An interview that just started as his feedback on working with Ideafarms, soon grew into something much more insightful. Mr Kluun shared with us his valuable views and opinions about the need for a solution like the Product Selection Guide in the HVAC industry and how it can especially be a useful tool for any user given the current technologies and interfaces. Which is what gave us the idea of sharing it with all of you via this videolog.

The Product Selection Guide is an interactive Sales Configurator we had designed and developed for Waterloo B.V back in 2003. You can read more about the solution here, or jump straight ahead to the interview.

The Interview

Mr Kluun shares with us his need for the Product Selection Guide at Waterloo B.V.

Back then, a solution like PSG, Mr. Kluun says was at least 10 yrs ahead of its time and according to him this solution now has a lot of potential, especially with the advent of multi-touch interface and portable devices like the iPad and Android tablet.

Watch what he has to say about the future of Sales Configurators like the Product Selection Guide.

Mr Kluun also talks about his experience of working with Ideafarms. This one will make you smile for sure

And also have a look at some of the pictures from his visit here

There is a distinct value that a mobile solution and especially one on a smart phone platform brings to the user.  Smart phones today have practically become an extension of our being; our personal information, wants, needs and traits are all captured within our smart devices. We carry them with us on our person and it’s available with us wherever we go. It is little wonder then that if you are a smart phone user and are also looking for a house, your first instinct will be to look for an app that can help you do just that.

Which is exactly what ReMIX (Real-Estate Mobile India X-change), an Android solution by Ideafarms is designed to do. ReMIX comes packed with features like:

1. A visual & interactive map-based navigation
2. Location-based property listing
3. Property listing and search – for buy or  rent
4. Filtering of selections based on a user’s needs
5. One-tap to connect with property owners / agents
6. Remember properties and mark for future reference
7. Set Alerts
8. White-label product

All of these features and more, backed with our User Experience Design capabilities, ensure that you will have a handy and easy to use solution available with you when you go looking for your next house.

A White-Label Product?!

Did the words ‘white-label’ catch your fancy there? Yes, ReMIX is actually designed as an offering for existing Real Estate Classifieds Portals / Realtors / Real-estate Developers to integrate and offer as a value- add to their existing suite of solutions for their smart phone users. On purchasing a license of ReMIX, all you need to do is hook-up your existing database with ReMIX and you can have your own simple-to-use, branded application available for your smart phone users practically from tomorrow! In effect, we are taking away the headache from you of spec-ing out and developing a solution in-house. You can leave those nitty-gritties to the experts – us –  and have a spanking new Android app in the Android-Market with zero time to market!

All this sounds interesting and you want to know more, get in touch with us. You can email us at its[dot]MAGIC[at]Ideafarms[dot]com and we will be happy to set up a demo for you.

Related articles

• Las Vegas Real Estate Listings Now Available via Luxury Real Estate Partners Mobile (prweb.com)
• Diverse Solutions Launches New Mobile IDX Property Search (prweb.com)
• Technology in Real Estate Today – It’s Not Just The Internet! (athomesense.wordpress.com)

On this long roller coaster ride many came aboard to enjoy the ride. They are now our most loved ambassadors. Some stayed on to keep building a powerhouse of design and innovation. A heartfelt THANK YOU to all for being a part of the journey.

In some ways 2002 seems very very far behind. In most ways it feels like yesterday. Feel the inTENsity of our gratitude in 2012

We love y’all – Happy NEW Year!!!

Predictions for 2012

1.Web design

a) The Definitive Guide To HTML 5

2.  Mobile+Technology

a) Best Tech Predictions Of 2012
b) Twelve Mobile Predictions for 2012

4. Social Networks

a) Five social network predictions for 2012

5. Internet networking + Cloud computing

a) Nimbula: Cloud Computing Predictions for 2012
b) Networking 2012: Analysts predict what’s ahead for the industry

6. Marketing

a) Internet Marketing Predictions for 2012

This week’s post compiled by Bhaskar

1. IBM: Mind Reading machines will change our lives
Minds+Machines+Lives

In five years, we’ll simply be able to think something, and a computer will respond. That’s the vision from IBM. which just published its “5 in 5″ forecast, which attempts to predict five technologies that have the potential to significantly change our lives in the next five years.  More

