Geosemantica

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Founder, development director of tmatic.travel

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Personal travel automation: platform for audio guides, travel itineraries, local support

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Geosemantica to accomplish?

• Design and implement a unique visualization technique for displaying audio tour points and routes on the map, ensuring clarity at intersections even when tours overlap or are inputted imprecisely by users.
• Develop a method to distinguish the most popular tours, taking into account regional differences and motivating creators to produce top-quality content in their areas.
• Design and develop a Content Management System (CMS) tailored for the creation of tours, stories, and virtual museums, enhancing user experience and content management efficiency.
• Adapt and optimize the tour viewer for mobile devices, ensuring a seamless and engaging user experience across all platforms.
• Develop a comprehensive API for external consumers and specifically for integration with tmatic.travel mobile applications on both Android and iOS platforms, facilitating data exchange and functionality expansion.
• Execute thorough SEO indexing for the content, enhancing discoverability and accessibility, and driving user engagement through search engine optimization.

SOLUTION

How did you find Geosemantica?

• Online Search
• Referral
• article in mahazine

Why did you select Geosemantica over others?

• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Geosemantica were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

1. Designing a Multiscale Map for Tours, Museums, and Stories - Develop a dynamic, multiscale map capable of displaying various audio tours, museum locations, and historical stories. This map should allow users to easily navigate between different scales and detail levels, ensuring readability and user engagement even in densely packed areas with overlapping tours. 
2. Interface Design and Implementation for Public and CMS - Create a user-friendly, intuitive public interface that allows users to interact with the audio tours, museums, and stories effectively. Simultaneously, design and implement a robust Content Management System (CMS) interface that enables content creators to easily upload, manage, and edit their tours and stories. The CMS should offer tools for creating, editing, and organizing content, as well as analytics features to track user engagement and tour popularity. 
3. Public API Development for Web and Mobile Applications - Develop a comprehensive public API to facilitate the exchange of information between the web platform and mobile applications (both Android and iOS). This API should support functionalities such as retrieving tour data, submitting user-generated content, and integrating with external systems. It must be designed with security, scalability, and performance in mind to handle varying loads and ensure a smooth user experience. 
4. Database Upload of Accumulated Audio Guide Content - Import the existing database of audio guides, tours, and associated content into the new system. This process involves data migration, ensuring compatibility with the new platform's format, and verifying data integrity to ensure all content is accurately represented and accessible. 
5. Search Engine Visibility for Content - Implement SEO best practices to ensure that the content is indexed and ranks well on search engines. This includes optimizing metadata, ensuring fast load times, and structuring content for featured snippets and other search engine features. Additionally, develop a strategy for regularly updating content and metadata to maintain high visibility and engagement. 

Technical and Creative Aspects: 

• Visual and Interaction Design: The visual design must be appealing and functional, with a focus on user experience. The interaction design should consider the user journey, from discovering tours to following an audio guide through the city. 
• Responsive Design: Ensure that the public interface and CMS are fully responsive, providing an optimal experience across all devices and screen sizes. 
• Content Moderation Tools: Incorporate content moderation tools within the CMS to allow for the review and approval of user-generated content, ensuring quality and relevance. 
• Analytics Integration: Integrate analytics tools to monitor user behavior, popular content, and engagement metrics, providing insights for continuous improvement.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Stable Daily User Traffic: Achieving a consistent daily traffic of approximately 3,000 users serves as a strong indicator of the platform's appeal and utility to its target audience. This level of engagement demonstrates the platform's ability to attract and retain a substantial user base, indicating successful user experience and content relevance. 
• Adoption by Museums and Tour Organizations: Having 20 museums and tour organizations embed the platform's iframe on their websites with their content is a significant measure of success. This adoption not only expands the platform's reach and visibility but also validates its value to reputable institutions in the cultural and tourism sectors. It reflects the platform's effectiveness in enhancing the digital presence of these organizations and their willingness to integrate it into their offerings. 
• Active Content Providers: The consistent addition and updating of content by dozens of content providers indicate a robust and dynamic platform that is regularly refreshed with new and engaging material. This level of content provider engagement suggests that the platform is seen as a valuable outlet for their work, fostering a vibrant community of contributors. It also ensures that users have access to up-to-date and diverse content, enhancing the overall user experience.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

