We announced four winners of the Ticket to Taipei Sweepstakes yesterday with a live webcast from Viable HQ in Rockville, MD (watch it here).  We at Viable send our congratulations to each of them!

Our front desk area was temporarily transformed into a slice of Hollywood with an all-deaf TV crew behind the camera, holding cue cards and directing the lights.  Several employees took a moment from their workday to help as John T.C. Yeh and I hammed it up for the camera.

In the meantime, we’re enrolling ourselves in acting classes.

BizTech came out with a really great article on how our IT operations are keeping apace with business demands. It was a natural fit: Viable is primarily a technology company and the magazine is focused on information technology.

BizTech Magazine article

Pictured are Jeremy Shaffner and Jason T. Yeh, respectively our director of IT and our vice president of Technology. Jeremy has a deaf brother and Jason is deaf and comes from a deaf family. The article is sourced from interviews with both persons as well as with Ed Bosson, recognized by acclamation in TRS circles and in the deaf community as the “Father of VRS,” and several other independent analysts although their quotes apparently didn’t make it to print.

Also, see below for a Kodak moment taken from my pager of the photographer in action.

Giving shade is Robert Soderholm, a Viable employee. By coincidence, this photographer has a deaf cousin (although he knew no sign language) and said the assignment was one of his best ever. Me, I’m just glad that the article will help to educate the business community on relay services!

I’m back from Paris, where I had a great time at Viable France’s Grand Opening ceremony.  Anthony blogged last week about Viable France and our goal to bring video communication access to Europe and around the world.

Check out photos of employees in our Rockville office videoconferencing with people from Viable France. Photos from the event in Paris to come. UPDATE, 6/12: Photos from Paris have been added to the album!

Greetings! I’m Jess. I work at Viable as the project coordinator for the media team. Recently, we took on the great challenge of giving the website a face lift. The goal was to improve the overall web design and navigability.

While the entire website received both design and navigation adjustments, including sub-menu links that now appear when you point your mouse to the navigation bar, three pages in particular bear mentioning: 1) the home page, 2) the support center page, and 3) the Viable Screen Name registration page.

Homepage

As with any visual creation, keeping the design modern and clear is imperative. We wanted our website to be visually interesting and to encourage users to explore.

With the new design, it is much more convenient to sign up for a Viable Phone Number or download Viable Vision. Viable events are also now highlighted on the front page. We placed the three features in a sidebar, instead of at the bottom. We increased visibility and reduced the number of clicks needed to reach to the intended location.

After all, more exploration = learning more about Viable and what we have to offer you.
Better understanding of our services and products = a happy and informed you!

Support Center

As with the homepage, we streamlined the design. Since this is the support center page, we wanted to make this section inviting.

One of the important changes to the new support center page is the request support form at the bottom. Users no longer have to go to a separate page to type out a request for assistance.

We also removed the left sidebar in order to further reduce the number of clicks needed.

Viable Screen Name/Phone Number

Here, we focused on modernizing the overall design as well as mentioning the benefits of possessing a VPN. We also added a brief explanation of the service.

The simple but efficient solutions in the design and navigability were applied to all of our service and product pages. Go check them all out and let us know your thoughts!