Breath of Fresh Air for Four Winds

In the homestretch of a  long project, Four Winds Interactive reached out to Wyolution to shore up and complete some development tasks required to go live.  Faced with a long list of issues to address and a short time frame, we structured the effort to utilize not only Wyolution’s resources, but FWI’s as well.  We provided designers direct access to the project to make changes on the fly while Wyolution focused on heavy lifting tasks.  This collaborative approach drastically reduced turn around time without compromising our software development processes and standards.

Visit Site: www.fourwindsinteractive.com

 

fwi-page

 

Back to School

When one of the top school districts in Wyoming was ready for a website overhaul, they partnered with Wyolution and PB Communications for UX design, information architecture and development to ensure the new web presence would support students, parents and the public on a wide range of devices.

The project included a content management system that allows staff from the district as well as all 10 schools to update and deliver timely communications. Schools have their homepages with stories and calendars while the district and the main homepage can bubble up and display a story from any of the existing school stories.

As a consumer of Google services, the district utilizes calendars to track academic, sporting and district events across all schools.  We were able to integrate these 50+ calendars into the site thus eliminating the need to build and delivery copies of all these calendars and support the districts initiative to only have to manage a single calendar for any one category of events.

Visit site: www.scsd2.com

scsd2-homepage

 

Keeping Adventurers Safe

On The GrandImagine being on top of the world – the Grand Teton at 13,775 ft., soaring over 6,530 ft above the ground below.  Beneath you are huge vertical walls, granite rock slides, steep glaciers and thin mountain air.  Above you is nothing but blue sky.

In a place like this you want your climbing guide to be aware of every possible condition.  Exum Mountain Guides recently teamed with Wyolution to implement a new “guide’s only” section of their backend system that allows guides to communicate with one another conditions they experience in one of the World’s most extreme settings.  This system includes the ability to post conditions; use threaded comments; and upload files so guides can share pictures of conditions and data sheets.

When safety is concern #1, there is no one in the world better than Exum Mountain Guides, and Wyolution is proud to play a small part in keeping their clients safe.

Exum Mountain Guides Reloaded

Exum Programs Page
Exum Mountain Guides’ Programs page allows visitors to dynamically switch between different program types, and even switch from winter to summer programs, all without leaving the page.

Climbing, skiing and adventuring in the Grand Tetons of Wyoming are amazing experiences, and no one knows that better than Exum Mountain Guides.  Recently Wyolution partnered with Wyoming, Inc. and Exum to develop a site befitting of Exum’s surroundings.  The design features stunning photography from the many Exum guides, along with killer videos and updated content that focuses on the climbing experience.

Technically, Wyolution was able to create a “responsive” site that morphs well to tablet and mobile platforms, while still keeping the beautiful look and feel of the original site.  Using jQuery’s isotope technology, the site features a very flexible page layout that promos Exum’s many programs in a unique and appealing way.

Because Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is so critical in today’s environment, Wyolution created an updated URL structure that is more SEO friendly for search engines, while maintaining past “linkology” so existing indexes and bookmarks didn’t break.  After all, having a gorgeous site doesn’t do much good if no one can find you!

Most people climb the Grand Teton in the summer, when the snow has left the valley and temperatures on the peak are more…hospitable.  Yet, there is a whole group of adventurers that see a 10′ blanket of snow as inviting as a field of wild flowers.  For those people, Exum guides skiing, hosts winter mountaineering courses, and instructs ice climbing throughout the region.  To help Exum cater to both seasons, Wyolution created a site that can morph

Exum on a Samsung Galaxy Tab Mobile Device
Exum on a Samsung Galaxy Tab Mobile Device

into whatever season the visitor desires.  Using dynamic CSS and jQuery-drivin Javascript, everything from slider images to link colors change depending on whether the viewer prefers short sleeves or a down jacket.  The site even adjusts content — the programs a visitor sees — depending on what they are interested in.  When the goal is to convert a web visitor into a “flesh and blood” visitor, providing your audience with exactly what they want is crucial.

