QSTechnologies (Biomark)
QST Data Manager
Design Sprint
Design System
Interactive Technology
Product Desgin
Project Management
Strategy
Cutting-edge data visualization and monitoring for PIT-tag wildlife sites.
QSTechnologies approached Creative Soapbox to build a modern and robust web-based version of their data collection app. Previously powered by Cambell Scienfic’s Loggernet, the new solution needed to handle client login and data separation, provide a solid architectural platform for future growth, and provide a user friendly mobile-first interface to allow for easier site data access and monitoring.
The new portal, built on a Ruby on Rails platform, provides a near real-time status of PIT-tag detection sites. Organizations can review key metrics such as last tag detected, last connection, water flow levels, air and water temperatures, and more. Preventative maintenance technicians can remotely monitor overall system heath information such as input voltage, antenna noise, current and capacitance. Remote management minimizes downtime and costly on-site visits reducing O&M labor cost.
Challenge
Design and build a client portal that allows users to monitor, review and receive notifications on PIT-tag information from their remote wildlife monitoring sites.
Outcome
A robust Ruby on Rails application for desktop and mobile with a clear separation of client data that provides dynamic metric graphs, site health data, and configurable notifications based on detailed thresholds.
Industry
Environmental & Social Change
Technology
Date Completed
June 2016
Remote Site Data Collection
QST's remote site data collection comes from multiple sources and formats. Together with our development partner, Customated, and the QSTechnologies team, we built a collection and ingestion services layer that would normalize and store site data in a central database. The normalized data could then be utilized to send near real-time notifications and utilized for advanced queries by the Ruby on Rails application.
Easy-to-use User Interface
The Data Manager portal is accessed by a variety of users ranging from novice to tech savvy. The interface design had to be straight forward and simple while enabling complex interactions with large data sets. The Creative Soapbox team ironed out the user experience details and introduced a styleguide to enforce consistency across all interface elements. The modern, responsive design is easy-to-use and provides users with a native-like app experience.
Marketing Website
While developing the app, QST was preparing to attend a large industry tradeshow. They would unveil new hardware and demo a pre-release of the Data Manager. With a two-week window, the Creative Soapbox designed, developed and launched a new marketing site showcasing their products and new software services.
Closing Out the Project with a Brand Refresh
A couple years after the application launch, Quantitative Sampling Technologies entered into an agreement with industry leader Biomark, combining their years of experience. As part of the merger, we assisted in updating the ingestion engine to accommodate new data types, helped migrate data sets, and established a new styleguide while reskinning the app with the Biomark brand.
Working with the QST team was a blast. We enjoyed the field trips and learning all about the high quality hardware they produce. Building out the ingestion engine in the middleware proved to be challenging but the end result was well worth the effort.
In Partnership With
Let's build your soapbox.
We can work with your existing team or scale to become your team.
