Virtual Reality or Reality For Business?

Although it is not as common as a smartphone, Virtual Reality (VR) is gaining traction. Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality are constantly rising and deepening their roots in the world of business. Right from holding virtual meetings from across the globe to different levels of prototyping, it has massive potential to impact business across many domains.

Virtual Reality In The World Of Business

Virtual Reality is used in numerous ways in business. The imperative use of VR in the world of business are as follows:

It can be used to give virtual tours of the entire business environment or to train new employees. VR helps in the 360 view of the entire product.

A large number of businesses have adopted virtual reality as a more cost-effective way of building a product or service. It is useful in developing product prototypes without having to create the real version, which saves a great deal of money and time.

At the same time, VR is an excellent way to detect design based issues at an earlier stage, issues that can lead to subsequent problems down the road.

In The Not Too Distant Future

• You will experience reality through the concept of virtual reality. Businesses will realize more and more that knowledge is important and VR will cater to deeper understanding. Its immersive nature helps in the practical comprehension of concepts and ideas. These technology-driven tools are getting better each day and penetrating the workforce deeper.
• Companies will be making use of AR and VR concepts to visualize the products they are building in ways never possible before. Prototyping to this extent will give insight into a product earlier in the process, thereby eliminating the risks that are typically uncovered at a later phase, saving both time and money.
• Again, with respect to training via VR (especially where it involves equipment) it is as good or better than the real thing. It can practically eliminate the risk of accidents in highly accident prone jobs. It reduces the training period and enhances the retention rate of the trainees. A survey shows that a person trained via VR remembers 80% more than a traditionally trained person one year later.

Benefits Of Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality would be really useful for companies in the business of making potentially harmful products that need to be evaluated practically before actual usage. VR allows them to test their product within a virtual environment with no risk.

In conclusion, businesses that adopt VR can greatly reduce losses of both time and money, especially in the early stages of product development. At the same time, VR helps to bring offices around the globe together, in close proximity.The full-fledged acceptance of virtual reality and augmented reality in mainstream business might take a few more years, but with each passing day, we come closer to exquisite technologies that constantly inspire us and help us to connect better and enhance the way in which we conduct our business.

References: canadianbusiness, vrs.org.uk, appreal-vr.com, forbes, inc.com, business.com

Gesture Driven Interfaces For Amazing Mobile App User Experience

Gesture controls contribute to easing of interactions with devices, reducing the need for a mouse, remote controls, buttons, and keys. Gestures create richer user experience by combining other advanced user interface technologies such as face recognition and voice commands, thereby fueling the next wave of electronic innovation.

Gestures: A Part Of Mobile UI Design

Users can interact with an application using gestures which are nothing but the movements of finger and thumb. Gestures help us to characterize our interaction with mobile devices. Our non-digital life is certainly full of manual gestures, therefore, transferring gesture command and communication on mobile devices makes the user experience extraordinary more intuitive which point-click mouse controls. While user interacts the web or mobile application via gestures a great level of actual interaction happens and real relation exists between user and device. Therefore, higher the perception of interaction and intuition with your interface better the user experience. But gestures are not just intuitive; they also have certain universal quality when it comes to mobile use.

Responsive was a buzzword only few years ago when it entered the world of web development but today every website need to be viewable on multiple screen sizes in order to increase the mobile usage.

Today, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find a site that’s not responsive to some degree, and new developers learn how to create flexible interfaces from the get-go.

Home appliances like refrigerators and washing machines are also getting equipped with touchscreens. The scenario is changed completely. Now the web development is no longer about ensuring that all your words and images get fit in varying screen sizes or not instead now the focus is on that whether your site can be triggered by the swipe of a finger instead of a click of a mouse.

A- Using Gestures For Functionality

Gestures controls work well because they feel natural and intuitive to users and it gives the feeling of reality while interacting with a real life object. Just as while picking a shirt to wear from your wardrobe you do not have to select a button to check whether the shirt is dirty or not, you just grab it. Similarly, using gesture technology, if you are browsing new shirt to buy from an online retail portal you do not have to click on the button instead just grab the screen or pinch in this case in order to have a closer and better look of the shirt. The aim of incorporating gesture technology in your mobile application is to design your gestures around natural human interactions.

B- Click To Tweet

Natural human interaction like pinches, swipes, taps and pulls is the main of designing gestures around natural human interactions. Therefore, anywhere there is a button on your website or mobile application or an action that someone would click on a normal screen, consider there is an opportunity of using gesture technology. Also, pull-to-refresh is an easy way to include gesture in your site without disrupting the design. Always remember to use visual cues for indicating additional gesture-driven action on your site especially in the case of PC users. Without visual cues, users can be confused about how to interact.

C- Including Proper Sizing Of Gesture Targets

People may use fingers or thumb in place of the mouse but unfortunately, fingers and thumbs are not accurate. They may select too much or too little depending on the size and spacing of your website or application.

