We said we would be keeping you informed and that’s exactly what we’re doing!

The team has been hard at work updating our Wayfinding software even further. The release notes detailing the latest updates for Wayfinder v4.10 can be found below!

New Menu Widgets

We’ve updated our menu system, so it can now show additional widgets and we have also made a cost-effective simpler mapping technology, providing things like building and safety information. Showing other widget elements on there, including the widget itself having the capability to be a control. So, it can show all sorts of things like web pages and live video feeds, and working in conjunction with Screenfeed it can even show a variety of news, stocks and shares, weather, and sports articles.

As you know, our Wayfinder is typically operated via the sidebar menu. Whilst that remains, there is now also support for brand new menu widgets, which can be displayed in the middle of the screen and provide a multitude of elements to be shown. Thereby, allowing multipurpose, multi-use functionality. Our latest updates also allow custom widgets and connectivity to different systems, including interactive capabilities too. So, for example, you may click on a Weather Widget, and it pops out to display the user with even more information related to weather.

New advertising widget

One of the widgets that is particularly exciting is the New Advertising Widget. It now makes it possible to show DOOHad advertising inside the main menu. This is extremely useful when you want to grab the attention of users by showing them key advertising campaigns or additional informational messages alongside the other content users would be engaging with.

New website embeds

You can now show web embeds live on your home screen. Great for social media or live HTML content!

Up until now, the widgets could be pressed and showed a graphic, a video, or a webpage. Now the actual widget itself can be a webpage. This enables us to work with our partners like Screenfeed to provide a variety of different feeds including weather, transport, stocks, and shares.

Improved weather forecasts

Another updated widget showing the upcoming 4-day forecasts which is also brandable. This weather forecast is provided by Acquire as standard and ties in with a Screenfeed ‘feed’ as standard. You can also subscribe to a fully animated video feed displaying live weather conditions in the top banner of Wayfinder which is available via one of the many subscription services offered by Acquire. Enquire with us to find out more about the many subscription services we have on offer.

SmartSearch comes to the Web and Mobile Apps

On the latest (4.10) release of the Acquire Wayfinder services, your website and apps can now be smarter by using the SmartSearch features.
We aim to maintain a fast, efficient, and premium experience, so using the SmartSearch functions enables your users to spend less time trying to find their preferred destination.

We do this in three ways:

Details Of Destinations Shown As You Browse And Search:

As seen on the Acquire Wayfinder kiosk software, the web app now supports details of the destinations as you browse and search, prior to the user selecting the destination. This allows users to rapidly see the status of the destination (open/closed, etc) and its location (ideal for multiple destinations, to help them choose the most appropriate one).

‘Fuzz Search’ Entries Allowed:

Search features allow for ‘fuzzy search’ entries as well as explicit searching. This allows users to type in the name of a store, the name of a product, or even something in the description of the destination itself, and it appears in the search.

Intelligent and Interactive Mapping

The search is also aware of the area of the map currently being viewed. When using location services (e.g. on a phone or in an app), the search results are automatically prioritized centered on the map area.

The new features have been rolled out to all users and can simply be enabled using the API calls available in our open API.

Web App - Improved Web App searches

Clients using any of our services would already have received the latest SmartSearch updates as standard in Wayfinder v4.8, but the web app version of Wayfinder has been updated further, offering even better search results for destination descriptions, tags, and categories. Additionally, all instances of a destination are shown, not just the closest.

We’re currently also putting the final touches to our SmartSearch capabilities, so the updates included in Wayfinder v4.10 are just before a looming UI update, which you will need to watch this space for. Keep an eye out for upcoming Wayfinder release notes for more about this!

For now, let’s get back to Wayfinder v4.10!

Contextual Search:

In this set of updates, the SmartSearch has been enhanced so there are now details of the destination a user is searching for before they’ve selected it. Our contextual search functionality is smart, as it is using the destination name, the description, categories, and tags e.g. products that are available at that destination to help a customer find what they want. This means that if a customer is searching for a smartphone, it’s not imperative for them to buy it from the smartphone manufacturer’s store, they could also purchase it from the cellular provider’s store instead.

Finding what you want:

The reason for these updates is to enable people to quickly find what they want, especially people who are not aware of the brands of the retail stores, but know what they’re looking for. E.g., if a customer is searching for stores selling TVs, these latest updates will allow our Wayfinder mapping software to bring back results of all the stores that sell TVs not just stores with ‘TV’ in their name.

Tourists or out-of-area users:

This is particularly useful for customers who are tourists or are from out of town or country. The whole idea of our Wayfinding mapping technology is to get people to where they want to be as quickly and easily as possible whilst helping them understand the environment, they are in. We strive to emulate and liken a customer’s journey using our Wayfinder to that of a real-life human interaction between a customer and an information desk employee. These are the types of questions a person would ask. i.e., “I am trying to find a Toilet”, but ‘Toilets’ is also known as Restroom, Bathroom, Lavatory, Washroom, or WC. We strive to facilitate these conversations via our ever-evolving Wayfinder digital directory software.

Color-Coded Destinations

It's now possible to set custom colors for all your destinations for use in the kiosk and web apps. So, you can now highlight different types of stores in different colors for example. This has been further enhanced so you can choose your colors yourself by way of the color picker option or via a brand’s hex color code.

The whole idea here is to highlight destinations in different and/or custom colors. Whilst this isn’t new to our mapping software, we have now updated Wayfinder to allow clients to do this themselves. This opens a whole world of possibilities for organizing the map in a perfectly desired layout. It helps people understand the map, so if a flagship or anchor store is highlighted, then customers understand it’s a different type of store just by looking at it. You may also want to show a premium store or different types of categories of stores. It allows the differentiation between restaurants, clothing stores, and furniture stores for example.

Some great use cases for this are:

• Matching your 3D map to your brand

• Categorizing destinations, such as Shops, Restaurants & Services.

• Highlighting keystone locations like anchor stores or sponsored tenants.

• Temporary closures, or maintenance.

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Bugfixes & Improvements

As usual, this update comes with several bug fixes, speed improvements, and security updates.

How will these changes impact you?

If your subscription level includes the above updates, they will be delivered automatically to your CMS, Maps, or Kiosk remotely without the need for you to do anything. There shouldn't be any noticeable downtime to either the CMS, Maps, or Kiosks.

All of the team at Acquire hope you enjoy these latest updates!
If you would like further information on the above, please contact your account manager.

Alternatively, speak with one of our sales team.