While the rest of society spent the summer months desperately seeking sunlight and a reprieve from quarantine, our IdeaCloud team has been hard at work making it easier for customers to find the technology stories they want, whenever they need them.

The IdeaCloud 2.5 release is really all about making our lives easier. The addition of robust search functionality, tagging, and filters makes it astoundingly easy to find the exact IdeaCloud experience you’re looking for and launch right into its technology story from any circumstance. And we’ve packaged these new features in a refreshed user interface, along with several additional UX enhancements.

There are many overall improvements, but here are some descriptions of what’s new and cool for our latest release.

Refreshed Design with a Tighter User Experience

We’ve redesigned IdeaCloud’s interface to be simpler and more intuitive. We’ve optimized user flows based on thousands of launched simulations by our customers. We’ve placed the most important information front and center on each page while including the ability to drill down for more detail at every step.

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Of the dozens of improvements made both visible and hidden, here are a few highlights:

• Renamed the IdeaCloud Visualizers to more self-explanatory monikers with new icons to better represent each option.
• Added description snippets to the simulations list in a collection view.
• Tightened visual continuity with more consistent interactive colors throughout IdeaCloud. Among other benefits, it’s much easier to identify clickable elements now.
• Added additional information to the detail view about available configurations and any tags associated with the simulation.
• Special attention was dedicated to improving the IdeaCloud experience on mobile and tablet devices.

Robust Search Experience

To be fair, the IdeaCloud dashboard is a straightforward catalog of a given customer’s simulation library. A customer can easily find a desired simulation using the ubiquitous gallery view and list view paradigms. But over time, as libraries grow, the hunt-and-click behavior begins to break down.

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The solution to this emergent problem was the addition of a robust search capability. Now users can find specific experiences faster by typing simulation names, tags, and other descriptors into the new search bar.

Here’s a brief description of the IdeaCloud search experience:

• All available options appear to a user when they click into the search bar.
• Matching results appear in realtime as a user types and unmatching items are filtered from view.
• A user can either click an option from the list or hit enter to execute a search and the matching results are displayed on the page
• A user can search multiple terms and only simulations matching all criteria will be displayed.

Clear the Clutter with Filters

When a user is trying to search for a simulation, but they can’t quite recall the name of that tag or that one simulation’s title, they can narrow their search with IdeaCloud filters. Now when viewing an IdeaCloud library you can filter the simulations list by their available configurations.

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Digital storytellers will find this particularly useful when presenting on multiple screens or in atypical environments. This feature makes it easier to see which Simulations will work for your current situation. The current Filter options are:

• AutoRun Interactions
• Horizontal Content
• Mobile Simulator
• Mobile App

Toggling filters will show any simulations matching one or more of the selections. Each matching filter is displayed on the simulation by its description.

Contact Us

For additional information on the IdeaCloud platform and product family, please contact us to ask questions or request a demo.