[iRail] Using Miet 1: iRail.be 3.0

Mon Nov 21 21:52:39 UTC 2011

Hi Greet, Miet & list,

You're totally right! If everyone is ok with it, I think this will be 
the main issue we'll talk about on Thursday.

Kind regards,

Pieter

On 11/21/2011 10:16 PM, Greet Derudder wrote:
> Hello everyone!
>
> So here's what I'm thinking. Some of the things Pieter is naming in 
> his e-mail have actually occurred to me too while using the website, 
> and I like where he's going with it. But I've taken another look at 
> the website and purely design-wise, I think it's ok for now. It's not 
> the most fantastic mobile website in the history of mobile websites, 
> but it's really not bad, it does the job and it looks good. What could 
> be changed is the functionality, but a redesign of iRail.be is in my 
> opinion not a priority if we're thinking about what Miet could do.
>
> From the perspective of someone who looks more at the design side of 
> things than the code behind it (because unfortunately I don't know 
> much about that), and also keeping the whole branding thing in mind 
> (iRail as a brand/identity vs. iRail.be as the website in se), I think 
> what we could use most is a complete rethinking of the iRail style 
> guide (huisstijl). Because we don't really have one actually, and a 
> clear and recognisable brand identity is in my opinion almost just as 
> important as the quality of the products. (When I say style guide, I 
> mean a logo, colors, fonts, and other design elements that need to be 
> uniform across the used media, but also the concept/mission behind 
> iRail, its values, goals, ... An example is the style guide of Ghent 
> University <http://www.ugent.be/nl/werken/organisatie/huisstijl>, 
> documented in detail on their website.)
>
> If there is a style guide, it can easily be applied to everything that 
> sends out the message "hello, we're iRail and this is who/what we 
> are": the logo (!!), websites (irail.be <http://irail.be>, 
> npo.irail.be <http://npo.irail.be>, blog.irail.be 
> <http://blog.irail.be>, ...), letters, invoices and other 
> administrative paperwork, business cards (!), powerpoint 
> presentations, stickers and other merchandising, ... I personally 
> think the importance of a uniform style in any and all communication 
> cannot be stressed enough, it's what makes people remember and 
> recognise iRail and what helps them get a first idea of what iRail is. 
> (And coincidentally, it will also make life easier for other iRail 
> people who won't have to come up with a new design for everything they 
> do, from letters to powerpoint presentations and so on.)
>
> I think now that Miet is here, it is the perfect opportunity to tackle 
> this task, and in the long run iRail could really benefit from Miets 
> help in this department! :-)
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Greet
>
> On Sat, Nov 19, 2011 at 13:06, Pieter Colpaert 
> <pieter.colpaert at gmail.com <mailto:pieter.colpaert at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     Dear iRail people,
>
>     We need to use Miet.
>
>     For those who haven't read: Miet is a student graphic design who
>     has to work with a non-profit for her last-year studies. In
>     February I assume she has to present something on her work, so
>     let's make it worthwhile.
>
>     Which projects can use her help? Until Thursday I will try to
>     launch some ideas on the mailinglist open for discussion. The
>     first idea:
>
>     iRail.be 3.0
>
>     This website is our business card. It's not our most successful
>     project, but as this is "iRail.be" we'll need to do something
>     special with it.
>
>     Low-level, on client side, I think these things might be done better:
>
>      * Full blown html5/jquery single page website
>      * RDFa ("gui 3.0") for query and result pages. By doing this we
>     can say: This page gives The Web information about this place
>     which happens to be a station.
>
>     At mid-level we still lack:
>
>      * Support for vehicle information
>      * Integration with foursquare and other location based social
>     networks
>      * "Tweet about your journey"
>      * Push messages for delays
>
>     High-level, where Miet can help, we might need a lot of help into
>     building something new and innovative from scratch. Don't think
>     about technology, think about what you would like in an
>     application for trains, and for bus/trams/planes/... later on.
>     iRail.be doesn't get used a lot (200requests/day, in comparison to
>     4000 BeTrains requests/day on android). This gives us the
>     opportunity to do something special here.
>
>     What was I thinking about? A user centric mobile app. You can log
>     in using your facebook, twitter or google account (openid/oauth).
>     According to your current location and your previous use of
>     iRail.be, you will be able to start typing your desired journey
>     while we autocomplete according to a calculated probability of
>     what you might mean. For instance if I'm somewhere in the vicinity
>     of Ghent, and I'm typing G, Ghent sint pieters should be
>     autocompleted in the "from" field. When I'm typing A in the "to"
>     field, Antwerp Central station will be autocompleted, as I did
>     that journey a lot before. The part where you select date & time
>     needs to be minimalised. When people are using iRail they want to
>     plan their journey just in time, eg. when you want to leave in 10
>     minutes. When a result is shown, it should be very easy to request
>     later journeys or the last journey possible that day.
>
>     The result page needs to be optimised. I don't only want to see
>     the journeys, I also want to be able to view the train details
>     (where will my train stop?) and the details & news feed about a
>     station (what other trains are currently in delay? Did something
>     awkward happen? What are people tweeting? Can I have a coffee
>     during my 15 minute waiting time?), but these "details" should
>     only become visible when I ask for them.
>
>     The result page needs to contain a check-in button. I want iRail
>     to know I took this train, and perhaps I want to automatically
>     share this through facebook/twitter/google. But, when you do this,
>     there will be a "present". We will inform you when you are
>     eligible for an NMBS refund, we will fill out the form ourself and
>     send you a PDF by mail.
>
>     If Miet would like to help on this project, we need the graphic
>     interface which will guide the user, a new graphic design for this
>     new mobile website and so on. But we will also need people who
>     like javascript/html5, people who like to integrate social
>     networks, people who would like to create a refunding back-end and
>     so on.
>
>     What do you guys think?
>
>     Kind regards,
>
>     Pieter
>
>     -- 
>     iRail vzw/asbl
>     +32(0)486/747122 <tel:%2B32%280%29486%2F747122>
>
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>
>
>
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