2. City Fireflies, An Urban Video Game Whose Screen Is A Building
Video Game+ Computer Vision technology+ Smartphones

City Fireflies is a simple game that looks like tons of fun: Players cluster in a plaza in front of a large videoscreen showing a grid of 8-bit-looking “enemy” characters, which is superimposed on a live video image of the physical plaza itself. More

Read More: City Fireflies

3. LYTRO: The Biggest Thing To Happen to Photography Since Digital
Innovation+Camera

This Camera couldn’t  care less about focus . Lytro’s Technology is pretty simple. With this camera you can focus anywhere in the picture, change the light levels — and presuming you’re using a device with a 3-D ready screen — even create a picture you can tilt and shift in three dimensions. More

SEE ALSO : Lytro Camera Interactive Gallery Lets You Try The Magic Yourself [PICS]

4. 4 Big Trends for the Future of Sustainable Tech
Planet+Trends+Sustainabilty

Saving the planet and cutting down on emissions is a good thing, but who says you can’t have a little fun while doing so? “Sustainable” and “green” tech can seem boring, but the next generation of technology isn’t just good for the planet — it’s pretty darn cool to boot. More

5. Photographer i is a new interactive magazine designed specifically for the Tablet
Tablet+ Interactive+Photography

Photographers i is a new tablet magazine The magazine offers readers a behind-the-scenes look at photography, covering every genre possible – outdoor and studio photography, photo-journalism and fine art, editorial and portrait, and more. More

This week’s post compiled by Sanchaita Dey

1. Design by Nature
Design+Design Thinking

In the minds of designers and those who have a soft spot for design, Maggie Macnab is perhaps, a household name, especially when it comes to concepts and ideas behind meaningful visual messaging. If you think you learned a lot from reading her other comprehensive volume, ‘Decoding Design: Understanding and Using Symbols in a Visual Communication’, then be prepared to make room for what you will gleam from ‘Design by Nature’ when you give it the chance it deserves. More

2. Apps For The Environment
Apps+Mobile+Environment

Last June, the Environmental Protection Agency launched a competition called Apps for the Environment, to find new uses for its data, much of which either never sees the light of day, or is poorly presented or difficult to understand. More

You can also find all the submissions here.

3. Ford Teases 2013 Fusion With Logo Recognition
Ford+App+Branding

Ford has launched an iPhone and Android app that is activated by pointing the phone’s camera at a Ford logo — either on a car, online or even printed on a piece of paper. When the app reads the logo, it activates a 360 degree version of the new model, which you can use for a virtual driving course. More

4. A Crossword Puzzle That Doubles As A QR Code
QR Code+Marketing+Idea

Filmmaker Christian Svanes Kolding sees an opportunity for QR codes to be more than just lame marketing tools. More

5. Your Car Is The Next Advertising Battleground
Contextual Advertising

Those hours you spend driving each day will soon be interrupted with contextual advertising, pointing you to that Starbucks around the corner or the McDonald’s just down the street. More

6. The Cult of Ideas
Ideas+Innovation+Design Thinking

The Cult of Ideas is a dangerous cult lurking within the field of corporate innovation. It is a disturbing cult in which members worship massive numbers of ideas above all else. Sadly, however, the ugly truth is that the cult of ideas can stifle creativity and inhibit innovation. More

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Meanwhile the idea of the week at our Garage Sale

Real-time Proceedings Manager

Easily manage any last-minute changes to the sequence of your event – be it the speakers or the presentation. More

This week’s post compiled by Nitish Sharma

Today’s Real Estate Marketplace is filled with a great many Online Exchanges whose primary aim is to empower the consumer to get closer to his dream property. Today’s consumer is aware of the market, knows how to filter and select and has a whole host of services from dedicated agents to Market Exchanges to help him in his selection process. All he needs then, is dedicated time to search for properties – be it on his computer screen, or driving around with his agent.

