itracks Realtime Goes Truly Global – plus layout updates, usability improvements, and more.

When you use itracks software, you’re using products that are developed independently and programmed in-house by dedicated members of the itracks team. This allows us to stay true to our values of continuous innovation and serving our clients, meaning that we are listening to feedback, and continually releasing updates and improvements to the software to improve user experience and better match our clients’ expectations.

We’re proud of this, so we will continue to let you know about the key highlights of these updates as they come out in terms of what noticeable improvements our users will experience. Along with some functional updates to resolve some reported issues with booking, sending confirmations, and using the time selection feature, there are some key updates that will be much more obvious when you’re using the itracks GO platform.

Improved Realtime Layouts

Based on feedback from current users of the itracks Realtime platform, we made some updates to what you will see on the screen while you’re hosting or taking part in an activity.

• Grid layouts and the way they adapt have been updated to look better and more organized no matter how many participants are in a group.
• Based on feedback about the size of media and whiteboard displays for moderators, we’ve improved these layouts to better utilize available space.
• The “active speaker” will now be highlighted so that you can quickly identify who’s speaking. We’ve also added an “active sharer” emphasis so you can quickly identify who is sharing their screen.

International Access – Choose the Location That’s Right For Your Project

As we talked about in our last update summary, itracks Realtime recently moved to a cloud-based infrastructure in partnership with Microsoft. One of the major reasons we did this was so that users around the world could access Realtime without any lag or negative impacts on user experience. And because we want our users to be able to perform truly agile research, we know that you might have groups running in different locations, or projects that have different storage requirements based on geo. For that reason, we’re giving you the choice of where to host your projects and activities.

• Media Storage Region – This is where your media files will be stored for a project. Being able to choose this offers users the flexibility to make sure that they’re meeting compliance requirements. For example, maybe you’ve got a project with a government entity that requires storage in a particular country or region – now you can offer this!
• Activity Region – This is where your group or interview will be hosted while it’s actually running. Choosing a location that’s closest to the majority of your participants means the data doesn’t have to travel as far, meaning less lag and better overall experience.

Now, when new projects (and activities) are booked in GO, you will have an option to define where activity resources are allocated and media is stored. Our goal is to provide global coverage. As a first step, we are pleased to announce region support for the United States, Australia, Canada, Ireland, Japan, and the United Kingdom.

Region support will continue to grow over time based on client need, and we are excited to offer the flexibility for our users to manage projects in a truly global context. If you don’t see support for a certain location as you’re booking a project, please let us know!