The Ramp Group unveiled an application they developed for the Indian Forensics Science Institute at SPC12 in Vegas. The Crime Analysis Solution Ecosystem-CASE is a Bing Maps framework for SharePoint which helps local, state and federal investigators track and manage criminal investigation information in a most efficient way. The solution leverages out-of-the-box SharePoint capabilities for document management, workflow and calendaring to speed investigators while also utilizing integration with Bing Maps to display key investigation information graphically. The solution also provides ways to view criminal case locations by type identifying high crime areas and on Bing Maps.

"This solution demonstrates the power of Bing maps integration with Sharepoint in providing new and intuitive ways to display data", says Sridhar.Seshadri, Ramp’s Technology evangelist (Sridhar.Seshadri@rampgroup.com).  "The conference was a big success and our ability to be part of the event by demonstrating this application along with a new Sharepoint App on Surface in the Microsoft booth was a great opportunity for us".

For more information on the event and to view the keynote go to:

http://www.mssharepointconference.com/Pages/SPCTV.aspx

e.Republic’s Center for Digital Government has announced the 2012 winners of its annual Best of the Web and Digital Government Achievement Awards and the State of Washington Employment Security Department website that Ramp helped redesign and rebuild was a winner.

In its 17th year, Best of the Web (BOW) recognizes outstanding government portals and websites based on innovation, functionality and efficiency. Ramp tested the usability of the old site and identifiedthe priority needs of the site's key users--job-seekers, employers and researchers. Then we redesigned the site wrapped around their needs. This user-centered design approach achieved the highest score of any Employment and Economic Information site in the country, pulling down the Honorable Mention award in the prestigious Government-to-Business category.

“Digital technology has fundamentally changed the way people interact with their government and we are seeing it demonstrated through everything from full service portals to special purpose mobile apps,” said Todd Sander, executive director of the Center for Digital Government. “We’re excited about the opportunities governments are creating to make new things possible and to do the old things faster and more efficiently. The Center thanks them for their continuing innovation and congratulates them on their achievements!”

Ramp will join a delegation of Washington businesses accompaning Washington's governor Christine Gregoire on a trade mission to India. Gregoire will leave the state on Sunday, Sept. 30th, arriving in Hyderabad, India on Tuesday, Oct. 2nd where she will kick off the 10-day trade mission, followed by stops in Delhi and Mumbai. While in India, Gregoire will establish an official relationship with the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, an area rich in high-tech opportunities with a large Microsoft presence.

“I will be the first governor to lead a trade mission to India, where the opportunities are significant,” Gregoire said. “As India’s economy thrives, we know that consumers there are seeking more imported products from the United States. This is our opportunity to get out in front, and make sure that consumers and businesses in India are aware of the quality items produced in Washington state. I’m confident our efforts will lead to business expansions and new jobs for Washingtonians.”

Read more here: http://blog.thenewstribune.com/politics/2012/09/25/gov-gregoire-leaves-sunday-on-trade-mission-to-india-korea/#storylink=cpy#storylink=cpy

We at Ramp Group are excited to announce the launch of our new website. In order to provide our customers with the most innovative tools and offerings we are continually applying these tools in everything we do. Our new website is a direct example of our unique formula of “Business Analysis + UX + Development.”

Our hope is to provide a site that demonstrates our distinctive combination of left and right brain thinking; a synthesis of the analytic plus the creative. Our experienced staff provides a balanced perspective. We pride ourselves on communicating technical expertise without heavy technical jargon and expressing creative capabilities that are grounded in real solutions that will meet real business objectives.

“This new site represents who we are and what we bring to each and every engagement”, states Bob Duffy, Ramp’s Managing Partner – User Experience and Technology. “It emphasizes our unique value proposition that brings world-class creative design together with enterprise-class software engineering”.

Ramp services represented on the site in service descriptions and case studies cross the software development life-cycle, from inception to go-live. The process is revealed starting with user research and defining information architecture; right through technical architecture, development, and test. This is what has set Ramp apart from the beginning and has led to where we are, and who we are, 12 years later.

Our new site also seeks to keep our customers, employees and potential employees informed via our integrated Blog, LinkedIn, and Twitter. We hope you will enjoy our new user experience and look forward to your feedback.

CareOregon's new website was designed to improve the level of user engagement and efficiency for Care Oregon members. In addition, they wanted to rebrand the site with a bright, healthy and hopeful style. The UX process included user surveys, usability tests, creating user personas, brand exploration, editorial, photography selection, sitemap and wireframing, and design. The resulting site has acheived CareOregon's goals of generating more traffic and has received rave reviews from both internal and external users.

We just completed an animated video promoting Cobalt's new ad service. Cobalt is a web hosting and online advertising service for car dealerships. They wanted an innovative and fun video to send to their customers to introduce their new service offering without being boring while saying it. So the challenge was to take on a complicated concept and explain it in 2 minutes or less without putting to sleep the viewers.

PPMG concepted an idea using a rainmaker machine as the metaphor of how the service could create customer traffic. Our process was to break each element into its own separate deliverable.

First, we provided three summary concepts. Then after a concept was selected we made rough storyboard and attached narrative copy to it. We then provided three illustration styles to choose from as well as voice over talent selections. Once each was approved, we just stitched it all together and dropped it in Flash! You can see the preliminary sketches and the illustrations below:

The deliverables included Personas, UX Strategy, Sitemap, Wireframes and Userflows. The solution required solving for allowing users to name their price for the song they want. Once you find a song, GreenLight will help guide you to submit a competitive offer to the music companies. When you make an offer, GreenLight goes to work securing the necessary approval from song owners.

The logic behind the UI was to streamline as much as possible the number of steps involved and to hide from the user the possible confusion of multiple scenario variations that normally would arrive in an offline experience. The result was to focus on a solution that was quick and intuitive.