To us, the ultimate user experience was to actually accomplish what you set out to do – and do it in a shorter more enjoyable timeframe. The end result would become obvious. So we wanted to establish a benchmark from which to embark and show tangible improvement. What better place to start than the U.S. Department of Labor who actually maintains data on how we all spend our time. More specific, how we waste time doing some of the simplest aspects of our daily life. In a nutshell, Americans spend approximately 1 hour each and every day just to deal with scheduling, organizing and communicating our normal day-to-day activities. Not surprisingly, women spend almost 2 hours each day dealing with the same issue. If you do the math, this equals approx. 3 days every year. That is basically one long weekend — wasted!

Just think about your own personal situation. Planning a “simple” family picnic/BBQ can be a 2-3 day event of back-and-forth planning, organizing, negotiating ideal times for all and communicating to everyone. Then there is the event itself. How many phone calls will you get from attendees to inquire about directions, what to bring, and other elements that could have all been handled with only one simple calendar event –AND a very important ingredient: The right information.

What people don’t realize, or forget, is that most calendar events require a certain level of adjoining input and follow up. Many times, this can last days if not weeks (getting ready for vacations). Meeting friends at the movies requires research for what movie to see, then an invite to friends, then a consensus from all on what movie to see, then discussions for show times, the actual location of the theater, and any potential after movie plans. Understandably, compiling this information, organizing it and communicating with others, can seem overwhelming and is certain to bring about procrastination. It’s no wonder that most people’s calendars have become nothing more than Wish lists.

That scenario is why we created HUBkap™. Our user proposition is actually quite simple: Make people more productive through convenience, and give them back some of that wasted time. The way to do this is to provide people relevant and real time information, based on the intended activity being scheduled, allowing the user to make decisions right on the spot. Then with a single calendar entry to all, include this information, so the invitees too can make decisions on the spot before they accept or decline. We even programmed HUBkap™ to automatically limit the relevant search for top picks, best pricing, most relevant. This is where a lot of time is wasted, so this is where we put our efforts on your behalf.

Finally, in keeping with the simplicity and convenience productivity driver, we wanted to create a UI that is easy, fast and comprehensive so that all of the above is accomplished within seconds, not days. If this approach appeals to you, look into hubkap.com and tell us what you think.

Today we are happy to share our latest release with our small but growing community.  We’ve been hard at work putting in a few more features we’ve had on the slate for a bit.  We’ve also included some new features based on the feedback we’ve received from users.  So, lets start with what you’ve told us:

We are adding some new ‘content’ widgets. These widgets are designed to surface content that will help you accomplish the things you are trying to get done.  Much like our simple Google maps saves you a little time, these widgets will save you time on your daily tasks as well.  The newest widget is our ‘Shopping’ widget, which pulls together the webs top shopping sites into one place to help find what you are looking for that much faster – its almost like having a personal assistant (okay, not quite, but close).  The second one is our ‘Entertainment’ widget, which pulls the latest movies from Amazon’s movie gallery.  So whether you want to rent, stream or buy, you can find the perfect movie for family movie night right as you put the event on your calendar.  These are all just the beginning of something we are excited about, because we believe saving a few minutes at a time adds up, and frankly who couldn’t use a few more minutes each day to focus on doing instead of planning and chasing?

We are adding the ability to support RSS calendar feeds.  What does this mean?  You can now subscribe to your favorite NCAA basketball team’s schedule (we aren’t over March Madness quite yet).  It means you can subscribe to your kids school calendar.  It means you can subscribe to your favorite venues’ events (we particularly like the Hollywood Bowl).  It means you can have one central place to view all the calendars you need.  So, go find all your favorite calendars and start RSS-ing

What’s next?  As cool as all that is, we have a few more features in a works that we want to tell you a little bit about:

• We are putting the finishing touches on Google Calendar Sync.  We heard you loud and clear (because a lot of you find us through our Android app) so we are a few weeks away from wrapping that feature up.  We will let you know when we have it completed.
• We are really excited about the next big feature - Lists.  Who doesn’t love lists (okay – or maybe hate them).  Either way they tend to be apart of daily life.  We’ve gone a step further than the average simple list – ours includes a barcode scanner so you can capture product info on the go (remember that great pair of jeans you saw at the mall when you get home).  More on this exciting feature soon.

We are really excited about what we are adding and what is coming soon.  We are particularly excited because this all supports our mission to bring a new approach to the age old challenge of managing your time – they will be more on that in our next post so come back soon…  in the meantime, please give us your feedback, suggestions and help us spread the word!

Robert

With a basic mission to simplify and enhance people’s daily life by better using existing technology and web content, HUBkap was conceived from a slightly different perspective – the everyman or regular Joe.  You see, I am a non-tech person.  I could barely use Power Point and had a serious Outlook phobia 2 years ago. I was a typical Boomer who was anything but tech savvy. I was the guy that techies dread. I was the one who would have my technically proficient friends spend endless hours on the phone trying to talk me through basic programs  – usually ending with loud laugh.   I mean I still have an AOL e-mail account! With my shameful lack of basic tech understanding, I found others – young and old – who had the same level of frustrations. My fellow technophobes were convinced that there was a diabolical revenge plot comprised of countless drop down menus, never ending typing of the same information, and endless commands to do the simplest things.   We wanted to bring simplicity and utility to the web calendar – that’s what brought HUBkap into the world.

HUBkap is a commitment to simplicity for the rest of us — we decided to make simplicity, efficiency, productivity, and mobility the mission for HUBkap. After a lot of conversations with “regular folk,” we decided that the best platform to build HUBkap on would be something that everyone knew and understood – a calendar. For simplicity, we developed a unique UI that runs everything via easy-to-use click and drag (touch and drag for touch screens) system.  For efficiency, we put everything on a single page interface that utilizes a “Who, What, Where, and When” basis for user engagement.  Think about it, those four simple words drive much of what you do to manage your daily activities throughout your life – regardless if you are a technophile or the simple guy/gal trying to get through the day. So, if this is how we live, think, and make decisions – why not use this simple process as the “language” that let’s technology actually help you!  Then, for productivity, we created a dedicated area just above the calendar that activates when an appointment is made with useful, relevant, and engaging information to help you make better decisions.  The information can be everything from activity specific search, content relevant stuff, local and online shopping, and maps. Not only does the information save you time and money, but also keeps you from having to surf around looking for stuff when you need it the most. Expect a lot more developments here over the coming weeks and months.

So that is all for my first blog post (ever – yes ever).  We are putting HUBkap into the wild for you all to enjoy.  We hope you find it helpful and we encourage your feedback.

Robert Bonev

President of HUBkap