Wyoming, Inc. worked hand-in-hand with Exum and Wyolution as the marketing specialists — marrying design and professional content with the technology provided by our developers.  With Exum’s incredible story and images; Wyoming, Inc’s ability to provide consumable information; and Wyolution’s technical skillset, we believe Exum ended up with a beautiful and flexibile site that will serve them, and their clients, well into the future.

Performance Improvement with New Relic

New Relic ScreenshotPerformance can make or break an Internet Application.  The trouble is, there are a lot of moving parts – from database queries on the backend to server performance, from slow network traffic to poorly designed javascript code.  Trying to get a handle on how your application is performing has traditionally been a very difficult task.

Enter “New Relic“.  This server-based performance-tracking suite of tools helps to monitor, measure and improve performance of applications and, if interpreted and utilized correctly, can save tremendous time in helping to enhance your application.

Wyolution recently integrated New Relic with multiple clients, including the Civilian Marksmanship Program’s Competition Tracker.  We were able to immediately use the results to optimize queries that were slowing down the system; discover, troubleshoot and fix errors that were previously unknown to the team; and fine tune various parts of the stack to increase performance significantly.  The result is a faster-running, more error-free environment for the CMP’s user base; a better product for the CMP that generates less support calls; and peace of mind at Wyolution that the app is running smoothly, performing well, and being monitored for trouble spots should they arise.  That’s a win-win-win in our book.

Using Data Visualization for Match Status

CMP Match StatsWhen The Civilian Marksmanship Program (the CMP) holds shooting matches, it isn’t a group of guys plinking at targets out behind town.  These are the premier shooting events held in the US, in which thousands of competitors – from military sharp shooters to amateur shooting enthusiasts – compete.  Wyolution has worked hand in hand with the CMP to develop software that handles the logistics behind the competitor registration, match operations, and results tracking of all of their sanctioned events.

One area of recent improvement to the system dealt with match registrations.  When you have 2,500 competitors showing up for a match, staffing resources to handle the registration and check-in is an event in itself.  Prior to the fall of 2013, the CMP had to run reports and tailor the data with past experience to understand how the match was progressing.  Wyolution turned to data visualization to help make this process more clear.

Now the CMP can tell at a glance how registrations are progressing; how many shooters have been verified as part of a match; how many entrants have cancelled; and the % of participants that have checked into the match.  This “at a glance” view has helped the CMP plan for staffing as well as get a clearer picture on the historical trends surrounding the dynamics of match participation.

Supporting Coach USA

coachusaSeveral of the members at Wyolution have had a long relationship with Coach USA.  We designed, implemented and maintained my aspects of their collection of web sites and applications.  From eCommerce solutions that address sight seeing trips to scheduled services that move people on a daily basis, we have played an active role to ensure these applications continue to meet the needs and goals of CoachUSA.

Their schedule services operates many useful bus routes in North America.  Their safe, reliable, and convenient scheduled services will get you downtown, to the office, to the airport, home from college, or wherever you need to go.  Services are offered across 34 states with hundreds of stops spread across many cities.  The system was designed to allow day-to-day maintenance of schedule changes to be managed by Coach USA through existing workflows.  No intervention on our part is required.

Currently our focus is providing 24/7 support.  Whether we are called upon to fix a bug or address a security concern or add a feature, we are there for Coach USA.

CoachUSA

Coach USA owns over 20 local companies in North America that operate scheduled bus routes, motorcoach tours, charters, and city sightseeing tours. We cover three geographic areas: the North East and North Central regions of the United States, and Canada.  These local companies are each independently managed and operated to meet the specific needs of their local communities.

References:
Coach USA : http://www.coachusa.com/

 

 

 

San Francisco International Airport : A look back

Flysfo.com ( 2009 )
Flysfo.com ( 2009 )

Wyolution provided the technical support amongst a team of vendors tasked with designing, implementing and providing maintenance and support for one San Francisco International Airport’s customer facing web site flysfo.com ( http://www.flysfo.com ) from 2006 to 2013.

During that time Wyolution deployed, configured and maintained flysfo.com on a OpenCMS ( a Java and XML based solution ).  It was an extremely stable platform and served tremendous amounts of users a month.