Mobile users can manage thumb to sweep the entire screen of the oversized phone but only one-third of the screen is truly effortless for them to use. They definitely have to select a smaller button at the top of the screen for zooming. Explained well in Fig 1.0.

While working with gesture technology in PCs or tablets there’s some relaxation as the screen sizes are larger but again there are various spots on a tablet which are still more user-friendly for gestures like upper corners instead of bottom corners.

D- Think Action + Animation

Action:

While designing with gestures there are certain things which you must keep in mind:

• Action which is to be triggered when the user performs a gesture.
• Visualizing action which is to happen.

You must decide which action will be triggered when a user performs a certain action. Will the user be using two fingers scroll up or down or they one? Will they be double tapping to open or close a page?

Animation:

Gestures are nothing without animation. The application uses animation to give feedback to users or to convey some information about functioning. Whenever animations visually impersonate the real-life reactivity to gestures, users become much more connected with the app experience. App developers can animate notifications, collapse or expand elements and do lot more dynamic interfaces which will delight users.

Deciding on what action will be created by what gesture, now the time is to decide how you want your users to know that gestures have succeeded. Users will, of course, won’t be able to understand, feel and see what will happen when they touch, drag, hold and swipe items before it happens. With an immediate response then you can comprehend you are successful and there is no issue. But if there is delayed response, try using an additional animation like a change of color and size so that you can alert users that their gesture has worked.

E- Use Of Prototyping Tools For Test And Debug

There is no doubt in it that gesture-driven interfaces do wonder if incorporated in the applications, but they also have some amount of bugs, therefore, it is very important to test your site. Testing is very important as you will come to know when and where users might get stuck before your launch. Prototyping plays a vital role in designing intuitive gestures at various points in your mobile app development process. Tools like Justinmind come with a pre-built library of gestures and animated interactions. It allows to road-test the best gesture for each action, therefore you can link up actions, events, and animations to define the dynamics of your app.

There are certain prototyping tools like Invision and Pop which can help you in developing wireframes and debug the problems areas if required. Framer JS is another great prototyping tool which can help you in building amazing interactivity on your website or mobile application. It also allows you to test application on various different devices. You may also consider various our tools like Marvel, Generator, Antetype, Solidify, Proto.io. You should successfully test your gesture-driven application on as many touchscreen devices as possible in order to ensure that your application does not create any issue on any particular device.

Take-aways

No doubt there is no single solution on how to use gesture technology in a mobile or web application. The secret is do prototyping, testing, iterating repeatedly and efficiently. Serve what makes your customer cheerful!

References: justinmind.com, invisionapp.com, eetimes.com, smashingmagazine.com, fluent.software

5 Trends Rocking The Mobile Marketing World This Year!

Mobile devices have managed to conquer the major parts of our lives and mobile marketing concepts are no newer but the strategies responsible for making them smart have been constantly evolving dramatically.

Mobile marketing’s awesomeness and power-pact potential in 2017 is reinforced with stats like:

“U.S. mobile-ad spend will exceed $40 billion — and the industry can expect that number to pass $65 billion by 2020”. -BIA/Kelsey.

As we know that change is the only constant so as per the rule the changing dynamics of mobile marketing will possibly give birth to the following fresh trends:

1. Virtual Reality And Augmented Reality To Play A Big Part

Augmented Reality is gaining momentum at a high pace. It is expected to reach a mark of $5.7 billion industry as early as 2021. Not only just Pokemon Go was a super hit with 500 million downloads but there were additional 17 million downloads related to augmented reality. These large numbers are a clear indication of the impact that VR and AR are going to have on the domain of mobile marketing. The location-based apps, mobile advertisers, streamed media, etc are few amongst the many beneficiaries resulting from the rise of augmented reality market.

2. Single Customer Via Myriad Channelst

This year will witness each and every client using more than one device to stay connected. In fact, the recent survey shows that an average US consumer connects through a minimum of five devices to the Internet. On a further note, people continue their transactions in the offline world via myriad channels and multiple identities just like different store loyalty cards. As big data seeps in more and more into the ecosystem the vendors will have to focus on creating systems that will narrow down the marketing efforts to particular individuals. There has to be a strong marketing strategy to get a unified and consistent view of the customer across the different channels.

“53 percent of customers feel it is important for retailers to recognize them as the same person across all channels and devices offline as well as online.”

However, as large as 63 percent of the companies claim that the lack data alignment and this will drastically change in the year 2017.

3. Loyalty Concept To Hug Mobile Marketing

So far the role of the mobile in the domain of loyalty remains confined to creating apps that would allow the customers to view and manage their loyalty points. But the year 2017 will see a change in this concept as the emerging and top brands will realize that loyalty is something just beyond collecting points for transactions but it is a lot about enhancing engagements with customers. Mobile allows various brands to communicate and capture different transaction from the receipt thereby giving the packaging and other industries to create their own loyalty setup. So top brands with future insight are reconsidering their entire loyalty program with the hardcore integration of mobile aspect in their programs.

