• Read more about GemNotifier Goes Open Source

In April, I announced GemNotifier, a new Intridea SparkTime project. GemNotifier is a web app I created to send notifications to users when the gems they subscribe to are updated.

Open Source Announcement

Today, I'm excited to announce that we are open sourcing GemNotifier. At Intridea, we have a long history of support for open source development, and we make every effort to open source tools and projects that can be of use to the greater development community.

The code for GemNotifier is hosted at Github. Anyone who might be interested in contributing to the project can fork it from Github and make pull requests. You can also submit any issues you encounter, using Github Issues.

Improvements

Before open sourcing GemNotifier, I took the feedback I received from users and made some key changes to the UI and overall functionality. The most requested feature was to be able to subscribe with Gemfile, which I added recently. GemNotifier also now has 100% test coverage and uses SASS.

What is GemNotifier?

If you missed the detailed post about GemNotifier in April, you can read it here. But for a quick rundown:

GemNotifier is a notification service that updates users when the gems they have subscribed to are updated. Rubyists can subscribe to their favorite gems (now using their Gemfile!) and they will get timely email notifications when those gems are updated. The service helps to keep you informed of changes and updates to the gems your projects are dependent on.

I'm looking forward to more feedback on the app from the community, so please share your thoughts below!

• Read more about Introducing GemNotifier.org - A Simple Tool for Rubyists

Today I'm introducing GemNotifier.org, a web app I built to deliver timely notifications about your favorite gem updates. It's a SparkTime project at Intridea and it's something I've been working on for the last month.

Why Build GemNotifier?

Simple, really; because there is a demand for it. Both for myself, and for other devs:

What Does it Do?

It's a very simple and useful concept. Rubyists can subscribe to their favorite gems and they will get email notifications when those gems are updated.

Get Started

Start using GemNotifier today. The setup process is straightforward:

• Sign in with Github Oauth
• Search for your favorite gems and click subscribe. You'll be notified when things change!

SparkTime

You'll be hearing a lot more about SparkTime on our blog in the coming months, so I'll give you the rundown now! SparkTime is a new initiative at Intridea designed to get us working passionately on side projects that we might not get the chance to do otherwise. Although many of us already make time to contribute to open source, work on side projects, or improve existing code bases, we realized that our talent could be better utilized if we got organized. From this, SparkTime was born. Every Intridean signs up for a project they feel passionate about, using SparkBin to keep track of our ideas. We use Presently to talk about our projects and as a means of collaboration among SparkTime teammates. There are a lot of interesting projects going on and we look forward to sharing more of them with you soon! Follow us on Twitter to get updates about our progress.

We're Doing Fun Stuff

We work hard at Intridea - but we love what we do and we have a lot of fun doing it. If you're interested in being a part of our great team check out our openings; we're a growing company of diverse, talented and energetic engineers, designers and entrepreneurs. We offer compelling benefits and a unique culture that values the individual contributions that make Intridea such a great place to work.

• Read more about CogConnect - Mobile Rehab for Stroke Victims

Introducing SparkTime

A few months ago Intridea decided to splurge and upgrade our (already awesome) benefits package. In addition to the basic perks like amazing health insurance, hardware funds and an annual subscription to Amazon Prime, we started a new program called SparkTime. SparkTime is much like Google's 20% time – everyone spends a few hours a week working on something that they are passionate about. We record our ideas in SparkBin, team up if we want to collaborate, and then we get down to the business of impassioned creation.

The Spark

In addition to being a UI Designer here at Intridea, I’m also a grad student in the Human-Centered Computing program at UMBC. This semester, my professors Dr. Amy Hurst (co-creator of http://nickelforscale.com/) and Dr. Ravi Kuber (author of many great papers on computing and the visually impaired) suggested that I work on a mobile rehabilitation application for stroke patients. This sounded like the perfect opportunity to bridge my educational and professional worlds.

Research = Time Well Spent

I’ve been prepping for this project by taking Dr. Hurst’s course on Assistive Technology. Chris Selmer is my “internal client” and he sent me to an iOS crash course where I had gotten the basic fundamentals of iPhone MVC architecture and learned Obj-C syntax. These courses have been extremely helpful, but I also needed requirements from real doctors and nurses on how this mobile application should actually work.

Before I started wireframing and coming up with designs I needed to do some research. So I talked with nurses and physicians in the stroke unit at the Kernan Rehabilitation Center. I had the opportunity to communicate with stroke victims and in doing so, I observed the deficiencies caused by stroke trauma. The physicians described exercises that they would like to see in a mobile device. I visited with Dr. Mark Young (physician with a specialty in stroke trauma) and my friend Michelle Jones (occupational therapist at UMMC) who both helped me strengthen my idea and gave me insight into rehabilitation for those with physical and cognitive deficits.

Armed with some really useful information, I was able to approach the blueprints for the mobile app. Initially, I had imagined that I would be creating an application that focused solely on physical rehab using a smartphone; but, as it turns out, what stroke victims really need is an application that stimulates their coordination, cognitive abilities, and fine motor skills. I had planned on using an iPhone but I have since decided to start with an iPad, so the user will have more screen area to start with.

I saw firsthand why user interviews are so necessary and why design should rarely be an effort by the designer alone.

The Beginning of a Great App

I’ve named the project CogConnect, and plan to keep my entire process and code open-source. I’m in the design phase right now and I'm happy with the wireframes and the direction of the project. I'm looking forward to spending my SparkTime working on this application!