Last year, ASTRA approached Nvision and asked for what we could do with their interactive satellite fleet map. That was a challenge we were keen to accept.

Back to the drawing board

At the very beginning of such project, it is easy to assume that the new solution must fit in the current one’s own shoes. It need not be so, for looking at the problem from another perspective helps discover new opportunities to innovate.

“Nvision’s appreciation of our business objectives and their ability to build on our feedback was instrumental in creating a solution that exceeded our expectations”, says Neill Henderson, Web & E-Marketing Manager at ASTRA

Working closely with ASTRA, we challenged every single detail of the interactive map, starting with looking for the why: why do visitors use the interactive map? Why should they use it, from ASTRA’s perspective? It turned out the map had a few different uses:

• It provides a showcase of ASTRA’s coverage, which is one of the factors that helped the brand establish itself as the leader in satellite communications;
• Prospecting customers use it as a means to know if ASTRA can answer their needs, i.e. cover their area, provide support on a specific topic, make strategic choice on the type of service they will launch, etc.;
• Vendors and resellers of satellite dishes use it as a support tool—potentially over the phone—to help consumers set up their installation.

These goals provided a set of tasks through which we could assess the performance of the existing interactive map. Where does it succeed? Where does it fail? We did some usability reviews to benchmark the current solution and establish a list of concrete objectives the new solution would achieve.

To choose the right tool

Based on our discussions with ASTRA’s representatives, what became obvious from the very start was that the Flash solution was hard to maintain and did not provide enough room for improvements. They asked if something more efficient could be done using Google Earth, Google Maps or a combination of both.

Both products have an amazing feature list, and while they have different endeavours, there is more than one use case where their abilities overlap. For example, one can take nearly any file exported from Google Earth and put it into Google Maps without any problem.

Collaborating with both marketing and technical departments at ASTRA, we did several rounds of testing in order to find out how satellite coverage data—aka footprints—could be overlaid on top of the Earth. How to get the data out of ASTRA’s software into Google products, how to style the data, which interaction schemes fit the bill, and so on.

We both agreed on a solution that would give more control and accuracy on satellite footprints, allow website editors to add, update or remove data without external support, and be able to cope with future enhancements.

The solution we came up with took the form of a set of KML files, each containing of a set of semi-transparent PNG images—representing the footprints—along with corresponding markers—indicating the relative dish sizes. The files could seamlessly be used in Earth or Maps.

On top of that, we worked hand-in-hand to develop an easy-to-use user interface. The solution was sketched first and iteratively refined based on ASTRA’s feedback, until we got to a working solution. The result is a widget that is already in use on the website of ASTRA.

Going the extra mile

While enhancing the website of ASTRA with new features is a cool thing, we wanted to do something more. What if people could directly interact with the footprints, without having to visit the website? That would open the doors to a whole new set of use cases.

That is what we did in the form of a Mapplet. Mapplets are the equivalent of Google Gadgets but for Maps. This yet-to-be-released mini-application will allow people to add satellite information to the familiar interface of Google Maps, giving ASTRA a host of new possibilities to attain existing and potential customers.

Future improvements

In this project, collaboration was key to creative thinking. The iterative approach helped everyone bring its ideas on the table without losing focus on what features the end result should have.

This is not the end of the story, however. Our work with ASTRA on this project has led to imagine new means of presenting information on their website that would better serve their business objectives and ease visitors’ life. We’re eager to continue working with ASTRA on these new ideas.

Follow us on Twitter here and never miss an announcement for one of those new projects.