Ideations is a complete customizable (research) community platform. It is one of our most valuable products. Due to the high demand of an even finer tool, 6 months ago we decided to start working on a new version of Ideations. In this series of articles, which we will be publishing in the following weeks, we give you a behind-the-scenes preview of the development of Ideations2.
Cross-platform community
In the last quarter of 2011, smartphone usage increased to over 50%. Also, in January 2012 research by Deloitte showed that 5% of all households is considering buying a second tablet pc.
What this means is that if you are building a community, you must not only design for desktop devices. You must also design specifically for mobile and tablet PCs. This can be a daunting task since a lot of the interaction principles that apply to a desktop application don’t apply to a touch device. Also, there’s a lot of difference between native applications and mobile friendly websites. The plus side is that mobile devices bring new opportunities to your community, like location-based-data collection and push notifications. The latter increases the participation level of your community members. Imagine you can ask people what they think of a newly developed park the minute they sit down on a bench.
HTML5, responsive design & mobile
For Ideations2 we decided to take the best of all worlds. Ideations2 is completely written in HTML5 and has a responsive design, meaning it adapts to the viewing device of its user. Ideations2 will be mobile-device ready and will come with a dedicated app for iPhone and Android. The platform has a notifications center that allows the community manager to send push notification to mobile devices.
Facebook integration
We will treat populair platforms like Facebook and Google+ as “just another platform”, meaning Ideations2 tools can be integrated into these platforms as if it were another viewing device. This brings endless opportunities. Imagine starting a contest amongst friends or connecting co-workers on Google+ and brainstorm there. If another platform gets popular, Ideations2 will be able to blend in just fine.
No matter where your audience is, with Ideations2 you will be able to engage it. That’s why Ideations2 is called a true cross-platform community solution.
Ideations2 is planned for release in march 2012.
