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Challenge #3: Reusability

  In case you missed the first or second blog in our custom data visualization series, feel free to catch up on them now.  Or, if you prefer, simply skip ahead  to the end of this article to skip to the end to see the code for all of the parameters passed through the customized timeline component.

The third challenge is to make the data visualization software reusable to other developers on the team. The data visualization is meant to be reused in multiple different projects, with varying data sets, that don’t necessarily match the type of data in the original data visualization which this is built for. Although it’s extra work up front to create this data visualization to be reusable, there are multiple benefits long-term.

Voice technology has made a leap over the last fews years and is now becoming part of our everyday lives. At Key Lime we’re excited about the many opportunities that a voice experience (VX) provides for customers and brands: It can help remove friction and help humanize interactions with technology. At the same time we know voice tech is still far from perfect.

Today the main use cases for a great voice experience are in service and sales. Think about frequently asked questions and transactional interactions such as turning a light on or off. In the future there is a potential for voice to go towards in-depth conversational interactions. The use case can make or break your voice experience and it is one of the key factors for creating a successful voice experience.

Seeing and reading the news these days has become pretty overwhelming. One of the biggest reasons for the unrest is the push for a more inclusive society with no place for racism, sexism, and violence. This push is long overdue and calls for us to be more humane in general for the well being of the whole world and to move towards a better and sustainable future. 

Education, awareness and empathy are probably the most important factors that drive change, but individuals are harder to convince otherwise once they’ve formed their own opinions. Thankfully, we live in an age where individuals can be educated, made aware of, and put in someone else’s shoes all while wow-ing them with the help of Virtual Reality (VR).

Last year, I created a series of blogs regarding creating a custom Material-UI theme (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3). While many parts of that blog are still relevant, such as how to customize different components, Material-UI (user interface) has streamlined the process to create a custom theme.

As many office workers remain working remotely for the foreseeable future during the pandemic, organizations have grappled with how to keep their employees connected and communicating. Sometimes even the best-intentioned workplace-sponsored activities or events can feel like yet another obligation, both for the people putting it on, as well as those attending.

I’ve spent five years working remotely for Key Lime Interactive, and spent months at a time working on projects in Fortune 500 companies where I’ve been integrated as a team member often in a hybrid mix of remote and in-person. So I’ve seen a wide range of approaches to keeping remote workers connected, and there probably has never been a time where it has been as important as it is right now.

     In January 2020, no one anticipated that a pandemic would be the defining event of the year. However, in October, the impact and effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are still currently underway, especially as we see parts of the world preparing for a second lockdown. So during all of this, we ask ourselves: how can technology be used to help us through this? In regards to voice technology, one of the areas of focus for voice tech is in healthcare, and COVID-19 has only heightened that focus. Voice technology is seen as something that could potentially help reduce the spread of infectious diseases such as COVID-19 as well as help to improve current social distancing standards.

  Aside from the increased uptick that has been seen during quarantine of increased usage in voice assistants such as Amazon Alexa or Google Home, there are numerous opportunities for the way in which voice technology can be integrated to be a beneficial feature of our “new” normal. Additionally, the ability to connect to others via voice user interfaces, or even extended reality like social XR, could potentially help individuals to feel socially connected while remaining physically distant.

  Did you miss the first blog in our Custom Data Visualization series? Check it out here. Or,  if you prefer to skip to the end to see the code, just click here.

Recently,  the innovation arm of Key Lime Interactive (KLI) introduced its new mobile UX competitive insights platform, Competitive Insights! This digital platform is an easy to share, searchable tool with interactive industry reports released every month, which makes keeping track of your competition that much easier.

      There was a time when we were encouraged to keep our work and personal lives separate. Keep your work at work. Don’t check your email at home. Don’t bring personal matters into work. Although I agree that it’s important to find work-life balance, it’s near impossible to do so now that a lot of companies are moving towards remote work out of necessity.

Whether this is a temporary trend or becomes a more permanent policy remains to be seen. While we wait for things to shake out, we can focus on what we do have some control over. Setting up an effective home office is crucial to staying productive while working remotely. Here are a few tips I’ve learned in the past six months regarding both remote work and remote research:

        As we all learn to navigate the new normal in the midst of the ongoing pandemic, one area that has seen repeated debates in the last few weeks is education. Should schools hold in-person learning? What is the safest way to move forward? Can virtual learning be effective? There are probably as many solutions to this hurdle as there are schools, with some families even calling distracting kids with iPads education. There does not seem to be a right way to go about reopening schools or if they should be open at all now that the fall has rolled around. Rather than add to that debate, we will discuss XR (eXtended Realities) as an alternative to in-person learning.

      With many companies continuing to opt for remote working environments, some still search for ways to make their once in-person, now remote meetings feel a bit more interactive. As we have explored before, Social XR can help users feel more connected in our recreational and professional lives. These applications can help you feel immersed, allow you to reach a wider audience and help you stay focused. Ideally, they combat meeting and screen fatigue, lifting spirits, and most importantly, they go beyond what is physically possible by enhancing/augmenting reality.

      As Key Lime Interactive (KLI) celebrated their 11th birthday as a company earlier this year, they were thrilled to receive the news from Expertise.com announcing them as one of the top 10 UX Designers in the Miami, FL area!