At the beginning of November, The Department of the Interior announced a lifetime pass providing free entrance to National Parks, Wildlife Refuges and Other Public Lands for veterans and gold star family members. The VA followed this announcement with an email to every Veteran and all eligible family members on November 17, 2022.
Mobomo developed and has managed the USGS Store site for several years now so when USGS stakeholders realized that approximately 20 million people had been notified of this fantastic opportunity, they made the Mobomo team aware that the site might experience an increase in traffic; which was exactly what happened (see chart below) – with 2.5 million requests funneled through the site across a 6-hour period and elevated activity throughout the course of the week.
USGS Store historically has maintained a steady flow of traffic through the site without large shifts in traffic. The spike in traffic the site experienced proved to be a significant testament to how well the Mobomo team engineered the site, which uses AWS elastic Kubernetes service (EKS) and leverages two scaling groups: one for running the applications (Drupal, nginx cache, redis), and one for running Elasticsearch clusters. More importantly, however, millions of our service members and their families were able to successfully obtain their lifetime National Parks passes – providing them the opportunity to build wonderful memories and enjoy our country’s treasured lands.
For more information on how we create elegant solutions to complex problems, please visit the Mobomo website or reach out to us directly for more information.
This advertisement is not intended to state or imply that the products or services provided are approved or endorsed by the Government or are considered by the Government to be superior to other products or services.
Mobomo team members are truly passionate about discovering ways in which technology can solve difficult everyday challenges. For over 13 years we have supported Departments and Agencies in the Federal Civilian marketplace, creating elegant solutions to solve complex problems. Some challenges are more important than others; our work with the Veterans Administration (VA) and the United Service Organizations (USO) has focused our team to find solutions to real-world issues that affect the men and women who have served in the armed forces.
According to a June 2022 article published by the USO, the suicide rates for US military personnel are historically double that of the civilian population. Since record-keeping began following the events of 9/11, suicide rates among active-duty military members are at an all-time high. One of the biggest contributors to mental health is a sense of community and alleviation from feelings of isolation. Transitioning to civilian life is often difficult for many service members. The loss of mission and feeling a part of something bigger and more important than themselves, even years later they express a feeling of disconnection from their military family.
We take pride in all our work, especially in support of the VA and in working together with the Veterans who work alongside us here at Mobomo. Our team is acutely aware of the need for active outreach opportunities to promote mental health and reduce stressors, especially when it comes to our Veteran population. Utilizing resources allocated through MobomoLabs, our Engineering team and technical SMEs began a two-year discovery journey that would culminate in the rise of Sentinel, a human-centered mobile platform built with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) capabilities.
The concept of Sentinel began with the vision of developing an ethical tool that would provide health equity for all, improve access to Veterans Crisis Line Services, allow for interoperability between smartphones, tablets, and web-based devices, aid in the reengagement of the individual, screen for early signs of distress, and be scalable across a broad veteran population. Current published metrics identify that 85% of the U.S. population uses smartphones, 75% own a desktop/laptop, and nearly 50% use tablets. Therefore, a digital platform was a logical connection point for the community of 1.2 million active duty and 19 million Veterans. Sentinel was designed as an all-inclusive ecosystem, delivered through a simple, intuitive user interface that is accessible across mobile, tablet, and web-based devices. The features within Sentinel were developed to target areas of interest specific to our military members and serve as a conduit for attaining and/or retaining the connection to those unique cultural unifiers that bond and bind service members to each other.
The thoughtful design began by creating an intuitive tool that would engage individuals, creating repeat users, and improving access to Veterans Crisis Services. The initial release has a landing page that provides access to critical support for service members (VHA, VA locations, the VA Crisis Line, Veteran Community Organizations, Veteran Support Groups, and the individual’s safety plan) prompting them to discover different ways to access support services available to them and their families. Utilizing the AI voice automated screening developed by our partner, Clearspeed, Sentinel could identify early warning signs through our scalable and interoperable risk prevention analytics. Sentinel has infinite scalability and can be expanded as usage and the user network grows, perhaps to encompass resources including but not limited to educational and career resources, geo-fencing to events in the direct vicinity, veteran-based business advertisements, and veteran networking, among other features.