But consider this,

He doesn’t  always want to drive around looking for a house but would love to find a house when he is driving around
He is very busy and is constantly on the move
He doesn’t always have those few hours to spare and he doesn’t  always know multiple agents who will get him that one house he wants
He’s not always inspired by what he sees and rarely does he find what he wants at the time that he wants it

Property search obviously, still is, a long drawn out, tedious process. At Ideafarms, we’ve turned this whole business of Property Search inside out. We researched the market, drank endless cups of coffee discussing realities with Agents, scraped through the internet looking at technological solutions, and built on our own User Experience study searching for property for our own office premises. Here’s what we realised :

You can’t plan inspiration – that perfect property won’t always wait for agents or portals.
You can’t always plan time – You just have to use it.
And you can’t plan somebody’s property – It is still a very personal decision

We are User Experience Consultants. Understanding people & their interaction with their environment and in their context is our bread and butter. And today, we’ve gone and put our money where our mouth is, literally. Our belief in our experience is so strong that we invested our time, money and resources into creating a solution for users like us who, while still dependent on Agents and Exchanges for property, have the need for something more in tune with their current needs.

The user, like us, is Mobile and his eyes and hands are always glued to the phone. For him, there is nothing more personal than his phone which is with him everywhere he goes. If that is what gives him his inspiration, then that’s where our solution needs to be.

We’ve called our solution Remix, simply because we took the best of what current solutions have to offer and added our experience and brand of creativity to it. It also helped that we had an acronym to fit it well! – Real Estate Mobile India Exchange.

Remix has been built on the Android platform – for today’s changing user and his evolving needs. We believe it augments every solution that exists today to help anyone interested in Property.

We’d love to see it do the same for you.

Get in touch with us.
its.magic@ideafarms.com

1. 10 proven strategies of high performance team![Info graphics]
Strategies+ideas

Who drives product innovation? The answer is small, entrepreneurial development teams — better known as “agile teams” in the high-tech industry.More

2. Call Earth-Eco Dome,Superadobe built from local earth filled Superadobe coils(earth stabilized with cement or lime).
Idea+construction

Cal-Earth’s mission is guided by three principles: (1) shelter is a basic human right, (2) every human being should be able to build a house for him or herself, and (3) the best way to provide shelter for the exponentially increasing human population is by building with earth.More

3. WalkSafe-A pedestrian safety app
Innovation

This Android app uses your smartphone’s camera to sense oncoming traffic, then alerts you to get the hell out of the road..More

4. Creative – CV
Innovation+design

A great showcase design post of some truly creative and inspiration CV designs which for sure would blow away any potential employer.More

5. Learn a language for free, and simultaneously translate the Web.
Web+idea

Duolingo is a beta/experimental website that aims to crowd source text translation. One intended incentive for the users to take part is that they learn a language.More

Luis von Ahn wondered how else to use small contributions by many on the Internet for greater good. At TEDxCMU, he shares how his ambitious new project, Duolingo, will help millions learn a new language while translating the Web quickly and accurately —all for free.

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Meanwhile the idea of the week at our Garage Sale

Interactive Marketing Collateral

Quality and product features are increasingly considered a given. In such a situation, your Sales guys can add value by giving the customer a way to ‘virtually’ experience the actual product.More

This week’s post compiled by Bhaskar Das

1. You can now have green feet, or shoes rather.
Biodegradable

Oat Shoes, a brand new Amsterdam-based initiative that’s combining shoe design and biodegradable materials. Once you’re done wearing the shoes (after a very long time, of course) you can bury them in the garden, in the compost heap or even plant something in them. More

2. Videoinfographic: The world of social media
Social Media

This video info-graphic shows all the latest facts & figures about various social media sites. More

3. Let this website pick your poison
Design + Web

Drinkify is a web app that purports to find the best drink to go along with the band or musician you’re listening to. Just enter the band name and let the app do the work; some names will yield strange ‘drinks’. More

4. For beer brand, A  website made up of chocolate
Design + Web

For the launch of Sagres Preta Chocolate—a stout beer with a chocolate flavor by Portugal’s number one beer brand Sagres—digital agency Grand Union created the first website made of chocolate. More

5. Philographics: Explaining philosophy through basic shapes.
Philosophy + Design

Designer Genis Carreras explores with remarkable visual eloquence in his Philographics project — a series of posters each capturing a single philosophical ideology through simple geometric shapes.More

6.  Recycling a bottle, flashmob style
Recycle

This interesting flash mob takes place in a food court emphasizing on recycling waste. More

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Meanwhile the idea of the week at our Garage Sale

Virtual Guide : Installation & Maintenance

A tool to help the on-field trainer collect the right training instructions for the day. More

This week’s post compiled by Karan Guglani