When we began working with the RTÉ Radio team, the first thing we did was set about creating the player from the ground up. To do this we worked together to define the features and requirements for the player. With this information we began the development of the information architecture and wireframes prototypes. The new player would allow listeners access ten stations through a single interface and the challenge was to focus on how the listener would interact with player (listen to live broadcasts, catch-up with that week’s shows, and search the archive) across multiple platforms and browsers through an intuitive and simple interface.

Clare Duignan, the MD for RTÉ Radio describes the update to the RTÉ Radio site “The new Radio Player makes listening to RTÉ Radio so easy; for the first time there is a real sense of the breadth and diversity of what RTÉ Radio offers across its eleven services, and for the first time those services are truly searchable, shareable and instantly accessible. I am particularly pleased that this Player will improve what we offer our listeners overseas who, we know, value RTÉ as a reliable and engaging voice and who depend largely on the internet to maintain contact with Ireland.”

Once the requirements and feature were agreed upon our UX team began the design process. We created a number of potential interfaces that were presented to the RTÉ Radio team for review and through a number of subsequent rounds, the design was approved.

On completion of the design stage we delivered the final prototype to RTÉ Digital who developed the player for online, iPhone, iPad, and Android.

Martin Casey, Arekibo’s Managing Director said, “This was a brilliant project, it was filled with great meetings where we worked in partnership to create a world class radio player. We are thrilled to be involved in this project and it was a pleasure working with RTÉ Radio and RTÉ Digital. It’s been great to see the enthusiastic feedback on social networks and you’ll never miss another RTÉ Radio show from now on”.

The RTÉ Radio Player can be found on the RTÉ website.

The launch of the site is only the beginning to Fyffes’ digital expansion.Over the past year Arekibo has Fyffes have been working together to develop a long-term digital strategy to promote deeper and more meaningful conversations between the company and her customers.

Drum roll…Arekibo Digital have won the The IIA Net Visionary Awards 2011 for best Web Design and our client the Arts Council have won the Best eGoverment Award.

‘It’s brilliant to win the award and it’s  great recognition for our team. I would also like to congratulate the Arts Council who we have been working with since 2007 for winning the Best eGovernment award.’  said Martin Casey our MD  who attended the awards at the National Gallery in Dublin last night. said

Thanks to everyone who voted for Arekibo!

The Direct Mail dropped on the doorsteps of a fixed list of clients. The Direct Mail piece took the form for an imitation portable tablet device which when opened presented a personalised unique URL and PIN, which when visited gave the user the opportunity to enter a competition to win an iPad2 and invited site visitors to join and follow the Mail Media Unit on their chosen Social Networks.

Once entered they can review the inspiring casestudies that promoted the effectiveness of this dual channel approach.

Arekibo advised on the best use of the 2 channels, advising on and implementing a Social Media strategy for the campaign. This consisted of developing a custom Social Media presence across Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube. The project also included creating custom tabs on Facebook as well as custom section on the An Post website.

The campaign is helping the Mail Media Unit to grow their existing following as well build their new networks.

Arekibo worked in partnership with KPMG Ireland to develop the new website to make the Graduate Recruitment process more engaging and informative for prospective applicants. We consulted with graduates to understand what information they needed to make their career decisions.

KPMG is a leading provider of professional services in Ireland. KPMG work with clients in all sectors of Irish business, providing a range of Audit, Tax and Advisory services. KPMG in Ireland has 77 partners and 1,750 people in offices in Dublin, Belfast, Cork and Galway.

And with this Arekibo is pleased to announce the launch of DOCOsoft’s new website.

DOCOsoft has been operating in the document management sector in Dublin and London since 1997, and since then has established itself as one of the leading document management companies in the City of London.

DOCOsoft’s new site is built on the industry leading content management system (CMS), Sitefinity.  Using the latest version of the Sitefinity system, Arekibo was able to bring state-of-the-art technologies to the new site.  The award winning Sitefinity is used by some of the biggest brand name companies and organisations in the world and has many features designed to ensure sites are always working to their best.  The CMS features;

• In built SEO tools to help ensure sites remain search engine optimised,
• Integrated site analytics,
• Modern accessibility features,
• Full integration with other systems and technologies,
• Completely scalable.

But this new site release was not just about technology; Arekibo designed and created a professional but friendly looking corporate site, which compliments DOCOsoft’s modern approach to document management.

Arekibo engaged their copywriting and search engine optimisation (SEO) team to ensure that the site performs to its best in search engines such as Bing and Google.  This site-wide SEO review was structured to ensure the site performed its best in the competitive document management sectors in the UK and Ireland.

DOCOsoft customers can get the latest information about developments by the DOCOsoft team with the new News and Events feature, they can also access online support features and training information.   Prospective customers can access demos of DOCOsoft products using the site and learn more about what DOCOsoft has to offer their business.

The new site is being rollout on a staged basis over the coming weeks.

With the 2011 iPhone app you can search all of the 1,300 events across the country by location, so you can find the best events happening near you (or far away if you want to visit some of the amazing beauty spots dotted around the country).

Got some free time coming up soon? Great! The Heritage Week iPhone app lets you search for events by date, so you can be sure you won’t miss a thing.

