One block at a time
It's all about innovation in agile processes, when FIRST® Scandinavia's website receives its annual update.
When FIRST® Scandinavia contacted Increo for the first time over 15 years ago, it was because they needed a better platform to run their innovative FIRST® Lego® League tournaments. They worked a lot in Excel and wanted to digitize themselves.
We liked it very much, because at Increo we are committed to both creativity and digitalization. One of Increo's developers has even attended the tournament as a child! With thunderous cheers, we folded up our arms and embarked on what would turn out to be an innovative and long-lasting collaboration.
This is what we have done
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hjernekraft.org
The challenge - innovation on an annual basis
FIRST® Lego® Leauge is one of the world's largest knowledge and technology competitions for children and young people. Each autumn, the young participants are invited to over 30 regional tournaments in Norway and Sweden, where they will research, innovate, design and program.
In other words, there is a lot of activity in FIRST® Scandinavia's website solutions. It requires a whole lot of capacity of the solution, as well as a good amount of content. Since its inception, Increo has updated the digital platforms annually, during the months when there are no active tournaments. At the same time, the tournaments have grown larger every year, and the websites have become increasingly complex.
How has Increo worked to drive innovation and innovation on their website, during the time available between each tournament?
Here's how we solved it
Agile process
For example, in about six months, Increo will complete both insight analysis, design and development. Therefore, only a small part of the platform is further developed annually, via a so-called agile working methodology. Together with FIRST® Scandinavia, larger work periods can start with workshops and concept sketches, before moving on to prototype design and visual profile updates. Towards the end, Increo's designers create a computer modelling of the desired solution, which is then passed on to technical development.
Content structuring
On the site, many different users will find the desired information. They should enroll their teams, download assignments, and submit task solutions. In addition, they should be able to check leaderboards and status in real time. Increo therefore focuses on cleaning up the content of the website so that the information is easy to find. Already in the concept sketches, the designer starts by setting up a clear content structure, reducing the click depth by only a few subpages per page.
Integrations of various platforms
The tournaments take place once a year. Then the site must work, because there can be up to 5000 users using it at the same time. This requires a huge capacity. In order to distribute the pressure from the traffic, Increo has put different parts of the website on different platforms, which talk together through so-called integrations, or an “API bridge”. For example, the front-end resides in React, but retrieves information such as score and number of enrollees from Umbraco -- et headless CMS. The tournament itself after login, on the other hand, is located on a different platform.
Rewarding Collaboration
All in all, it is very rewarding to be able to work on something that promotes innovation among children and young people. For Increo's developers, it is equally nerve-wracking every year, when at least 700 supervisors from Norway and Sweden visit the site to sign up for their teams. Then the digital systems have to work when it comes to. At the same time, we get an opportunity to innovate together with the team at FIRST® Scandinavia, who are both creative and structured.
We at Increo are constantly learning that the best results come from good cooperation, and this is a practical example of just that. We hope that the young participants in the FIRST® Lego® League experience the joy of experiencing the same.
