Written by Evelyn Heylen

Interested in creativity? Well, then you were probably with us at the Creativity Festival at Flanders DC in Turnhout on November 9^th 10^th & 11^th.

Missed it? No need to miss out – here’s the Digiti recap.

The Creativity Festival is definitely our type of festival: innovative companies inspiring people with a range of fascinating multimedia experiences and projects. What more could you ask for?

After our attention and imagination were caught, we started planning. Digiti is all about cutting-edge ideas, but we wanted to present them in a friendly and relaxing way. And, what’s more relaxing than spending a day surfing the waves of innovation before enjoying a cocktail (or two) on the beach? Our dreams of surfboards, camper vans, golden sand and cocktails soon became reality. Don’t believe us? Check it out for yourself below. (Just watch out for the seagulls.)

On the surface our booth was the ultimate relaxation spot. A closer look revealed lots of extra interactive details that appealed to visitors of all ages.

An exclusive Digiti Kinect game challenged visitors to save their picnic from devious seagulls by knocking them out the way. At the end of each game, the Kinect console showed pictures it had taken of the people playing the game. Judging by the comments we heard and the fact that almost everyone wanted to play more than once, the game was a major hit. Find out more on our facebook page and check out the photos on the FVC site.

Tucked into a quiet corner was a QR activity. Visitors used iPads to scan different QR code with surprising results. Some visitors were greeted by a crab, scuttling over the beach, which they could they view in 3D from any angle by simply swiping the screen (if they were feeling brave). Other visitors showed off their creativity and designed their own surfboards, choosing from a multitude of textures and colours, for the best possible effect on all sides. And a third group of visitors had the opportunity to play with a mini Volkswagen camper van, opening and closing doors from any angle.

Business visitors weren’t forgotten either: our demo-reel, played on a huge screen next to the bar, gave a quick overview of some of the many services Digiti offers. 

Talking of the bar… anyone thirsty? In exchange for a business card, a Facebook like or a tweet, our adult visitors received a delicious Digiti cocktail. To recreate the perfect beach drink at home, you’ll need: cava, mint leaves and Bacardi mojito. Simply mix and enjoy. Sunshine and sand are optional.

Last but not least was our Volkswagen camper van. While visitors sat back and enjoyed their cocktails, our SEO experts were on hand to quickly analyse the performance of their current website and give recommendations and suggestions for possible improvements.

We’re now back in the office after three days of non-stop surfing and we’re still riding high. Our visitors’ enthusiasm has really inspired us and we’re bursting with ideas and suggestions for future projects. Now, which idea should we start with…

Fancy catching some waves with us?

Written by Evelyn Heylen

There are 101 reasons why you might need to remove, change or add a user or administrator, maybe it’s a new colleague, changing responsibilities or a different email address. Updating Google Analytics is fairly straightforward, except if it’s your own details that need to be edited.

The powerpoint below shows you how to update your Admin accounts in Google Analytics so you can access it using your new details.

First things first, surf to Google Analytics and login with your old email address.

If you have more questions or comments regarding managing administrators (or users) in Google Analytics, feel free to post them below in the comment section.

Written by Stelian Firez and Evelyn Heylen

The latest Fronteers meeting took place at Digiti on June 21st. Even though it was the same night as the Portugal-Czech Republic Euro 2012 quarter final match, over 40 people turned up to for an evening packed full of stimulating discussions, good company and great snacks. Oh, and the presentations were amazing! (and I’m not saying that just because I gave one of them!)

Just in case that wasn’t enough, Digiti also had one ticket for Fronteers in Amsterdam up for grabs. Tom Claus was the lucky winner – enjoy!

The first half of the Digiti Fronteers meeting kicked off with Kristof ( @houbenkristof) reviewing all the CSS preprocessors currently available. Explaining the advantages and disadvantages of CSS preprocessing definitely got the crowd stirred up and questions were quickly flying around the room. The crowd really appreciated Kristof’s topic choice.

An all-too-quick half time break and it was my turn to take to the pitch. Well, there wasn’t really a pitch, but you know what I mean. Technical difficulties (always blame the projector) held up the start of play, but I was soon back on track, leading everyone on a little journey into website optimization. This is a thrilling topic which can, potentially, have a huge impact on your bottom line as visitors decide to stay and purchase something or avoid your website altogether.