During Sentinel’s development, we focused on the unique attributes of the military culture – honor, loyalty, and commitment. As an experienced VA contractor currently tasked with developing the Mental Health Check Up (MHC) application for the VA, Mobomo utilized our lessons learned, constructing the front-end of the Sentinel platform around activities that fulfill service member needs/desires (specifically a sense of community, purpose, and communication vehicles), providing direct access to support systems should the user require immediate intervention. With the push of a button, an individual could access the Veterans Crisis Hotline or Chat, a self-created safety plan, their support network, local resources available to them (geo-fencing), and the AI-based risk assessment check-in tool.
Sentinel’s Secret Sauce
The risk assessment component within Sentinel uses an AI-driven, voice-based technology from Clearspeed. Clearspeed voice analytics proactively identify potential suicide ideation and risk prior to escalations that could result in self-harm. Clearspeed voice analytics technology has been used successfully across a range of personnel screening applications: risk assessment, insider threat detection, protection of proprietary information, insurance fraud, force protection, resilience screening, and detection of malicious actors. Preemptive identification of suicide ideation requires the verbal answering of 3-4 simple, automated, and non-intrusive questions eliciting “Yes/No” responses. The proliferation of research regarding suicide across the Veteran population confirms that suicide is often precipitated by a culmination of disparate factors that add layers of stress on an individual, eventually becoming unbearable. According to the 2021 National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report, 60% of the Veterans who died by suicide in 2019 did not utilize resources available to them through VHA. Sentinel serves as a “sensor” by proactively identifying those service members developing suicidal thoughts. Sentinel has the capability to detect stressors in the user and direct health care providers to proactively reach out to the user, providing resources and/or engaging in interventions prior to behavioral escalations that could result in harm to themselves or others.
Bringing together Mobomo’s core competencies of User-centered design, rapid prototyping, and application development with a bleeding-edge technology company and innovator, Clearspeed, we built a mobile platform, to include cloud infrastructure, resources, dependencies, compliance checks, and network connections necessary to deliver a scalable, flexible, and reproducible experience. Our team automates every aspect of a product pipeline to ensure 100% reliability on every release. We built fault-tolerant, highly available solutions that heal themselves, which helps eliminate single points of failure. Additionally, we future-proofed our designs by architecting them around containers, micro-servers, and fully managed serverless computing and storage solutions.
While Sentinel is a mobile application geared to support our service members, the possibility of its application across other groups and for different purposes is limitless; and that is what MobomoLabs is truly about – discovering and designing elegant solutions to even the most seemingly insurmountable challenges. For more information about how Mobomo conceives, builds, and delivers mission-critical products that people love to use, please visit our site or reach out to us directly.
As a subcontractor to the Prime contract holder, Armedia LLC, Mobomo will support the Sustainment Operations for Applications BPA for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
The USDA called on Armedia, who has a working and holistic understanding and knowledge of USDA application hosting environments. Mobomo is a primary subcontractor to Armedia and will help serve as the source of technical expertise regarding maintaining and improving the USDA application environment and working closely with information security. In addition to providing tactical production operations support and DBA services, the Armedia Team will provide strategic guidance and recommendations for strategic planning and improvements to the systems/applications supported by Armedia.
As part of an integrated team, Mobomo will provide support across all task areas. In support of Drupal task orders, Mobomo will act as the primary subcontractor.
One of Mobomo's core competencies is Drupal development. With a wide range of experience from developers and designers to project managers, our team works with customers to create innovative products that are cost-effective and sustainable.
Our depth of experience and technical skills allow us to be awarded projects similar to this one.
