Streamlining Internal Workflows

Happy 4/04! Each year on this date, we gather our employees and contractors for our annual “State of the ERA” meeting and discuss where we’ve grown and how our focus has evolved during the course of the year. Our 18th year (and 18th 4/04) is no different. And as we look back on the last year’s projects, we’ve recognized an emerging trend.

While streamlining internal workflows may not be the most glamorous strategic design, it’s gratifying because it still encompasses the heart of all the work we do: a client has a need and we work with them to resolve it. Typically, these problems present themselves as stumbling blocks, obstacles, and bottlenecks in existing internal workflows or the modernization of analog, antiquated processes.

• A client has a number of disparate worksites with employees and needs to effectively manage their time and assign it to multiple projects and clients.
• A client receives PDFs of attendee bookings for a number of hotels and needs to digitize, OCR, import, and organize the bookings into a master database to mail merge confirmations.
• A client needs to sell tickets for an event series and administrate the purchases and attendance records.
• A client needs to manage the check-ins of attendees, synced across multiple tablets that may or may not have a WiFi connection.

These are just a few examples of the projects we worked on this year. The list goes on and on. And with each new client and each new need, ERA404 has become unofficial experts in the world of the internal workflow. Our satisfaction is measured in increasing our clients’ efficiency and decreasing their manual labor. And when a client tells us that the alleviated stress of internal systems has allowed them to focus more on the part of their work that they love to do, that’s just as great a reward as any award-winning design or mobile app micropurchase.

If your business has problems with internal workflows, you’ve found it to be inefficient and tedious, and you’re struggling to focus on your more enjoyable, meaningful work, then please drop us a line. We’d love to help.

Tags | creative, internal process, internal workflow, process design, strategic design, strategic process, strategic workflow, strategy, UI, ui/ux, UX, workflow, workflow design

ERA404 Helps Vessel Crew Become a Little More Social

NEW YORK—This summer, Deb Deffaa of Trident Networks contacted ERA404 with an idea to bring the world of social networking to the crew of seafaring vessels. And while the logistics seemed mind-boggling, the idea sounded more than intriguing.

In 2011, the 360 commercial ports of America, alone, took-in goods worth $1.73 trillion. There are more than 100,000 ships at sea, carrying between 12 and 110 crew members. Each laborer signs-on for contracts lasting 4-6 months. And while many of the sailors have families at home—be it Germany, Panama, The Philippines, or somewhere in between—they need to keep in touch with expensive satellite phone calls and with limited access to email. Shore-leave time dwindles at just a few hours, giving them little ability to even set foot in the countries where they deliver their precious cargo. And their view through a porthole window always replays the same footage of the middle of the ocean.Read More

Tags | application development, application strategy, creative, creative direction, creative ui/ux, deb deffaa, interface design, mvs usa, mvsusa, product design, product development, production scope, scoping, seamate, social networking, strategic ui/ux, strategy, technical direction, trident networks, ui/ux

Pantone Moods Widget on Pantone.com

CARLSTADT, NJ — On Friday, June 8, Pantone launched a new version of their web site that features ERA404’s Pantone Moods widget in the footer of every page of the site. The widget’s “Realtime” tab shows a streaming feed of moods and color chips submitted by users through the Facebook application, Pantone Moods. Visitors may also see the previous day’s most submitted color chip, mood keyword and submission city by clicking on the “Most Popular” tab. The widget compliments the application’s trending and reporting tab which was designed and developed by ERA404 earlier in the year.

Visitors interested in seeing the widget in action can visit: pantone.com. To submit moods to the widget, log-in to Facebook and add the Pantone Moods application. For more comprehensive trends, including proximity, gender, location and time matches, current color and mood comparisons, and global mood trends, click the “Mood Trends” tab from within the Pantone Moods Facebook app.

Pantone Moods currently boasts a lifetime user base of  nearly 70,000 users and over a half million moods posted and has been featured in GDUSA, Communication Arts and other industry periodicals. The application was originally conceived and created by ERA404 in October 2008,  and was redesigned in August 2011 based on the unprecedented response from Pantone brand advocates and fans on Facebook. See this project in the ERA404 portfolio, here: https://www.era404.com/loves/pantone/

 

Tags | application, chip, color, conception, creative, design, development, emotion, facebook, jquery, mood, pantone, programming, x-rite

ERA404 Creative Group Rebranding

Commemorating Their 10-Year Anniversary, ERA404 Gets a New Identity

ERA404 Creative Group, a long-standing creative studio based in New York City, is unveiling the company’s new corporate identity this quarter. ERA404 (formerly era//404) has made the choice to update their 10-year-old mark, its supplemental iconography and palette, even the company name.Read More

Tags | brand, branding, creative, creative director, design, don citarella, era404, firm, group, new york, new york city, nyc mike citarella, rebrand, rebranding, studio