• Timeliness and Communication: While there were occasional delays, they remained within acceptable limits, demonstrating the team's ability to manage time effectively. Importantly, the team consistently communicated about any issues promptly, ensuring there were no surprises. This transparent communication about release schedules and potential delays helped in setting realistic expectations and facilitated smooth project progression. 
• Release Management: The team's stability in rolling out releases indicates a well-structured development process. Their proactive communication regarding any problems showcases their commitment to transparency and their ability to manage and mitigate risks efficiently. This approach not only kept the project on track but also built trust through open and honest dialogue.
• Problem-Solving and Value-Driven Approach: Approaching implementation from a product perspective, the team went beyond mere execution to understand the underlying problems and objectives. By doing so, they contributed significantly to finding the best solutions that not only addressed the immediate needs but also provided cost savings. This consultative and collaborative approach emphasized creating value and ensuring the product's success in the long term. 
• Feature Assessment and Financial Prudence: The team’s willingness to discuss the complexity and cost implications of desired features beforehand allowed for informed decision-making. By advising on the feasibility and financial impact of specific features, they ensured that resources were allocated efficiently, focusing on elements that offered the most significant benefit to the project. This foresight and strategic planning helped in prioritizing features that aligned with the project's goals and budget constraints.

What was your primary form of communication with Geosemantica?

Virtual Meeting

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The company stands out for its exceptional mapping expertise, rapid adaptability to changes, and unmatched flexibility in client communication, responding even outside standard hours. These qualities not only showcase their dedication to excellence in spatial analysis but also their commitment to client success, making them a distinguished partner in the mapping and GIS sector.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Geosemantica could have done differently?

Geosemantica could enhance their services by further balancing quality with speed and by more assertively guiding clients towards cost-effective product decisions, helping to optimize investments and ensure high-quality outcomes.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of Kon-Tiki

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We create, produce and sell beautiful maps: paper, digitial ones for web and mobiles.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Geosemantica to accomplish?

• Adapt their web GIS for hosting our spatial data, specifically polygons of buildings and their ages.
• Implement a feature to color-code the buildings based on their construction period.
• Ensure the map is functional and accessible from both mobile and desktop devices.
• Implement a timeline feature, allowing users to select specific time periods using sliders and view the corresponding results on the map.
• Implement dark mode
• Ensure the system operates quickly and efficiently.

SOLUTION

How did you find Geosemantica?

Referral

Why did you select Geosemantica over others?

Company values aligned

How many teammates from Geosemantica were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

• Implementation of a dark mode feature for the web GIS, enhancing visual appeal and user experience, especially in low-light environments.
• Design adaptation for mobile devices, ensuring that both the legend and timeline are properly displayed and easily accessible on smaller screens.
• Introduction of the capability to upload customized map layers, providing users with more flexibility and personalization options for their map views.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The system was capable to support up to 30 concurrent users, demonstrating its robustness and reliability in handling multiple simultaneous accesses. Over 2 million visitors attracted to the map since its launch, indicating widespread user engagement and popularity of the platform.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

The team consistently met the project timelines, demonstrating strong time management and efficiency. They not only adhered to the agreed-upon schedule but also displayed flexibility and responsiveness by assisting with data uploads, despite this task not being part of their initial commitment.

Additionally, they were proactive in refining and implementing small additional design features that emerged during the course of the project, showing their adaptability and commitment to meeting evolving project needs. Their approach was highly customer-focused, catering to specific requirements and changes as the project progressed.

What was your primary form of communication with Geosemantica?

Virtual Meeting

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

What stood out about this company was their exceptional expertise in the field of cartography and maps. Despite being primarily a team of developers, they have a strong appreciation and understanding of design principles, which is evident in their work. Their passion for cartography really sets them apart.

One of the most valuable aspects of working with them was our shared language in terms of industry-specific terms and concepts. This common understanding saved a considerable amount of time and effort, as there was no need to explain complex terms or concepts. Their blend of technical skill and enthusiasm for cartography was a key reason I chose them for this project.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Geosemantica could have done differently?

While their platform for publishing spatial data fully meets my specific requirements, it seems that for other types of projects, the platform may require significant enhancements. An area for improvement would be the continued development and updating of their product. It appears that recently, there has been a lack of new feature implementation.

Enhancing their platform with additional functionalities and updates would not only benefit a wider range of projects but also keep their technology at the forefront of the industry. Therefore, it would be great to see Geosemantica investing more in the development and introduction of new features to their platform.