While day-to-day updates and content management were handled by SFO staff, Wyolution built a number of applications that allowed various departments within SFO to manage their content and information with minimal or no technical expertise.  Applications included:

  • Customer Email Management System : A legacy application that was ported as is to the Java platform that managed the correspondence with SFO and travelers to ensure submitted questions and concerns got answered and addressed by the correct people at SFO.
  • Flight Status : The most used application on site allowed visitors to check on arrival and departure information.  Information presented online matched the same information being displayed on flight boards within the terminals.  Our application utilized data aggregated by the vendor ARINC.
  • Jobs Database : SFO managed hundreds of jobs across all the vendors within the terminals.  The jobs application allowed them to quickly post and take down job reqs.

We also provided tier-2 support around the clock in the event of a problem.  If SFO’s support couldn’t resolve a problem, a call would be placed to our 24/7 support system and Wyolution would get involved to address the issue.

SFO was a fantastic organization to work with and we expect them to continue to delivery a site that consistently ranks among the top International websites in the world.

References:
Flysfo.com : http://www.flysfo.com
OpenCMS : http://www.opencms.org/en/
ARINC : http://www.arinc.com/

First People’s Center for Education

fpcfe-photo1Through our involvement with ServeWyoming.org we were asked to help First People’s Center for Eduction build and launch a new site that they could manage.

FPCFE mission is, “to improve and support teacher effectiveness in Native communities, because we believe America’s First Children deserve the best.”  Building a site that could effectively manage was a key step in fulfilling this objective.

ServeWyoming promotes collaborative efforts among private, non-profit and governmental organizations that advance community service, volunteer programs and activities in each Wyoming community.  If you or your company is interested in volunteering, contact ServeWyoming.org.

We worked with a great team who had tremendous passion for their mission and the people they served. 

servewyoming-logo

References:
First People’s Center for Education : http://www.fpcfe.org/
ServeWyoming : http://www.servewyoming.org/

RockResorts – Luxury Resort Hotels

BC.Pines.Hot_Tub.na.lgRockResorts’ luxury resort hotels offer casually elegant accommodations, state-of-the-art RockResorts® Spas, renowned golf courses, award-winning dining and a variety of exciting outdoor adventures. The RockResorts collection includes One Ski Hill Place in Breckenridge, CO; The Osprey at Beaver Creek in Beaver Creek, CO; The Pines Lodge in Beaver Creek, CO; The Arrabelle at Vail Square in Vail Square, CO; The Lodge at Vail in Vail Village, CO; and Half Moon in Jamaica.

Wyolution helps support the reservation booking engine for these luxury properties.  Employees of Wyolution have worked for years on enhancing and supporting this system.  Though not our tradition LAMP solution, we do support Microsoft based solutions from time to time.

References:
RockResorts : http://rockresorts.com/
Vail Resorts, Inc. : http://www.vailresorts.com/

Fremont County Firewise Has New Home on the Web

Fremont County Firewise has a new home on the web:  http://www.fremontcountyfirewise.com.  Based on a beautiful design by Julie Cornia at Black Dog Design, Wyolution has put together a new site designed to help FCFW better communicate with its constituents.

FCFW’s mission is critical to areas like Fremont County that sit on the ‘Wildland/Urban Interface’, and we are pleased to be a small part in helping homeowners in the area have access to valuable information that FCFW has available,” remarked Jared Kail, technical lead on the project.

The mission of FCFW is “to provide public education about Firewise home design, Firewise landscaping, and to provide Stewardship plans which help to mitigate the hazards in and around homeowner’s property”, all in an attempt to minimize the potential of fire loss on the boundaries where homes end and wildlands begin.  To help with that, Wyolution has created a flexible WordPress site with a custom theme that will allow staff at FCFW to rapidly update content as new information becomes available, including news releases and a community calendar in addition to the aforementioned areas.

Wyolution Completes Tahoe.com Revamp

Working hand in hand with the Internet Ventures Group at Swift Corp, Wyolution released a revamped Tahoe.com today.  The new site is based on a flexible platform that allows for easier content maintenance by Tahoe.com staff, gives advertisers better options for enhancing their presence on the site, and affords new flexibility and features that were previously unavailable to the team.