If you have a passion for archaeology, want to hone your sporting skills, or just need an event to entertain the under 12s, the app’s category search will help you find those events you just can’t miss.
Speaking of not missing an event, with the app’s ‘Favourite’ feature you can bookmark those not-to-be-missed events together in one place.

The Heritage Week iPhone app is not just the place to find out the latest about the 2011 Heritage Week of events; it is the place to share events, invite friends and discuss your experiences.  With the app you can share via your Facebook Wall your experiences of the events you have visited.

But the app is not just a great way of telling your friends about the experiences you have had during the many excellent events taking place throughout the week; it is also a great way of arranging which events to visit with your friends.  The Heritage Week app lets you create Facebook Events to which you can invite your family and friends, ensuring that no matter what event you attend you will be in good company.

The app gives you all the information you need for a great day out, including whether the event is happening indoors or out, whether it’s accessible by wheelchair or suitable for children.  And if you want more information about the event, the app will tell you how to contact the organiser.  Sure, what more could you want?

The application compliments the Heritage Week website, also developed by Arekibo, which provides the latest information about the events taking place during Heritage Week.

Speaking at the launch of the app Michael Starrett, CEO of the Heritage Council said, “we are seeing a true meeting of the old and the new with the launch today of this National Heritage Week iPhone app. A key element of National Heritage Week is its accessibility and inclusion of all, young and old. In addition to the dedicated Heritage Week website and Event Guide, production of this iPhone app is the next step in our commitment to promoting the diverse range of events taking place nationwide throughout the week”.

The free app is available on the Apple App Store now.

Digital Strategy

The DAA required a digital agency capable of creating, managing, and supporting the Authority’s complete set of online and digital initiatives.  As one of the 10 busiest airports in the world the DAA’s ethos of “Helping you on your way” was the inspiration behind Arekibo and the DAA’s partnership.

The DAA asked Arekibo to create a fully integrated digital landscape that would help the Airport’s 20 million annual passengers, as well as their friends and family, use Dublin, Cork, and Shannon Airports.

With this brief Arekibo built a series of resources that worked as one for the convenience of the Authority’s staff and customers.

Arekibo’s first action was to move the three airports to the Sitefinity CMS platform for public and private facing websites. To compliment this move Arekibo built and integrated the DAA’s iPhone app, which uses many of the same information resources as the site.  The app was also integrated into the DAA’s specialised parking site.  The DAA’s innovative Loop Shop, which allows passengers to make purchases before they depart and collect their items on their return, is fully supported with its own e-commerce site saving passengers time and money.

The iPhone App

While these have been customer focused media, designed to improve the experiences of the DAA’s 20 million annual customers; Arekibo has also been working with the Authority in the redevelopment of their iConnect Intranet.

The new iConnect intranet, which launched on July 19, streamlines the DAA’s internal communications across its three campus sites, Dublin, Cork, and Shannon, providing staff and managers with greater access to the company’s internal information.

As with the DAA’s other sites the intranet has been designed with the end user in mind.  The site uses the powerful and user-friendly Sitefinity content management system which allows DAA staff to quickly add, update, and alter the site’s content.    This new site features improvements to staff profiles, document management, workflow processes, and a more powerful search functionality.

For staff, the iConnect intranet now allows for the faster publishing of internal news, staff offers, and internal communications.  As the industry standard Sitefinity platform is designed to handle multiple users, the site’s updates can now be managed across several departments.  In practical terms this means the site is more up-to-date and contains more accurate information for each section of the business.

The redevelopment of the iConnect intranet was accompanied by improvements to the internal IT infrastructure.  This combination of hardware and software will allow the DAA, going forward, to publish more rich media, such as photos, documents, and videos.

This ease of use, accessibility, and improved technology is vital to the smooth back-office operations of one of Europe’s busiest airports and is bound to improve the travelling experiences of DAA’s customers as well as the streamlining DAA’s internal communications.

CampusIT is a leader in the development of state-of-the-art student interaction software for the higher level education sector.  CampusIT’s suite of education-sector software provides higher level institutions with improved efficiencies in student enrolment, student administration, and alumni management.

With offices in Dublin and London the company’s clients include some of the most recognisable names in the British and Irish higher level education.  These include Ireland’s DIT, NUI Galway, National College of Ireland, The National College of Art and Design (NCAD), The Law Society of Ireland, and the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland.  In the UK CampusIT’s clients include, Southampton Solent University, University of Wales, Newport, South Cheshire College and The Royal Agricultural College, amongst others.

The redeveloped site is focused on the customer; with the live chat function potential and established CampusIT customer can talk live with a member of the CampusIT staff.  New customers can see how the company’s solutions can benefit them by requesting a demonstration.  The new site also features an improved design and easy-to-use navigation as well as social media integration.

The launch of the new site is part of CampusIT’s continued growth in Ireland and the UK.  The company recently announced the creation of 14 new jobs in areas such as interface design, system analysis, and data analytics.

The recently launched An Post Rás website by Arekibo was designed with the racing enthusiast in mind. The site features realtime tracking of the race stages, full integration with social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Flickr as well as high quality rich media. With these racing fans need never miss a beat of the action of the challenging, 1,247 kilometre, eight day event.

The site also features a full media archive of the Rás’s near 60 year history.

Arekibo is proud to worked with An Post to help bring the Rás, now in its 58th year, to Irish and international cycling fans.

Follow the action on the An Post Rás website here.