#visualdiary10

My two stake in the ground examples this week are from my personal work over the last year or so. My first example was inspired by my time volunteering with the University of Kansas Hockey Club during undergrad.

Over the last four years, one of the biggest issues we've had within the KU Hockey Club was communication between the coaches, team, and staff. The team has their own GroupMe chat, the staff has their own Slack channel, and the coaches have their own iMessage group, but no one is willing to choose one platform and make a group chat with everyone. We also have issues with players not knowing when practice or game times are because those reminders get lost in the constant feed of messages. As a solution, I designed a mobile app where all coaches, players, and staff have access to the team side using their KU ID login credentials. On this app, members can check scores, upcoming and past games and scores, schedule, roster, stats, standings, shop for merchandise, and converse with other members either in groups or direct messages.

Fans can also download this app and sign in with their own credentials and have access to the same pages members do, except instead of messaging other members, they can fill out a contact form that goes directly to the staff, rather than waiting hours or days for a response on social media.

Visual Diary #10 | Stake in the Ground

This post isn’t about the Global Positioning System (GPS) itself, but rather one of the main makers of mobile GPS systems for vehicles. Today, we all mostly use our phones for this purpose, but Garmin was one of the first companies to really capitalize in this field. For my stake in the ground research I really tried thinking of things that changed my life immensely. I can’t imagine a life today where I couldn’t type in an address and be told directions on how to get there within seconds. It’s totally mind blowing to me that we used to have to use good old fashioned maps! I can still read a map, but the simplicity of today’s technology and GPS capabilities has been a major game changer. 

Toms put a stake in the ground to give one pair of shoes for every pair of shoes bought. There was a public need for shoes, as well as, a company that provided a greater good post purchase. 

Visual diary #10 | Remote Year

Keep your job. See the world.

Remote Year helps workers make the transition to working remotely. Remote Year’s unique differentiator is their focus on pairing travel with remote work. Their stake in the ground is ascribing to the notion that work should not restrict one's ability to travel.

“Come with your job and a suitcase. We’ll take care of the rest.”

Remote Year charges a monthly fee that goes towards a travel itinerary and all associated logistics to make sure you don’t get bogged down with flights and hotels. You can focus on your work while traveling to see some of the worlds most beautiful landmarks. Not only will you travel, you will meet and collaborate with others who also work remote for companies all over the world.

Remote Year has different programs to suit the needs of different travel or work goals. Once you find a program that best matches your preference and schedule, you will receive a custom itinerary that outlines where you will be and when.

As working remote becomes more acceptable in more disciplines, I see programs like Remote Year becoming more popular. Once workers are free’d from offices and cubicles, it’s only a matter of time until they look for better desktop views.

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Visual Diary #10 | Stake in the Ground

There are many companies and inventions, etc. that come to mind when I think of breakthrough design and innovation. One that has literally changed the way we live and learn is the internet, and Google was a big facilitator for that change. It’s the largest search engine and I love it–it’s always my go-to! I mean we have even come to adding it into our language, “just google it!”

It’s amazing where Google is now and how much they have grown their technology. Google Analytics has also become a major player in businesses all across the world. Being able to provide access to so much information is truly amazing and that is why Google comes to mind for a classic stake in the ground scenario. The World Wide Web has done many great things for our growth as a society, but Google has been a major player from early on and that’s why they stand apart from other search engines. They have such a recognizable brand and even a modernized logo reigns true to their early beginnings. Google impresses me more and more everyday and I quite honestly can’t imagine life without search engines, especially great ones like Google!