Month: January 2019

3D Wayfinder uses a in-house built JavaScript Keyboard for search input. A On Screen Keyboard (Keyboard later on) is used when there is no physical keyboard. For security and ease of use reasons we can’t use the Operating Systems builtin Keyboard.

Previously we used our own User Interface library to manage the state of our applications. But times have moved on and we are now using other more popular and powerful open source libraries like AngularJS and VueJS. We managed to use the old Keyboard also with these libraries. But it wasn’t very handy and meant that we had to import libraries that were not necessary for whole project (eg jQuery).

So we decided to get free of 3rd party libraries and make it easy to install via npm (nodejs package manager).

Our On Screen Keyboard is usable with any UI library that supports importing ES6 module formats. You can define Your own keyboard layouts and actions with a JSON layout file. So we can have any language that we ever need and also make also fully custom keyboards that only a number pad or have special buttons for custom actions. Also the Keyboard itself allows to switch the layout.

Check out the GitHub page.

Lately we developed a wayfinding software for a newly renovated mall in Tartu, Estonia. The solution there is simple with just 2D map with no possibility to rotate or drag the maps on the screen. Users get to choose their point of interest on the menu and a route pops up on the map leading the way. In case the location is on another floor, the software simply switches around to show the route on the correct floor.

As 3D Wayfinder is a web-based application, then each kiosk is using web browser with kiosk specific URL for the wayfinding project. The URL specifies kiosk ID, so that wayfinding software can identify which kiosk is being used and count usage statistics. Also URL parameter can specify the rotation of 2D map.

How it´s work?

To make it easier how it works we bring you an example of changing the URL:

1)Let’s say that you have a kiosk with ID number 1. Normally the URL for that kiosk would look something like this: http://clients.3dwayfinder.com/NameOfYourProject/?kiosk=1#!/

2) To rotate that you just need to add “&map2DRotation=90#!” after the kiosk ID number. Here’s an example: http://clients.3dwayfinder.com/NameOfYourProject/?kiosk=1&map2DRotation=90#!/

Here is an example of how the map looks on the kiosk inside the main entrance:

The red “You Are Here” icons make the map universal. Below is an example of the same map being used next to another entrance, the picture is just simply turned toward the user of the kiosk and the “You Are Here” icon placed in front of that particular entrance. This additional solution makes the user experience a lot more straightforward.

It is also possible to use different kind of arrows for the ”You are here” icon. This way it is simple for the users to understand which way they are standing and how the kiosk is placed in the mall.