skignz are changing University Campuses forever!

University campuses are changing every day. With the constant updates in technology it is essential that Universities make sure they adapt to that change to meet every need of their students and provide them with the best experience and education available. 

skignz can help speed up that change, as it can provide all services that a student needs for when they are at University and even beyond the campus. I will explain how skignz can help in more detail below.

Teesside University Main Campus

Let me just start off with informing you about the work that skignz has currently provided for Teesside University by working with them to adapt to the changing needs of the University campus and students themselves. skignz is a new way for students to navigate around campus. It is a free app that everyone can download to their mobile devices. 

skignz provides students with a lot less worry for when they arrive at Teesside University. Prior to coming they will download the app and ensure that everything is set up for when they arrive. To find where they need to be on campus they can simply navigate through loading up skignz on their phone and scanning the campus environment to see where the building is they need to locate. 

Teesside University Enhanced by skignz

It simply is a sign in the sky. Teesside University were the first to use skignz and have ensured that it is a huge benefit for everyone to the University; staff, students and visitors, providing them with the simplicity of being reassured when on the campus. 

No need to try and understand them maps anymore! Students can download the app as soon as they get the offer letter from their university.

Checkout this short video for you to see how skignz works: http://youtu.be/5ZHWmI_cFb8

Don't just take our word for it, here a few students tell us what they think about skignz being on the Teesside University Campus:

Abigail Allick - 2nd Year Degree Student

“I’m not very good at navigating myself around, especially if I don’t know the area”

“I find the app a lot more easier, like getting myself around Uni and different places where I actually am”

Timi Odeyemi – MA Student

“If you think about the fact that a lot of students come here relatively clueless, and you want to know where buildings are, you want to know what exactly is going on”

“To meet and discover, wow, this is being set up right here. It just sort of gave that potential, made it feel real, that certain things can be developed”

“It’s essentially like a visual google or something of the sort”

As you can see from above, students who have experienced skignz already on campus have said how much it really helps for people attending University.

“It’s essentially like a visual google or something of the sort”

Freshers at Teesside University

skignz has provided a new exciting, interesting and essential service to current and new students, including everyone at Teesside University. It is new technology developed and Teesside University have jumped right on board of taking advantage to be the first to use this, and they have done right to do so! The difference it has already made is fantastic.

So what are the benefits of skignz?

skignz has many benefits to what it provides. I could talk about them all and go into much detail; the possibilities of where it could go and what it could do are vast.

skignz provides a new way for 'EVERYONE' to navigate about. It doesn’t just have a certain place it can be used or a certain audience that can use it, it is for everyone. You no longer need to be lost. You no longer need to feel alone. You can now prepare and know where you are at all times. Plus it is not boring like looking and trying to read or understand a map. It is simply straight there on your device. It is always with you wherever you are. No need to go in search of a map or some form of location help.

Whats in it for you? The social side of skignz!

And there's more ... skignz is not just for navigating. It has a whole social side to it beyond University campus. It is the social element of taking skignz into other parts of your life. 

You can use it when you go shopping. Say you fancied going shopping in a new place you hadn’t been before, you can set up skignz before you go and easily locate the shops and where you need to be when you arrive. 

It saves you time from looking around and wasting valuable time what can be used to shop. You can find your car in a very busy car park. Most of us forget from time to time where we have parked, so simply set up a skignz above your car for when you having finished where you need to be and find where you have parked you will be able to see it through skignz on your mobile device. It can also be used when you are at concerts or festivals with your friends. 

Getting lost from your friends or group is very easy: going to the bar or to the toilet - how will you be sure to find them again in that huge crowd? Well, before you go to the festival you and your friends can each download skignz and set it up before you head off to your festival. Therefore when you arrive you will each already have skignz set up, so if you go to the bar and lose your friends, just load up skignz on your mobile, scan the crowd and there you will see a little sign just above your friend's head informing you of where they are.

Just like Timi Odeyemi – MA Student stated:

“Imagine going to somewhere like London or Tokyo and trying to meet someone or find jobs or anything. You could try to find bars, you could try to, well, meet people socially, that kind of thing. So, to me, I see the possibilities of this particular app to be, like, endless. It could be the next big thing, in my opinion”

skignz really is the next big thing. It has a lot of benefits for people who use it and can be used in any way you wish.

So what does skignz mean to student experience?

It provides new students who are coming to University a way to feel comforted and reassured that they are going to know where they are going when they arrive on campus. Everything will already be set up for them putting them at ease and giving them time to get used to the app. It is also available for them to download before they come to University prior to them receiving the offer letter.