About Mobomo
Mobomo, LLC is a CMMI Dev Level 3 and ISO 9001:2015 premier provider of mobile, web, and cloud application development experienced in creating award-winning, agile, User-Centered Design (UCD) and Human-Centered Design (HCD) solutions, custom crafting next-generation digital experiences for federal agencies. A proud Drupal Association member, AWS Public Sector Partner, and Reseller, Microsoft Certified Partner, Acquia Partner, and member of the Digital Services Coalition, Mobomo takes great pride in the recognition given to our innovative solutions, gaining press and winning numerous awards, including the multiple Webby Awards for our mobile responsive design of NASA.gov, Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA) InnovateIT Awards for USGS.gov and NASA.gov, the MUSE Creative Award, W3, Webby, and Vega Award for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries website, and the Vega Award for the PRAC pandemic oversight website.
Whether you are looking for a complete end-to-end solution, wanting to migrate existing website content into Drupal, or need additional staff with Drupal expertise to add to your team, Mobomo can deliver. Visit our website to learn more: https://www.mobomo.com/drupal/
In September 2022, Middle East Broadcasting Networks, Inc. announced its plans to award Team Mobomo the opportunity to build MBN’s Radio Sawa Mobile Application.
Radio Sawa provides news and information to audiences throughout the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) through different media platforms, including mobile devices and the Internet. Radio Sawa maintains an active all-news website (www.radiosawa.com) which provides both up to the minute news and information as well as audio live streaming, making the network one of the most trusted sources of news and insights on social and political life in the Middle East and North Africa.
The project will consist of building a modern, user-friendly, and engaging mobile application for smartphone users living in the MENA region. It will be an audio-content-based app that allows users to seamlessly stream audio channels, listen to on-demand audio content/radio shows/podcasts, read about shows and episodes, and interact with the content and channel. The primary objective is to revamp the website and the mobile application of Radio Sawa which currently has three streams/channels, such that they meet the audio channel’s digital transformation needs. The app will be available on both iOS and Android app stores and be compatible with the devices used in the MENA region.
ABOUT MOBOMO
Mobomo is a CMMI Dev Level 3 premier mobile, web, and cloud application development company that has extensive experience in creating award-winning, Agile, user-centered design solutions and providing DevSecOps capabilities. As a proud Drupal Association member, Amazon Web Services (AWS) public sector partner and reseller, Microsoft certified partner, Acquia partner, and member of the Digital Services Coalition, Mobomo is well positioned to provide our clients with quality service, executing tasks on time and within budget, while minimizing risk.
ABOUT MBN:
The Middle East Broadcasting Networks, Inc. (MBN) is the non-profit news organization that operates Alhurra Television and Radio Sawa under a grant from the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM).
To learn more about Team Mobomo, please feel free to visit our website.
In August 2022, Middle East Broadcasting Networks, Inc. announced its plans to partner with Team Mobomo for Operations and Maintenance (O&M) support of their Content Management System (CMS), as well as managing the annual subscriptions to Acquia Cloud and Kaltura Media.
Mobomo, LLC put forward a solid approach and believed that our vision, expertise, and culture coupled with our all-star talent uniquely positioned us to provide MBN the strongest possible continuation of service.
MBN has access to an unparalleled level of experience, understanding, and capability through Mobomo's experienced staff and knowledge, ensuring risk-free continuity. MBN's CMS was designed, developed, and deployed by our team. Using lessons learned during implementation, we continue to adapt our processes, driving both innovation and quality. It is our pleasure to continue partnering with MBN to enhance this success, thereby increasing customer satisfaction and visitors to MBN properties.
ABOUT MOBOMO
Mobomo is a CMMI Dev Level 3 premier mobile, web, and cloud application development company that has extensive experience in creating award-winning, Agile, user-centered design solutions and providing DevSecOps capabilities. As a proud Drupal Association member, Amazon Web Services (AWS) public sector partner and reseller, Microsoft certified partner, Acquia partner, and member of the Digital Services Coalition, Mobomo is well positioned to provide our clients with quality service, executing tasks on time and within budget, while minimizing risk.
As a provider of Tier 2 and Tier 3 O&M for numerous federal and state customers including the International Trade Administration (ITA), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Mobomo is well equipped to deliver these types of services. In addition to providing 24/7/365 incident response and customer support, our team performs continuous monitoring, regular monthly updates, and patching to infrastructure and applications.
