[UX_Series] Smarter Retail Mobile App

According lot of analysts and vendors, The WebRTC revolution has begun. Polycom, as one of the spearhead of Standard and interoperability, is ready to make WebRTC possible (here). But, in my humble opinion, the technology is not the revolution, the use cases are. It will change the way people use video technology, outside tradition rooms.

One year ago, Polycom has delivered in the market the perfect product to start that revolution: Polycom CloudAXIS, a Web-enabler & Video Enabled Business Process (VEBP) solution for video conferencing.

To illustrate VEBP leveraging CloudAXIS, I have developed a mockup of a mobile retail app to allow customer to engage experts/advisors during their shopping experience.

Description of the use case

Workflow of the use case from an user

Technologies Used:

For that mock-up, I have used all of these technologies:
1/ A NFC Tag and QR Codes - It identifies the store or the article.
2/ An Android Tablet or Smartphone
3/ Polycom CloudAXIS APIs
4/ Polycom RealPresence Mobile 

As you can see in term of technology, it is very easy, but could be very powerful for a customer to enhance its Shopping Experience.

[UX Series] Easy Meeting Mobile Application

One of my leitmotiv at Polycom is the User Experience (UX) and how APIs can improve the UX for end-users even more. In the past, I have develop some app like a "Chrome Extension for Polycom RealPresence CloudAXIS" or show you how to leverage Human Capital (IBM Kenexa) with Polycom technology.

I love the Steve Jobs' approach, he believed that 'the only way to truly capture the full value of technology is to adapt the technology to fit the way we live our lives instead of requiring that we adapt our lives to fit the way the technology works.'

This week, I have develop a new mock-up based on a mobile application and NFC technology. The purpose is to simplify the initialization of a call on Polycom Group Series to a video meeting room (VMR). Out of the box, Polycom Endpoints can retrieve and display calendar information coming from a Microsoft Exchange server. But, you have to have booked the endpoint.
Imagine you have an Open Access room policy or video-kiosk.You have to join a call in 2 min, you have find a free system, but you are not always familiar with the system.
Via your mobile, you can tap the NFC tag to start the call. The android app will retrieve from your calendar meeting details like video meeting id and send the launch command to the Group Series.

Technologies Used:

For that mock-up, I have used all of these technologies:

1/ A NFC Tag - It stores Group Series information.

2/ An Android Tablet or Smartphone
3/ Android Calendar Provider API (here) - I parse the calendar entry to retrieve the VMR number via a specific pattern.
4/ Android NFC API (here) to read the content of the NFC tag in the room.
4/ Polycom Group 500 (here)