I had planned to blow the final whistle on the presentation and questions before the start of the Portugal-Czech Republic match, but the explanation and discussions of optimization techniques went on longer than expected…

All-in-all, it was a great evening. A huge Thank You goes out to the wonderful crowd (everyone who attended), the stadium owners (Digiti), the match organizers (Fronteers BE) and, of course, the players (Kristof and myself). Don’t miss the review of the match on our Facebook page.

This was such a successful event that we decided to host another match in our stadium soon, we’ll keep you posted on this next event.

Lastly, if you have any anything to add to either presentation, please let us know in the comments below. Let’s see if we can keep the discussions flowing!

Written by Kristof Orts

Once upon a time, the Digiti team went on an incredible adventure.

I know, I know. This sounds like the start of some fantastic fairy tale, but it isn’t. Honest. It’s the story of a fantastic day out, Digiti style.

After a breakfast fit for (creative) kings, the Digiti team listened to some inspiring presentations and took part in some informative and interesting discussions about the future of Digiti. That might not sound all that incredible to you, but just wait until you hear what we’ve got planned! (But, that’s a story for another day)

Enough talking and on with the fun!

The entire Digiti team was driven to a top-secret location. Information was on a need-to-know basis and nobody needed to know anything except they were going to get really, really dirty. Wow - what an understatement that turned out to be.

When the coolest buggy cars we’d ever seen drove round the corner, we were all itching to get started. Driving through the forest, through puddles (or were they small ponds?), through mud – we were covered in dirt in seconds. And we loved every second of it!

Hidden in Kasterlee forest were several team building games that we quickly completed (did you expect anything else from Digiti?) and then onto the river where we were split into two groups and had to paddle our way to the finish. With talented sailor Joris in their ranks, it wasn’t a surprise that the Blues won.

A relaxing, hot shower later and everybody was ready and raring to go again – this time onto a delicious dinner with great company.

And the Digiti team all lived happily ever after.

Really.

How can Digiti help make your fairy tales come true?

Written by Bert Timmermans

Last November Jotomi contacted us to analyze and redesign Dictamus, their successful dictation application. However, even with all its success, Jotomi felt Dictamus needed some restructuring and a more stylish interface to help their users get the most out of this great app.

First things first, what’s Dictamus?
Simply put, Dictamus is a useful, modern alternative to old, clumsy dictation devices. It’s popular with doctors, lawyers and other professionals.

The Project

We split the project into three steps: Analysis/wireframing; Designing the UI; and Branding & icon design.

Analysis/wireframing

Our first task was to analyze the existing app. In other words, answering these questions: What did it do? How did it do it? And why did it do it?

Obviously, the most important part was the recorder. Jotomi research found some users used it ‘blindly’ (i.e. didn’t look at the screen while recording). This probably didn’t help new users who sometimes described it as a bit confusing and illogical…

So our first goal was clear: make Dictamus user-friendly. How did we do this? Well, the new recorder became more timeline based. Each button was given a fixed location and size, positioned to ease navigation and always visible on screen. Plus the play and pause buttons were combined, as users expect.

As well as the main recorder function, we also added new features: bookmarks, highlighting sections, and advanced editing. Making all these new functions fit in the limited space, yet still feel natural, turned out to be a challenge and a half!

Branding & icon design

In our opinion, great icon design begins on paper. Why? Well, it’s quick and easy. Brainstorming and jotting down ideas flows smoothly with paper floating around us. Plus, clients see the evolution of ideas through to the final proposal. And that’s how it worked for Dictamus. Stylish icons based on an actual dictation device.

Designing the UI

Dictamus was brought up-to-date with a dark, modern look and customized UI elements. This was definitely not an old-fashioned cassette recorder or classic microphone!

We made the design in Photoshop with lots of smart objects. Everything had to easily scale to fit different resolutions, including retina displays (like the one used on the new iPad – even though the new iPad hadn’t even been introduced at that point!).

At the end of the design phase we sliced all the assets, ready to integrate into the app. This was easier said than done – each button used at least six images depending on the state and resolution – so a small mistake in the name meant the button wouldn’t always be displayed correctly.

The result

Redesigning Dictamus has been an interesting project and we’ve all really enjoyed working with Jotomi – it’s always great to work with people who are happy to go that extra mile for an outstanding result!

Want to try the Dictamus app for yourself? Check out the App Store. There’s also a free version, so you can try before you buy.

Need some help with an app? We can help, just send us an email.