To learn more about Team Mobomo, please feel free to visit our website.
iOS 16 was released with a multitude of new features that change and upgrade the user’s experience while using Apple’s latest iPhone software. A few things to keep in mind for UX designers, as they create new user experiences, are the lock screen’s ability to highlight apps through widgets and live activities, and the continuously increasing capability to allow users to verify identification using Apple Wallet. By revamping the lock screen, users now will be able to access important information more quickly and easily, as they will only have to glance at their screen to find what they are looking for. The new Apple Wallet Identification feature continues the journey of replacing the physical wallet with just your phone. As designers, we need to keep in mind these features that change how a user interacts with their phone, consume products, and complete their day-to-day lives.
Here is Mobomo's explanation of these new features and how they might benefit the experience of a user.
New Lock Screen & Focus Mode
The lock screen was completely revamped by the Apple team with a big focus on personalization. You have access to adding personal colors to your lock screen and are also able to have multiple different lock screen layouts, made by you, and saved to switch between. That includes the photo used as the wallpaper, typefaces, colors, and more. Along with another new feature called Focus, users can switch between lock screens that are tailored to help them during work, their free time, or sleeping.
Widgets
More importantly, the lock screen also has two new features that provide users with a new and clean way to view information. Widgets are now available to be placed on your lock screen, as well as a new feature called Live Activities.
Widgets stay a consistent shape throughout the apple ecosystem, so this is helpful for continuity and provides a helpful user experience. Live Activities take something like basketball game updates, or uber status, and allow them to be displayed in a much cleaner perspective on the lock screen. The motivation behind this feature is to replace apps sending multiple notifications every few seconds or minutes and provide a dashboard for that information instead. We think this is a great upgrade, because notifications will be easier to organize, and users are able to quickly see statuses on their lock screen.
Apple Wallet
Verifying identity inside Apple Wallet is possible now with the ability to upload your driver’s license or state ID. This feature is slowly rolling out, with only Arizona and Maryland currently supporting the ID uploads. As of now, you can present your ID from your iPhone or Apple Watch at certain TSA checkpoints in select airports. Another useful feature for id verification is in-app verification. The example given was ordering alcohol on Uber Eats and using your Apple Wallet to verify your age and identity. There is no telling when this will be widely available, but for now, it provides seamless, contactless touch for TSA. While Apple Wallet ID verification is only supported in a very limited number of states and airports, this is one step forward for a contactless user experience, regarding safety and security as a priority.
The user experience designer also needs to know about some other aspects that have not seen major changes or enhancements. The Touch ID and Face ID have not changed significantly. Apple Login now allows users to share subscriptions with family members, but other features remain the same.
In conclusion, the lock screen overhaul provides a great opportunity for apps to show status updates through Live Activities or provide widgets to glance at or interact with. They follow a consistent pattern with the Apple Watch in style/functionality and are easily accessible. iOS 16 includes all of these features as defaulting to opt-out, which means that users are not prompted or forced to use any of the new features. This is great for individuals that do not want, or have the time, to learn and use these new features without affecting their old experiences in previous iOS versions.
In the days of old, long, long ago, civilization nearly came to a standstill all because of sloppy code and a lack of foresight. Geniuses promoting the impending catastrophe creatively named it Y2K (Year 2000) and in the months that preceded the impending doom that the world would reap as a result of the “millennium bug” (as it was also so aptly referred to), programmers across all industries scrambled to save the culture’s – neigh – the world’s recent and vast leaps in technology made during the dawn of the internet. Some 20+ years later, Drupal developers find themselves beset by a similar foe – Drupal 10 and the premature, planned obsolescence of CKEditor 4.
Okay…so that was all a bit hyperbolic (but there is a slice of truth to it). Drupal 10 is actually going to be a really great upgrade that is streamlined and refined, utilizing the most popular and critical modules for development while simultaneously retiring unused, underused, and non-essential modules – all the great features of Drupal 9 without any of the dead weight. Furthermore, Drupal releases are going to be performed in tandem with Symphony releases with a continuous focus on honing the core so that it is a sound infrastructure upon which modules can be used to strengthen and expand that core going forward.