TU Freshers understanding skignz!

They can also find it to find new friends. Such as students who may not be very good at making new friends, they can use it in a social way to talk to new people. They could set up a skignz for themselves to inform people that they are new, what course they are on or if anyone else is doing the same, going to the same lesson as them and so on. 

It provides a new way for them to interact with other students if they do not feel they are best at doing that.

It can help foreign students also who have mentioned to us that when they arrive on campus they are generally alone. This way they will be able to find each other and a new way to make friends who they feel comfortable with. It is not always easy for foreign students to make new friends as they have said before to the university.

Professor Eileen Martin (Deputy Vice Chancellor)

“It’s a really important tool when students first arrive on campus because it’s an easy navigation, as they are used to using mobile technologies. This is a really good addition”

As you can see above, Professor Eileen Martin of Teesside University stated that it is an important tool for when students first arrive on University campus, providing them with easy navigation to where they need to be.

Party Time with skignz at TU Students Union

skignz also provides students with excitement when they come to University. They can use skignz not only to find new friends but for nights out or if they wanted to interact with others to have some fun. 

It provides value in their learning ability as it will put them at ease to find other students who they can relate to and also to have some friends and fun for the nights out in the Student Union and around town. 

For example: if they were having a house party for new students then they could place a skignz above their house to let people know that’s where the party is or even to try a few places with new friends. If they were to go for food and a few drinks they could each set up skignz on their phone, plan out where they wish to go and then each find where they need to be.

Understanding skignz on Campus

It is a new town for some students arriving. They need to feel at home where they are and that they are well looked after by the University.

Professor Eileen Martin (Deputy Vice Chancellor)

“I guess it adds a USP (unique selling proposition/point). It brings some fun and excitement into the student experience as well”

“I think it’s a really exciting and also very innovative and creative development. And I think we’re only just starting to understand the potential and the very different ways in which we can use it, both across the social world of the student but also actually in terms of their learning as well”

skignz really is the new best piece of technology that University campuses can take on. It will provide a whole new outlook to students on University campus and improve their life in social and learning aspects. It will give the University a huge boost in providing good technology and keeping up to date in all the advancements. skignz can be used in any way anyone wishes. To sum it all up below is a short video for you to see.

skignz in a Nutshell - http://youtu.be/ZEIEpkp8stY

Like Timi Odeyemi – MA Student says: It can be or will be…                “…the next big thing”

To find out more information on skignz then please see our websites and social media sites.

www.skignz.com

www.facebook.com/discoverskignz

#discoverskignz

Navigation / Orientation / Induction: Scary 1st day!

For anyone the 1st day of a new job or starting a University course can be daunting. What if you are doing this in a new town or city, this goes from daunting to scary. How about coming from a different country? Speak a different language?

A whole new culture and experience awaits you! Your senses are 'through the roof', your usual creature comforts and habits don't apply here! This for all intents and purposes, may as well be the Moon or Mars that you have landed on?

Atmosphere, landscape, colours, smells everything is different and it's that way until you settle in! Big question is, how long will that take? What parts of your life, health and peace of mind will be effected in the meantime?

Today (7th February 2014) was induction day at Teesside University Business School for some of their courses. Most of the students who started University today instead of the usual September/October intake is because they are 'top-up' students who are continuing their education from their previous course, from wherever on the planet they previously studied and 'top-up' to gain a degree or to a masters degree at Teesside University.

Kamran Tanveer, is one of those students embarking on the final year of the BA (hons) Applied Accounting & Finance Degree at TUBS (Teesside University Business School). Kamran is from Pakistan and has not previously been to the North East of England let alone Teesside. During a brief discussion with him it's apparent he's keen to learn and get on with his course, but he has not much knowledge about how to find his way around the campus or how to find his way around the surrounding local area. Something he and his new colleagues are clearly daunted by!

Kamran Tanveer:
Induction Day using skignz!

As part of their orientation and induction for new students TUBS engaged with skignz to produce a 'treasure/scavenger hunt' using the skignz technology to take the students on a hunt around the campus and surrounding town centre to help them familiarise themselves with their brand new surroundings.

Each student download skignz onto their smart phone or mobile device, then they were asked to go out onto the campus and use skignz to find the first clue, which when they found it, not only gave them some important information on that specific location, but also gave them the clue to the next location.

