| Title | VIAOPTA NAV |
| Brand | NOVARTIS PHARMA |
| Product/Service | VIAOPTA NAV SMARTPHONE APPLICATION |
| Category |
G01. Patient Assisted Living |
|
Entrant Company
|
ARWORKS Budapest, HUNGARY
|
|
Advertising Agency
|
ARWORKS Budapest, HUNGARY
|
|
Advertising Agency 2
|
STUDIO BINAR Vienna, AUSTRIA
|
Credits
| Mohanad Fors |
Novartis Pharma Ag |
Global Brand Manager |
| Szabolcs Budaházy |
Arworks Llc |
Managing Director |
| Giovanni Ciaffoni |
Giovanni Ciaffoni - Software Development |
Managing Director |
| Ákos Szabó |
Studio Binär Gmbh |
Managing Director |
The Brief
Sight loss doesn’t have to mean giving up getting out and about. But to succeed in everyday traffic, blind people must keep a map of routes, places and obstacles in mind. Consistency is critical and they often rely on the help of others. Many use guide dogs but the training of a ‘seeing eye’ is measured in years and thousands of euros. Many blind and low vision people are active smartphone users. As a powerful alternative to human and canine assistance, Novartis launched a project to develop ViaOpta Nav, a personal navigation application for blind and low vision smartphone users.
Creative Execution
The ViaOpta initiative demonstrates Novartis’ commitment to vision health by providing practical support to visually impaired people to understand and manage their condition.
The development of the ViaOpta Nav mobile application - a member of a planned family of apps - began in 2014. It combines location services, video-audio conversion and a mission-critical interface design to turn the ever-present smartphone into a truly valuable assistant to the blind and the visually impaired.
The first version was released in October, 2014 for both iOS and Android operating systems. Since then several thousand users have downloaded the free application. A new release with extended functionality, especially in terms of points of interests and public transportation is currently under development.
The application has been updated to work with the Apple Watch extension (4 main menus). It provides step by step guidance by the watch and buzzes at main turning points.
The ViaOpta Nav smartphone application is and shall be freely available from the AppStore (iOS) and Google Play (Android). The application takes advantage of the mobile phone location service, also additional GPS signals when necessary. At any time the user can query the app for current position and junctions around.
To help blind and low vision people move independently, the app continuously provides audio information to them. The users listen to turn by turn instructions to any given destination. Way-points and upcoming junctions are identified with corresponding distances to improve the effectiveness of the route.
Countless positive messages, testimonials and feature suggestions from committed users of the ViaOpta Nav application prove the practical value of the project.
The ViaOpta Nav application was shortlisted in Mobile category at the Cannes Lions Health Awards and the CLIO Healthcare Awards in 2015.
Prior to and during the development of the ViaOpta Nav application extensive research was done by the developer with regards to readily available technologies, applications, platforms and sensors. Specials schools for the blind were consulted about the use of computers and smartphones by students of various ages. A large amount of information was collected and analysed from research done by healthcare organisations, government bodies, associations of blind and visually impaired people and companies involved with assistive health technology. All user interactions of ViaOpta Nav have been optimised to the unique needs and conditions of blind and visually impaired smartphone users.