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The Boulder Watershed Collective is a Colorado nonprofit using apps to advance causes. The small nonprofit has a vital cause: as populations grow, climate changes and forests shift, it’s crucial to preserve the watershed. Beyond mitigation and restoration projects, the nonprofit offers education and engagement to empower environmental stewardship and inspire action.  Giving the community a free, immersive, and informative experience, the Take-a-Hike app was an ambitious project. Let’s explore. Innovation Within Reach Innovation in nonprofit experience design is often out of reach for smaller non-profits, but our design solves that challenge. InspiringApps created a cost-effective mobile app in partnership with Boulder Watershed Collective, offering an immersion into the Boulder trails system never before experienced.  Available for both iOS and Android, the free Take-a-Hike app is a trail guide in your pocket. The user experience is deeply mapped to the mission: concentrate on the natural beauty of Boulder’s trails, but learn about reasons to protect them, too. With InspiringApps’ environmental stewardship app design, users can enjoy hikes internet-free while tracking their progress and learning. Collaboration & Impact True innovation comes from shared collaboration and partnership. Technology decisions can be simplified and streamlined into one cohesive process with shared collaboration. Regarding the app design process, Boulder Watershed Collective shared:  “Thank you and the InspiringApps team for working with us on this and making the idea possible. I am not sure we would even have an app or an app of this quality without you and your team’s awesome work and collaboration.” Experiential Design on a Mission Experiential design goes beyond traditional design practices by considering the entire journey and environment in which the experience occurs. It aims to stimulate multiple senses to create a more immersive and impactful experience. Immersive Experience For nonprofits, digital, experiential design can create a strong impact and elicit positive change. By engaging multiple senses, Take-a-Hike offers an immersive experience that supports local climate innovators through novel ways that foster environmental stewardship. In addition to teaching hikers about their diverse environment, the entire experience educates users on the services and management decisions that aid the wetlands, forests, and mountains.  Interactive Features The app’s design has two key interactive features: a map and an audio narration. As it guides hikers to different learning spots along the trail, the app uses GPS mapping and audio playback from the user’s device to create a natural connection with the outdoors. As a result of the design’s innovations, users can visually learn about points of interest along their hike, and geographically triggered audio segments play at those same points of interest automatically.  Informative & Intuitive Visual Elements Visual elements are both informative and intuitive. When users select and begin a hike in the app, they see a map of their hike and the points of interest or stops along the way. As they hike to each stop, a details screen shows hikers where they are in real-time, info about that point, and the distance to the next stop. Customizable Audio Audio elements offer a high degree of control but a minimum interaction requirement to enhance outdoor experiences.  Users can control the audio from their phone’s notifications panel.  They can turn on an audio narration in the background, so there’s no need to interact with their phones during the hike.  When approaching stops, there is audio to help hikers appreciate their surroundings, followed by silence to enable hikers to use that information while taking in bird calls and mountain views. Sustainable Iterations Through Community Engagement Built in a way that makes adding additional hikes a nominal effort, the app has enabled Boulder Watershed Collective to exponentially grow its education and outreach beyond the small staff’s capacity. Partnering within the community, the team continues to add hikes and expand its reach. Educational Reach After initially releasing the Take-a-Hike app developed by InspiringApps, Boulder Watershed Collective received additional grants. One of those was to work with a school in Lafayette to guide a podcast creation experience with students. Students contributed content that has been integrated into the app. In a testimonial from the teacher, she said:  “The Boulder Watershed Collective took on the impossible. They transformed ninth graders with zero experience into podcasters. With endless patience and spectacular curricular materials, these experts led the students from ideation through a finished product. Along the way, they learned how to ask great questions, create mind maps, collaborate, and use podcasting programs. “At the end of the year, many of these students identified their work creating podcasts with the Boulder Watershed Collective as the most important experience of their academic year.” With the added Spanish translation, the app development experience has enhanced not just one set of learners but many who will follow.  Holistic Approach To Cost-Effective Technology Decisions When creating a nonprofit app, it’s important to take a holistic approach, considering different angles and solutions. Nonprofit organizations seek human-centered designs, but just as in the corporate world, there are also technical and cost aspects to consider.  The metrics for nonprofits differ because the end goal is impact, not profit. To create positive change, nonprofit apps use an innovative mix of: Grant or donor funding Technology Education Community engagement According to Brad Weber, CEO of InspiringApps, that cost difference can become the difference between having an app and not having an app—as many nonprofits know too well: “Our client received project bids that were six figures, which the nonprofit could not afford. With some creative app architecture, we were able to deliver an app for a fraction of that cost, which they were able to fund with government grants.”  A holistic approach addresses a user’s relationship with a mobile product and their user journey from start to finish. The challenge to deliver the innovation needed for the product’s success enabled our team’s creative solutions to come alive—and deliver the immersive experience at a cost that made the project possible. To create cost-effective yet innovative solutions, focus on the core features. Instead of building everything from scratch, explore existing tools, APIs, or software development kits (SDKs) that integrate with your app. This approach can save development time and costs while providing the necessary functionality. Creating Uniquely Valuable Impact InspiringApps is driven by the opportunity to design technical solutions for causes that help our community. Building an app can ensure your organization’s core mission is front, back, and center. Keeping costs down and creating an impactful app is within reach.  InspiringApps has built beautiful and engaging apps for not-for-profit organizations. We are dedicated to helping local organizations and not-for-profit clients bring their web and mobile app ideas to life at an affordable cost. Our goal is to support the growth and prosperity of our community.

BOULDER, CO—InspiringApps, a leading innovator in app development, today announced that their CEO, Brad Weber, has been invited to join the elite Fast Company Impact Council. A Leap Forward in Tech Leadership & Digital Innovation The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only collective comprised of the world’s most creative and inventive individuals in the business arena. This prestigious group convenes several times yearly for live events, virtual sessions, and roundtables to discuss pressing challenges and the most promising futuristic opportunities. Innovation & Leadership: InspiringApps on the Forefront “This remarkable recognition illustrates our strong commitment and influence in shaping the future of technological advancements,” remarked Stephanie Mikuls, Marketing Director at InspiringApps. “As a top-tier company, we understand large enterprises’ challenges in bridging the gap between their business objectives and capacity. We are here to be the reliable, innovative partner to fulfill your objectives.” By joining the Impact Council, Weber is slated to be a key contributor to discussions that will help shape the future of various industries. His wisdom and insights will be shared with the other council members on fastcompany.com and in a special edition print issue of Fast Company. The Future of Digital Innovation & Business Growth Brad’s invitation to this prestigious collective signifies his recognized capacity to motivate change, foresee future tech trends, and drive revolutionary business strategies in the digital landscape. Weber brings extensive experience and unique perspectives to this council. Under his leadership, InspiringApps has become a trusted partner to numerous startups and enterprises, helping them drive innovation and turn updated business ideas into reality. “Being invited to join the Fast Company Impact Council is a great honor, and I am excited to work alongside the other members, who are leaders at the forefront of their industries, to bring about positive impacts,” says Weber. About InspiringApps InspiringApps is an app development company with a robust track record of helping companies ideate, innovate, and succeed. Whether helping enterprises fulfill their untapped potential or advising startups on disrupting the market, InspiringApps uses the latest technologies alongside their rich experience to deliver tangible success to clients and stakeholders with a 100% onshore, US-based team. Finish line, every time. It’s the InspiringApps guarantee. Get in touch at hello@InspiringApps.com.