But the elephants in the room are CKEditor 4 (under planned obsolescence) and CKEditor 5 (being built from scratch). The trouble with building something from scratch to replace something old (at least in the case of CKEditor 5) is that the old library is filled with “hard copy books” while the new library is “digital” – and there is no automated “module converter” available. With very few of the modules within CKEditor 4 being transferred to CKEditor 5, a large selection of plugins that are currently being used on existing modules are not yet compatible and because Drupal is an open-source community, it falls to the community to contribute patches back…which isn’t happening fast enough.
Unlike Y2K, the patches that need to be made between CKEditor 4 and 5 are not currently being backed and funded by corporations and federal agencies and by the time the urgency in doing so is realized, it may be too much of a crunch to accomplish the fix. The beauty of open-source software is that it belongs to everyone. But, as Peter Parker’s uncle said, “With power comes responsibility” and if we as a Drupal community don’t all take a little responsibility for this, we will all pay the price. For more information, the upgrade coordination can be found here and information on the deprecated and obsolete modules and themes can be found here. Within Mobomo, we pride ourselves on being thought leaders and valued contributors to this open-source community. If you have any questions, please reach out to us here and send a message directly to the Mobomo team.
As a teaming partner to the Prime contract holder, Dev Technology Group, Mobomo will support the new five-year, $340 million DHS ICE Scalable Ways to Initiate Flexible Tasks (SWIFT) Collaborative Services Domain IDIQ.
Under the four domains within the SWIFT IDIQ, Mobomo will be supporting the Collaborative Services track to aid ICE’s Enterprise Platform Services Branch (EPSB) in a wide variety of areas including technical strategy and governance, project intake, rapid technology implementation, and development and support of cloud-based platforms and collaborative solutions. Specific technologies across the domain will include those across the Microsoft ecosystem, including M365, Power Apps, SharePoint Online, Teams, and OneDrive, to name a few.
As a trusted partner, Mobomo will work with Dev Technology Group to support its delivery model to serve the evolving mission needs of ICE.
About Mobomo
Mobomo, LLC is a CMMI Dev Level 3 and ISO 9001:2015 premier provider of mobile, web, and cloud application development experienced in creating award-winning, agile, User-Centered Design (UCD) and Human-Centered Design (HCD) solutions, custom crafting next-generation digital experiences for federal agencies. A proud Drupal Association member, AWS Public Sector Partner, and Reseller, Microsoft Certified Partner, Acquia Partner, and member of the Digital Services Coalition, Mobomo takes great pride in the recognition given to our innovative solutions, gaining press and winning numerous awards, including the multiple Webby Awards for our mobile responsive design of NASA.gov, Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA) InnovateIT Awards for USGS.gov and NASA.gov, the MUSE Creative Award, W3, Webby, and Vega Award for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries website, and the Vega Award for the PRAC pandemic oversight website.
The 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act, otherwise known as 21st Century IDEA, was signed into law in December 2018. The Act aims to improve the digital experience for government customers and reinforces existing requirements for federal public websites.
At a glance, 21st Century IDEA promotes practices for the design and development of digital experiences such as accessibility, consistency, authority, searchability, security, user-centerity, customizability and mobile-friendliness.
As part of our usual workflow at Mobomo, when we design a new digital product or redesign any existing one, we take into consideration all of these principles. Let’s review some of them and elaborate on how we comply with these requirements:
Accessible
When we design websites and applications for the public, Section 508 is at the heart of our process. This is the section of the Rehabilitation Act 1973 requiring any information technology agencies buy, build, maintain or use to be accessible to persons with disabilities.
Stylistically this involves a careful selection of color palettes and type sizes to ensure a minimum contrast is achieved to account for visual impairments. While it may prove limiting, constraints are not restraints, and in the context of design we take them as opportunities. The attention that needs to be given to this process makes us come out with a robust solution, and can often take us down innovative paths we may have not explored if not faced by the requirement of 508 compliance.
