will have the answers to questions like:
• How many buildings will be involved in the project?
• How many levels?
• Does this need to work on kiosk, website, mobile or all three?
• Do you want fast find icons?
• Do you need map printing?
• How many languages does this need to work in?
• Does this need to work in conjunction with an existing digital signage solution?

and, of course many more questions. Once we have the answers to these questions than we can start to determine who will be doing what on this project. As an example, your organization may have on staff a graphic designer who has the appropriate skills to provide us with vector based maps, or you may decide that this is something that you wish us to provide. Map design, map plotting, interface design, content populating - these are all elements that need to be scoped out and once we have determine each parties obligations than we are able to define the project scope and provide accurate expected costs and time frames.

Stage 2 - Build it

Interface design - making it look good

This is the time in which the interface design is developed - we understand the styling may need to compliment existing building/wayfinding signage and/or business style guides. We would ensure that the interface is ADA compliant, then we'd ensure the color choice and designs use strong color contrasts to reduce color wash across the screen. As the interface is developed you are provided multiple opportunities to review the content to ensure it's accuracy, at the same time we are also providing you copies of key pages so that you start to get a good idea of how the finished product will look.

Software and content assembly - putting it together

This is the stage that all the elements of the project are combined and all functionality is defined. At this stage you will receive a copy of your beta site to allow you to assess the project and get a good idea of how the project is going to perform. Any changes that you now request are implemented in the final version. At this stage of the process we also create an application profile. This is particularly useful in determining potential issues that may arise through increased data requests (i.e. more kiosks, online or mobile users). The nature of the application is such that it does not have repetitive queries; it is not CPU intensive and therefore will easily scale to accommodate hundreds of concurrent users.

Testing

Signpost101 is an Intel tested, certified, and deployed application that has had ten's of thousands of developmental hours spent on it, essentially this means that it is a developed, stable, reliable application. However, we still conduct exhaustive testing of multi-user functionality, external interfaces, security, recovery, and performance evaluation specifically involving the following items:

• System Testing: testing the overall functionality by working with test data in the database.
• Interface testing: Testing if the interface is intuitive and easy to use.
• Testing if the icon and other graphics are consistent among each page.
• Application user tests: Testing if the user feels the data provided from this application is relevant to their needs.
• System performance testing: Testing of the security and loading capability.

Stage 3: Maintain it

System maintain/update

One of the primary purposes of a wayfinding solutions is to guide your visitors and staff around your environment, however there is a good chance that your environment is dynamic and regularly changing to suit your organization’s needs - a room is moved from here to there, an extension is added to a building, an entire wing is suddenly de-commissioned along with a multitude of other smaller changes all happening regularly and sometimes unexpectedly.

To ensure your wayfinder is giving accurate information you need to be able to quickly and easily make changes. Signpost101 is designed to give you control over what your visitors and staff see - no need to redraw hundreds of maps, in most cases changes are as simple as changing a point number - quick, simple and secure.

The administration functionality

The wayfinding information sits on a series of pre-drawn graphic maps. Unless there is a substantial change to the layout of the building i.e. an extra building is added there would be no need to alter these maps. These maps act as the foundation upon which everything else sits and is built upon. On top of these graphics the system information is added. Everything on the map is comprised of a series of points and pathways. These points define all the elements on the map - the location of a path, room, elevator, stairwell or kiosk.

These points can be moved around the map so if a kiosk or room location or room name changes, all you need to do is change the point associated with that element and all of the maps are immediately updated. Points and pathways are easily added and/or removed. Signpost101 is designed to allow approved administrators to access and change the system content. With a small amount of training this is something they will be able to easily perform. The administrative approval process will ensure that there is an audit trail via individual logon assignment.