To prove they had visited each location the students had to take a 'selfie photo' in front of the venue and pick up something (something physical, menu, what's on leaflet, etc..) from each specific location. Only by accessing each skignz at each location would they know what they had to get from each venue.

Kamran said: "skignz was really easy to use, helpful with information and that you can zoom in and out of clues, even swipe away content to see other skignz behind them. The whole experience really helped me not only find places that I will need to go to such as supermarkets and clothes shops; but also places I would like to go to such as the Cinema, Art Gallery and the Main Library.

skignz is informative, helpful and I will certainly be telling all of my friends about it! Even when I return home to Pakistan, it will be really useful in many ways back there."

Kiersten Avery, Assistant Dean, TUBS said: "We wanted to not only help the students settle in, find their way around campus, but also provide them with a whole new interactive experience. skignz provides us with something that no other University has and we are working with them to utilise the skignz technology in many different ways for the benefit of our students. 

Kiersten Avery: 
Assistant Dean, TUBS

The feedback so far has been incredible and gives us a whole different way in which to interact and communicate with our students. Due to this successful pilot of using the technology in this way, we aim to roll this out for all students for this years September induction and orientation events".

In 2014 many of the largest brands in the world are focusing on how they can improve user/consumer/customer experience rather than just try to advertise at them and push their products on to them.

Teesside University are leading the way by using skignz technology to improve the whole student experience on campus in a way that is helpful, insightful, interesting and provides the students with something they can take out into the real world and use, alongside their studies and learning.

skignz was co-founded by two local Middlesbrough guys Gary Baker and Si Brown, the latter an Alumni of Teesside, who gained both his undergraduate and postgraduate Master Degree at Teesside University. 

As part of the induction, Teesside are showing real life examples of how students have completed their course and apply that experiences and knowledge in the real world, this demonstrates to students about how important employability and gaining work experience is, alongside their studies and gaining a formal qualification at the University.

If you would like to learn about the courses on offer at TUBS please follow this link: Teesside University Business School

If you would like to learn a little more about how skignz can work on your University Campus(es) please take a look at this short film. 

This film was actually developed and produced by varying members of the skignz team, ALL of which are ex-graduates of Teesside University, having completed an internship or placement with the company. They are now in graduate positions working on projects for some of the worlds most popular brands.

If you are interested in how skignz can help your University please either email us on info@skignz.com or call us on +44 (0) 845 058 0519.

The Teams Work - Samantha Collins

Hi, my name is Samantha Collins and I am a Marketing Executive at skignz. I got the job just after I graduated which for me was lucky as it can be hard for some people to be able to find a job once they have finished University. 

I have really enjoyed my job so far and what I have learnt from it. It is a whole lot different from learning at University and putting it all into perspective in an actual job; you bring stuff to the organisation and learn a lot along the way – it is a two way street.

My role as a Marketing Executive includes me being in charge of all the social media accounts developing the social aspect of the company. I expand its promotional activities through Twitter, Linked-In, Facebook, Flicr, Blogger, Instagram, Pintrest, Pearltree, YouTube, Stumble Upon and Google+. 

I also attend meetings to participate in the development of the company and provide help with any other activity happening within the business. 

I have been working with Teesside University while at skignz, which has been a good experience and fun, as I have attended meetings with some very important people of the University and had some promotional fun for skignz and Teesside along the way.

Now just a bit about what I like to do myself. I like to go away places, even if it is just for the day, night or even for a while; it is fun going to new places that I haven’t been before and also gives a change of scenery! 

I enjoy going out, spending time with friends, shopping; cinemas lots of stuff really!

So how about you help me out a bit, you see I am very busy working on the Social Media for skignz whilst preparing for a lot of other jobs, so please check out our Social Media sites, I will post the links below and see what you think of skignz!

www.facebook.com/discoverskignz  

#discoverskignz

Have a lovely day.

Sam x

Advancement in Technology: Santander/Skignz

The advancement in technology over the previous years has grown and extended enormously. People and companies are always looking for a way in which they can improve the next stage, create something new that everyone will want to get on board with, or develop further themselves.

Creating the next best advancement in technology can include, being able to consider the behaviour of people, the current technology and the environment around, then putting all three together and seeing what can be done to create advancements in technology to satisfy and be the best in the field. 

Each and every day people will look at how they can take current technology and see what can be done to create the next best thing.

Let’s take an insight into one of the top and biggest companies in the world, and look at how they have used the advancement of technology within their business to help themselves and the custom that they receive and aim to satisfy. Santander is one of the most well-known and successful banking companies of our time.