One good example of our work with these considerations in effect is the NSIDC site: https://nsidc.org
Consistent
Patterns are our friends. Our designs start from their wireframe state with relatable and consistent standards in terms of components, sections and overall layout. Likewise, we develop style sheets with defined rules for every element that will repeat across the product.
Having a coherent appearance ties the whole experience together and helps users navigate it more naturally, which also results in making them find what they need or perform the tasks it requires faster and successfully.
Authoritative
Consistency also helps us convey authority. This is a principle a bit more related to information architecture, regarding not overlapping or duplicating sites. Broadly it’s also about the overarching brand’s voice and content, but we make every effort to advise and propose solutions that may be in place to achieve it.
Our discovery and research stages would raise concerns regarding this question and it’s where we will alert on global problems that may go outside our scope but we can help contain.
At a micro level, within the context of any product we are designing experience for, we curate the interactions needed to complete tasks as well as the entries to the different sections it has. We also conduct user-testing exercises leading to minimizing any hiccup regarding navigation and wayfinding.
User-centered
Hinting at this process already from the concepts above, User Centered Design is the core of our practice. From ideation to delivery we consider the user at every stage to inform and steer the solutions we produce. We do this by means of the diverse User Experience tools we employ, namely moodboards, card sorting exercises, tree testing, user interviews.
Feedback is gathered throughout the process in an iterative manner, so that we continuously improve value through measurements. When we jump into an ongoing product, this data-driven analysis becomes crucial, as it provides the necessary information to perform a redesign that addresses users’ pain points and needs. Such is the case with our work in NOAA Fisheries: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov
Customizable
There’s no idea our customers ask that we won’t give a try, but as the project gets developed there’s also room for users to get a customized experience. We achieve this by using technology in favor of, for instance, getting location information, by which we can provide a streamlined experience based on where the user is. Or providing custom settings in a site or app by leveraging account management / authentication.
Mobile-friendly
In our early days when starting the company, we embraced one value that still holds today: “Mobile First”. Our designs need to be, with no exception, mobile-proof. Even some of the most challenging dashboards we produced considered a mobile version as digital products today are part of daily life and mostly consumed through mobile devices.
Design for desktop has certainly been infused by the mobile first approach, and we create a unified and responsive experience taking advantage of each device's strengths while working around their limitations.
One of the many examples we have for this is the work we did for PRAC, where complex data visualizations are made easy whatever the screen you browse them on.
Each year, the Washington Business Journal publishes a snapshot of the top performing small technology companies in the Greater Washington D.C. area. Mobomo is honored to be ranked #17 in WBJ’s 2022 assessment of the top businesses making large impacts within the business, technology, and federal landscape.
Comprised of a talented team of engineers, artists, and developers – the Mobomo team continuously takes on seemingly impossible technology challenges and expands the limits of what is possible for customers and end-users. Our performance as a top performing company in the D.C. area is a byproduct of the passion with which we approach our work. “I couldn’t be prouder of our team!” said CEO, Brian Lacey. “It’s rare to find a group of people so focused on excellence and their dedication to each other through the adversities inherent in product development is inspiring. While it’s always wonderful to receive recognition for your work, ranking as a top performer this year is no surprise to me given the caliber of this team.”
About Mobomo:
Mobomo, LLC is a premier mobile, web, and cloud application development company that has extensive experience in creating award-winning, agile, human-centered design, and providing DevSecOps capabilities.
Mobomo has helped revolutionize the digital federal landscape through our innovative designs of high performing websites and applications that are engineered to fit the needs of government agencies.
About Washington Business Journal:
The Washington Business Journal is the leading source for business news and data for the Washington, D.C., region. The Business Journal publishes all the information and insights you need to succeed in business — through the weekly edition, website, email products and our events and awards programs. Owned by parent company, American City Business Journals – the Business Journals brands are recognized on the local level in 43 markets and have 400+ journalists entrenched in their local markets and industries. The full list of companies included in the Business Journal’s 2022 report can be found here: Washington Business Journal Top Performers 2022.
