Referenser arkiv

Suicide Zero

Challenges and missions:

Suicide Zero work on several important and exciting missions, the main one being suicide prevention. They have also initiated the projects “Livsviktiga snack” (“Vital Conversations” in english) and “Livsviktiga snack i skolan” “(Vital Conversations in School” in english). These projects specifically target parents, adults, and school staff working with children age 9-12. The challenges Spring take on in this project are to meet the diverse needs of the different target groups, and to create solutions for the client where the content is easy and engaging to work with and edit. Based on Suicide zero’s mission and goals, we have summarized our project in three points:

To create a simple editing interface for each website, allowing them to be customized as needed without hassle.
Transform and create websites to ensure interaction and support for users during their visits
Develop a platform for school staff, enabling them to seamlessly work with teaching materials.

New website design of “Livsviktiga snack” och “Livsviktiga snack i skolan”.

The process:

In order to create websites that effectively appeal to different target groups, a user centered design is crucial. Our methodology involved an extensive focus on UX research, facilitated through collaborative workshops with esteemed teams from Suicide Zero, Livsviktiga snack, and Livsviktiga snack i skolan. By creating customer journeys, target group descriptions and personas, we captured comprehensive images of each website’s users. Following the research phase we tackled design and the graphic expression. Notably, the website of Livsviktiga snack has a vibrant and playful visual expression that deviates from the primary design language of the overarching organization, Suicide Zero. The team agreed to keep the playfulness of the websites that focus on children. Considering the seriousness of the subject, it was considered important that the purpose of each project was presented professionally, while not being considered dull or boring.

The sollution:

We chose WordPress as the new CMS and started developing an editor interface where Suicide Zero can efficiently edit content and easily create new pages on the websites, based on customized templates.
For Livsviktiga snack i skolan, we are building a new landing page to inform users about the initiative and how schools can participate. A portal is being created which collects all the content and planning material for school staff to support them in implementing the material in their curriculum. With Livsviktiga snack, focus lies on creating a user-friendly website where users may find materials and information that suit their needs. The website moves away from feeling like an ebook with a lot of text, and instead becomes website where information is easy to find and grasp. We highlight topics and exercises that engage users and entice them to explore the site. Additionally the websites’s design is being updated ensuring a coherent visual identity that fosters a sense of unity, while simultaneously differentiating them from their respective projects, providing a seamless but unique experience.

The update of Suicide Zero’s new website has recently begun, we don’t want to reveal too much yet. We expect the final result to arrive in a browser near you in early spring 2024.

Stronghouse

The challenge:

Many of the houses in Europe were built in a way and during a time when efficient energy conservation was not considered important. Now, on the contrary, there is broad consensus on the importance of not wasting energy and using the energy we have as smartly as possible. Stronghouse is funded by the Interreg program in the North Sea region and was established in 2014 to promote sustainable homes, buildings, and communities from an energy perspective. The project has partners from the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, and Sweden who together develop various solutions. The goal is to initiate and implement projects at both local and international levels through a holistic approach.

Stronghouse’s efforts focus on inspiring and encouraging homeowners and communities to embrace sustainable practices and guiding them through the entire process – from raising awareness about sustainability and available alternatives to planning renovations and finding financing opportunities. We know that our collective efforts can create significant positive changes in the society we live in.

Spring’s role in the project:

Spring’s task in Stronghouse is to simplify the collection and reporting of green data while increasing access to financing for sustainable home renovations for homeowners. There are many public programs, and some banks offer “green loans,” but this can be significantly improved. One of the biggest challenges is how to conduct the reporting of “green data” so that financiers can be sure that their loans are genuinely being used for a green renovation. By making it easy to guarantee that a loan is used for a green initiative and at the same time capturing the “green return” of the green initiative, banks can easily package many smaller loans into, for example, a green bond through our technology. Our technology takes care of the sustainability reporting for the green bond. By making it easy to handle the green reporting, we hope that many banks will want to use our technology and, thus, offer affordable green loans (which the bank finances through green bonds).

Spring strives to facilitate the collection and reporting of green data for businesses and organizations by developing innovative tools and methods. The core of the project is the use of blockchain technology, which is intended to enhance transparency and efficiency in managing green data. The goal is to ensure that this data is accurate and reliable while making the process smoother and more effective. By utilizing this technology, data regarding energy consumption and carbon emissions, for example, can be managed in a more secure manner.

The process:

We have been working in an agile manner conducting interviews with numerous homeowners, municipalities, regions, and banks to gain a comprehensive understanding of the challenges in the process. Subsequently, we have created personas, or customer profiles, and iterated prototypes based on them to capture differences in requirements from various customer types.

We have invested significant efforts in refining the content and UX writing within the customer app, to facilitate the usage and enhance navigational ease. Additionally, we are dedicated to employing a language that seamlessly combines simplicity and clarity with an engaging and motivational impact on the user.

