Blog

31Mar

Life Resources

Whether your biggest concern is coping with stress, managing time, getting organized, handling finances, enriching your social life, or keeping up with your exercise program, Viderity’s resource guide can help. Many thanks to the staff who contributed to this list of useful links. Get rewarded for regular spending . Rakuten The Points Guy Birthday Rewards: Krazy  Coupon Lady The Best 149 Birthday Freebies Veterans also get many free things on Veterans Day! NFCU Flagship Credit Card reimburses you for Amazon Prime 3. Increase your productivity with technology gadgets. Best Portable Monitors PCMag TechRadar Best Lighting for Webcam Streaming Top 5 Laser Keyboards Best Smart Plugs CNET PCMag GoSund 4. Diversify your culinary palate from your couch. Delivery DoorDash UberEats GrubHub Postmates Prepared Meals Uncooked HelloFresh BlueApron Cooked TerritoryFoods DailyHarvest 5. Reduce fear, anxiety, and loss with an emergency plan. Survival Guide(San Francisco Chronicle) Emergency Kit(Red Cross) How to Pack an Emergency Bag 6. Stick to your...

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31Mar

Creating Happiness

We hope these videos bring a smile to your face – the theme of the collection is creating happiness! It can be tricky to spotlight happiness because reaching that state of being is widely subjective and deeply personal. That said, we think the following contributions – an experiment in gratitude, an unconventional happiness ‘formula’, a beautiful bond, and a celebration of life – stimulate feelings of hope and positivity and inspire general happiness. We hope you feel the same. At our executive-team meeting this month, we spent time reflecting on the past year and all of the things in and outside of Viderity that we are grateful for. It was a special moment – like the experiment in this video, we...

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13Aug

Viderity Helps Overhaul NSF App

The National Science Foundation has supported research in all fields of science and engineering for over 70 years. In 2018, the NSF worked with Viderity to overhaul its “NSF Science Zone” mobile app. The primary purpose of overhauling the app was to increase awareness for the NSF’s grant recipients by publicizing images and video of research results in a fun and easily digestible way. Viderity built a new, visually compelling app through ongoing collaboration with the stakeholders at NSF. Viderity used Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator to accomplish this, and also used Adobe XD for the first time for prototyping and testing. Since the relaunch of the app went incredibly well, Viderity is now using XD to redesign NSF’s website and...

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19Apr

How to Prevent Zoom Burnout

Below you'll find a collection of general principles we try to keep in mind at Viderity when communicating with teammates, within departments, across the company, and with the public. They aren't requirements, but they serve to create boundaries and shared practices to draw upon when we do the one thing that affects everything else we do: communicate. 1. You can not not communicate. Not discussing the elephant in the room is communicating. Few things are as important to study, practice, and perfect as clear communication. 2. Real-time sometimes, asynchronous most of the time. 3. Internal communication based on long-form writing, rather than a verbal tradition of meetings, speaking, and chatting, leads to a welcomed reduction in meetings, video conferences, calls, or other...

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15Jan

Virtual is the New Face of Government

As customers and consumers become more comfortable using technology it only stands to reason that government, traditionally behind the private sector when it comes to things like process innovation, would also be utilizing technology more and more. The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been playing an ever-expanding role into public systems for years. However, the bridge between government-based AI and citizens appears to be ready to evolve. According to industry leaders, the next phase of customer contact and information sharing will be Virtual Reality (VR) or Augmented Reality (AR). And, as AR and VR are expected to play ever increasing roles in the coming decade, systems and those associated with them will have to find new ways to...

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06Nov

The Benefits of Automation You Didn’t Imagine

Automation pays out, and relatively quickly too. But some of the benefits come from less obvious places. Viderity looked at the impact — costs and benefits — of automation in the world of application management, based on in-depth interviews with Viderity clients. For many organizations, the catalyst for considering automation is a cost reduction target. However, most clients quickly discover that the benefits of automation go much further than just reducing operating cost. No doubt, straightforward cost reduction is a benefit. AI and cognitive technologies, as well as preventative maintenance, can reduce the need for human intervention in routine tasks. For Viderity clients, automation led to a 70 percent reduction in ticket desk volumes* which can have an immediate impact on...

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28Aug

AI in 2019: Are chatbots the future?

Mention the phrase ‘automated phone system’ and no rationale person thinks of the free exchange of information and ideas. The limits are due to framework constraints, a lack of critical thinking and a proxy set that can only answer the most basic of questions. Anything more complicated than this requires human intervention because AI is in its embryonic state. However, if you need information, and because your options are limited, then you must enter into the push-button phone matrix that not even Keanu Reeves can crack! But, what if there was a system in place that knew the information completely. A system with intuitive, instant recall that could respond to unique and person-specific inquiries - in any language -...

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05Nov

UX Myth: People actually read on the web

Steve Krug, author of Don’t Make Me Think, claims that web users don’t read, they scan. Only when people are interested in the content do they read web pages word for word. Normally, pages are skimmed for highlighted keywords, meaningful headings, short paragraphs, and scannable lists.   Well-structured pages designed for cursory reading are more likely to be read. Web-usability studies conducted by Neilson suggest that most users read merely 28% of text on a web page, and that concise, scannable and objective copywriting can result in 124% better usability. When people arrive on a web page, they immediately begin scanning to decide whether or not the page is of value to them. For this reason, web content constructed for scannability can certainly pay off.   According to usability.gov, six factors can provide...

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02Nov

UX Myth: Simple = Minimal

Simple and minimal go hand in hand, but they are not synonymous. Minimal design is a visual decluttering of objects, forcing designers to say more by displaying less. It is a reduction in style elements, adding only enough to tell a story, accomplish a task, or meet product goals. According to Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO, minimalism is skin deep. What appears simple-looking can contain hidden complexities in UI.   Minimal Website: Landlife Minimal Website: basecamp Simplicity seamlessly blends the whole experience. Where there is both simplicity and usability, the overall product/application will shine. Design choices are meant to support product goals and empower users, period.   Simple Website: Apple In his book, The Laws of Simplicity,( http://lawsofsimplicity.com/, John Maeda notes, “On the one hand, you want...

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09Oct

The Future of Digital Government

The Future of Digital Government Going Digital means more than just using new technology to deliver services to people. It involves solving problems in new and different ways. It means changing how people work and enhancing operations in a myriad of ways. NASA has done this by deploying Virtual Reality as a data visualization tool, and the Department of Veterans Affairs has used it to treat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It will no longer be business as usual when the government fully embraces new technology. The changes will impact every federal agency and every federal employee. Businessman pressing button on touch screen interface and select Government. Business, internet, technology concept.; Shutterstock ID 334796147; PO: digital government The Emerging Landscape of the Digital...

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