Let’s take their headquarters in Spain and see how they have made this the best they can. They have looked at the advancement in technology, and used that to create some innovative developments in how they can improve their business and to attract as many visitors to their company.

Santander headquarters has many buildings spread across the vast campus style site, Pereda building, training and development centre, data process centre, services and restaurants area, business centre, sports centre, golf course, exhibition hall, el Bosque, an outdoor sports area including 10km cycle track, a nursery school within the Eastern zone, including the media centre for all staff, and last of all the visitors centre.

The visitors centre is the central focus for the whole campus. Santander has spent  huge resource into styling this building in a way that will impress visitors when they arrive. The technology advancements that they have used have made the place outstanding, and will certainly impress people when they visit the headquarters. They have managed to look at communicating with the visitors in their own way, letting them be intrigued at the same time as interacting with them.

Let’s start off with looking at their first creation in technology and what they have come up with for their business.

Robots, who are interactive guest assistants – naming them Robotic Butlers. 

The Robots have been designed for Santander to communicate with visitors when they arrive to the building. They are little red robots that have been created using GPS technology to guide the visitors around the building facilities. The robots are only small/medium sized, but have a lot of information stored inside them, they are even fluent in various languages.

The way that the robots have been designed to work is that when a visitor arrives to the Santander headquarters in Spain, they will be able to find a touch screen console where they can choose their language and where they wish to be going. Whether that be a meeting room, another part of the building or campus, or just to find out some general information. The robots will assist visitors to find where they need to be, through the touch screen control, they ‘show you the way’.

Besides the robots that Santander have had designed, they also created the Augmented Reality model of their campus facilities: the Augmented Reality Explorer. 

Santander got a designer to build a massive architecture model of their campus, and then translated the model into a 3D space.

Four screens were designed to go around each side of the model which slide from side to side. Santander decided to use Augmented Reality and make it look like the four screens are transparent. When a visitor or someone wants to look at the 3D model, they will look through the screen and see additional information that is not already displayed. The screens provide a digital layer of information when you look through them, so that users can explore the aspects that we don’t see or understand about the campus and that is not already visually relevant.

Santander also has an interactive wall that they created for visitors coming to Santander headquarters. The wall has been created as a motion-sensing video wall out of touch screens. The wall can function on different stages given the distance that the user has to the wall itself. The application can react to what is around it and adapt to different situations. Visitors can also interact with the touch screen wall to find out information on Santander and the headquarters itself.

Santander has aimed to create this exploration of technology to distinguish it from its competitors as a forward thinking bank and be seen as one of the finest in the business, through interactive robots, augmented reality and touch screen interactive displays.

But how much will all of this cost them? Potentially costing Santander millions to create all this technology, yet limited to use inside its reception area within their headquarters campus.

What if there was a different and more cost effective way in which all of the above technology could be brought together in one simple app available on any mobile device.

skignz is a new app invention through which signs and 3D objects are placed in the environment and can be viewed via a mobile camera device. Through using the free viewer app, you can view the Skignz that have been placed in the real world in real time.

An example of where skignz has been used effectively in a similar type of environment is Teesside University (UK). Around Teesside University, skignz have been set up and placed around campus, so visitors, students, staff and even suppliers are able to navigate their way around the campus. They can simply load up the app through their mobile device and then view where the skignz are with the information of what they are looking for.

Similar to the Santander headquarters campus in Spain, helping people to navigate about through their robots and interactive augmented reality model, skignz does this for Teesside University. skignz is not restricted to Santander or Teesside University but can be implemented for any campus environment across the globe.

The skignz technology is not restricted just to campus navigation; imagine if every pin on Google maps was transformed into a skignz, it could be extended to villages, towns, cities, countries and continents or anywhere on the planet! There is no limit to where skignz can be placed and where it can be used. It adapts and has all the same advancements of technology just like Santander HQ visitor experience, however with no geographic location restrictions.

As mind blowing as skignz is to navigate around, it can also be used socially. It can be a way for people to keep in touch with others, such as social media, but instead of having Facebook they could set up their own profile right above their own heads.

You can place a skignz with all the information on, such as a status or what they wish to say along with an image, and have people see this or who they wish too by setting their privacy settings to either public or friends.

What do you think? Have a see for yourself using the following links.

www.skignz.com
http://bit.ly/1eS1emZ - Santander Technology Video
http://bit.ly/1hzMPQF - skignz Technology Video