To facilitate financial institutions, the Spring team has also developed a dedicated portion of the solution to them. By consolidating all loan applications in one place and offering a streamlined solution for the financial institutions to generate necessary “green reports” (impact reports), it becomes feasible to package numerous small loans into green bonds that are traded in the market. This enables financial institutions to effortlessly ascertain the green renovation projects undertaken with their funds, thereby enhancing transparency and reliability within the process.

Challenges regarding Blockchain technology and EBSI

To simplify the process of collecting and reporting green data, Spring is developing a system based on blockchain technology and EBSI (European Blockchain Services Infrastructure). One of the foremost challenges associated with the adoption of blockchain technology and EBSI is that it is still a relatively nascent technology that has yet to be widely implemented. This implies the presence of certain technical challenges and obstacles that need to be overcome before the technology can be fully deployed. Another challenge pertains to potential legal and regulatory barriers that must be surmounted to ensure the secure and reliable utilization of the technology.

Are you curious to learn more, please continue reading

If you are interested in gaining further insights into the Stronghouse project and how blockchain technology can be utilized to enhance transparency and efficiency in green data management, you can visit the project’s website here. There, you will find additional information about the project, its overarching purpose and objectives, as well as the various organizations involved in its execution. You will also discover details about the different technologies employed within the project, including blockchain and EBSI, and how these technologies can be employed to address specific challenges and issues associated with green data management.

Additionally, if you would like to obtain further information about Stronghouse, feel free to reach out to us at Spring. You can contact Andreas at andreas.nilsson@spring.se, and we can continue the conversation.

HeartRunner

The challenge:

For us, the challenge lied in taking over an already existing project. We work with support and further development of the app for iOS and Android. Another factor is that there are numerous actors involved, such as SOS Alarm and several diffrent regions in Sweden. It is also important that the app is connected to emergency services in these regions, as the processes can differ between areas.

The process:

The further development was done in Xamarin, with support of UX design. The back-end development is being done in Norway by the company UMS. The development was done in close cooperation with HeartRunner and the other partners who have stakes in the service. We have done focus groups, workshops and user tests to ensure that the service is as useable as possible, to save as many lives as possible.

The solution:

Users download the app if they have documented knowledge in CPR, and recieve alarms should they be in a close proximity to an emergency where they could be helpful. Users recieve this alarm when a suspected cardiac arrest is reported to emergency services. The idea is that the app will get someone on the scene before emergency personnel has reached the scene, since it is imperitive that a person suffering a cardiac arrest recieves help as quickly as possible.

The system is also connected to the defibrillator database in Sweden, so that users can pick one up on their way to the scene. The system is created together with experts to fully utilize the resources already existing in society.

SMSLivräddare has won prizes such as inUse Award 2019, a prize awarded every year to a Swedish app or other solution that makes its users lives easier. The service has been awarded as one of the leading innovations under KI Innovations 20-year anniversery.

Aside from Sweden, SMSlivräddare exists in Denmark, where the app is called Hjerteløber, and the company is now planning for continued international expansion to Finland and Island.

Fortum – Charge & Drive

The challenge:

Keeping up with the growing electric vehicle market and Charge & Drive globally expanding, Spring continued to get the responsibility for the UX- and GUI development for the latest app released in May 2018. Our cooperation with Charge and Drive began in 2013 where the company was in need of UX- and UI expertise and later Front-end development. Back then, Charge & Drive was only offered on iOS, resulting in Spring building a more flexible web solution where users could find charging stations and pay on any device. Fast forward a few years with an expanded market together with new user needs, there was a need to update the system and bring the design and development closer to the end customer.

The process:

To really understand the end customers and to be equipped for the future, Spring conducted a pre-study in the world’s most mature electric vehicle market – Oslo, Norway. Based on in-depth-interviews and workshops together with real end users, Spring designed new and improved existing features. On the Front-end development side, the architect investigated what platforms to use and the best ways to gather API:s.

The solution:

Through a React Native app, users can now benefit the Charge & Drive services on both Android- and iOS devices. Users can search for charging stations through the built in Google map, pay for their charging sessions in the app and in the soon-to-be-released version book charging outlets to plan their driving routes more efficiently. Besides the app offered to end customers, Spring also built a web based portal where Fortum can administrate and adapt the solution for their B2B customers all over the world.

Corpia

The challenge:

The vision of Corpia was to create a digital marketplace that connects investors and borrowers, and provide a simple, bank-safe and transparent way to lend, and borrow money.

One of the biggest challenge was to create a platform for so-called Peer-to-Peer-lending, which means borrowers loan money directly from other investors instead of taking loans from traditional banks.

The solution:

To realize this vision, we chose to split the platform into three parts to separate responsibility and functionality.

The Backend

The Backend is made with Java, and contains all business logic and data. The Backend uses a protected API for Marketplace and Backoffice communicate through.

Marketplace

The marketplace is the platform for investors and borrowers. It is based on the SilverStripe CMS with the addition to be able to get business data from the Backend, to be combined with the content from the CMS.

Backoffice

The backoffice is an admin-system made to handle all data from the backend. The system also has a dashboard with an overview for relevant actions and events connected to users, loan requests, transactions and accounts. Backoffice is based on the Silverstripe framework.
To give the users a safe and pleasant experience, the platform is integrated with the following services:

BankID

The platform uses BankID for quick and safe login and verification, both for the Marketplace and Backoffice.

Swish

The payment solution Swish has been integrated so that investors quickly and easily can make deposits to their accounts. This is complemented with ordinary bank payments if that is preferred.

CreditSafe

When applying for loans, information is gathered about the company, the companies financial status and creditgrade thru an integration towards CreditSafe.

Spring was responsible for the development of the backend functionality.

The project was built in cooperation with Kreationsbyrån and Grau, who designed it.

NeoZeo

The challenge:

To support the usage of biogas in Sweden, it needs to be made as simple as possible. The facilitation of production, retail and retrieval needs to be made just as available as conventional forms of vehicle fuel. So how is this done?

The process:

NeoZeo recieved financing from Vinnova to build a digital support environment for their solution, partially an app for the owner who can supervise the machine that converts manure to biogas, but also to make the biogas available for purchase. An app would also be developed for customers; that is to say, the owners of cars that run on biogas who want to buy biogas from their local farmers.

We preformed a large pre-study consisting of interviews with car owners and forms handed to farmers, as well as an innovation lab to garner facts and insights about how the apps should be built. After that we designed and built both a back-end and an Internet-of-things connection, and also two apps released on AppStore for testing by NeoZeo’s clients.

The solution:

A platform which connects local biomethane producers, end-users and distributors in one place. The platform is able to collect live data from all registred biomethane producers and biomethane distributors to be able to offer a simpel and seamless process for ordering specific amounts of biomethane regardless of where they are. The price of biomethane is analysed and an automatic offer is generated with the help of algorithmic pricing. Beyond that the system will measure and display the collective influence the platforms users has on the Swedish environment through lowered greenhouse gas emmisions.

Medituner

The challenge:

How do you efficiently eliminate time-consuming doctor’s appointments to follow up on your asthma? Medituner came to us with a beta version of the AsthmaTuner, an app that lets users measure their lung capacity over time. But in order to release it to the market, the app needed to be polished, re-designed and work on both Android and iOS devices. Since there was no interface for doctors to follow up on their patients, there was also a need to develop a system that securely could store patient data and present it in a manageable way.

The Process:

To commercialise the system, we helped out with investigating what technical solutions to use, where the patient security was a deal breaker. We helped out with adjusting the business model and adjusted the design with a user perspective in mind to prepare it for a wider market. At a later stage, Spring continued working with Medituner by designing a new app within the asthma tech sector – Spirotuner – that is currently a part of a research program.

The solution:

Through the native Android and iOS apps, users can login through BankID and connect their spirometer through Bluetooth. This gives both asthmatic users and their doctors a possibility to monitor their lung capacity over time. Doctors access their patients data through the web based health care interface, where all patient data is cloud stored securely.

* Statistics for Sweden

Husqvarna

Providing UX and visual design, Spring first started working with Husqvarna in 2015. A successful cooperation lead to a frame agreement within User Interface services, with a strong focus on UX design and visual design. Since then, our designers have created many different interfaces on several platforms for a global market. The design work mostly includes working with connected devices, but also designing internal corporate systems.

Fortum – SmartLiving

The challenge:

Although the concept of smart homes had been around for a couple of years, the field was quite unexplored and underdeveloped in Sweden, especially holistic solutions that were part of the buildings rather than add-ons customers could buy themselves.

Starting out as a part of the research project Smart Energy City, Spring got the opportunity to enter a new project with Tingcore (later acquired by Fortum) once again where the scope was to make users more aware of their energy consumption.

The process:

Initially Spring got the mission to create a matching smartphone app to an already existing tablet version where users could see their energy consumption and control connected devices such as lights, radiators and plugs in their homes. When the research project was emerging its end, Fortum decided to invest more into the solution. The entire solution was redesigned based on the findings from the pre-study conducted by our UX team. During the iterative design process, users validated new features while a new look was created where Spring was part of a larger design team. Parallelly, our front-end architect investigated what technical solutions was the best in order to display live data and control physical devices without delays.

The solution:

Through two React Native apps, the SmartLiving interface was offered on Android and iOS tablets and smartphones, letting users control their homes from wherever they want. In the current version, users can see their electricity and water consumption, control their lightning and heat, connect their own devices through smart plugs and control them, arm and disarm burglar alarm – all available through the app.

3M

Our work:

Since 2012, Spring have been working with 3M in several different projects where we have been working with 3Ms brands such as Post-it, Scotch and Futuro. Spring have been working with both digital campaigns in form of websites, Facebook campaigns and banners, but also creating videos and building physical monters to attract people passing by to create brand awareness.