4. Social Media To Get Hitched With Big Data

Another trend that is expected to rise in the year 2017 is the seamless integration of the mobile with the social media experience with the skeleton of big data analytics. It is very important that the businesses realize that the mobile internet never sleeps. We can expect the year 2017 to be a year that will be consumer-centric and focus on maximizing the ability to retain the customers through big data. Mobile devices play a major role in everybody’s life and have become an integral part of all the social and interpersonal activities.

“80% of the social media interactions are now done via mobile devices”.

So this huge stats reveal that mobiles will be the cornerstone in the year 2017 when marketers will develop personalized and customer-oriented marketing strategies which are extremely vital to the success in this digital era.

5. Mobile Videos Will Become Viral

The concept of videos has overwhelmed the social media and approximately as much as four times consumers are more engaged by the video strategy than mere content. Facebook’s video view have taken a long jump from 1 billion to 8 billion views in the past year. So without any doubt, the expenditure on mobile videos will increase and an expected 30% increase is anticipated by the e-marketers. So this year we can expect to see more innovation in the domains of live video, pre-roll as well as embedding of videos into the mail.

So as we welcome 2017, we know that this year will bring in a lot of expectations from mobile. Mobile marketing will be all set to give a tough competition to all the marketing strategies. So happy strategizing and mark this year on high ROI.

References: digitalturbine.com, mobilemarketer.com, adageindia.in

Mobile Application Development Trends To Rock In 2017

Today mobile apps are not just smartphones anymore, they are required for wearables, for smart cars, connected homes, IoT-enabled devices and much more. We are already heading to 2017 and it offers an exciting opportunity for entrepreneurs and consumers. Cloud-based applications indeed have gathered a lot of importance in 2016. Of course, these applications have the ability to share and sync data in real time with the server and other devices. Moving forward now it is time to look forward some key mobile app development trends to look out for 2017.

Let us have a look at Mobile Application Development trends which will be prevalent in 2017:

1. Enterprise Mobile Apps Will Grow Exponentially

For growth and success of a business, enterprise mobile apps play a major role. More than 50% businesses are will be using enterprise mobile applications by 2017. Businesses which are using custom built mobile applications are able to manage day-to-day tasks very easily. These custom built applications increase the overall productivity of the business. CRM and ERP systems are of great benefit for those who want to have clear access to data and customer information. The trend of enterprise mobility will be getting more customized in the year 2017.

2. Embedded AI Within Apps

Innumerable developers are enabling machine learning and AI in mobile applications and this is positively impacting the industry. Won’t you feel great if the picture changes dynamically accordingly to your moods and situations? With easy to use photo filters developers devises various innovative ways where many mobile applications can be customized. Using various filters applications can be easily customized based on users’ preferences or location specific data.

3. Intuitive UX Designs

Creating easily understandable, comprehensible and operable mobile application has become core criteria while application development happening this year. 2017 will look forward to better UX designs for mobile applications. Easy to tap and easily accessible call-to-action button will allow users to focus on main features of the application with creating much of distraction and clumsiness.

4. Augmented Reality And Virtual Reality

2016 has seen several glimpses of both Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality as it is the future of the tech world. This is expected to expand in 2017. Gaming and Entertainment industry have gained technological advancements just like popular game Pokémon Go. Augmented Reality is flourishing and expected to gain wide success in 2017. Innovation in terms of using GPS and AR technology in applications is expected to rise in 2017. Game developers which are fabricating games in 3D are looking at augmented reality to enhance the engagement levels of users with their application.

5. Beacons And Location-Based Services Will Soar High

Location-based services are another key players in 2017 and will be the major mobile application trend this year. We closely watched the emergence of location-based applications like Apple’s iBeacons and Google Beacons. With the advancement of services, WiFi usage will not only be limited to the restricted area but it will grow. It will help people in attaining relevant location-based information which will, of course, offer a major scope of personalized application marketing.

6. Mobile Internet of Things

IoT technology is no more buzzword in the technology market. Smart devices like wearables for health and fitness, smart watches, smart homes and smart appliances are gaining popularity amongst users. IoT integrated mobile applications have benefited industries like transportation, medical sciences, energy etc. Developers are expected to create applications using smart devices sensors for transferring information over the wi-fi network. Such revenue gained from the integrated system is expected to increase exponentially in 2017.

7. Android Instant Apps

Instant applications suggest a new way of using mobile applications and Android Instant Apps introduced by Google is not that long ago. The main aim of doing such stuff is instead of downloading applications, it is better to use them directly from the internet. The initiative will go viral as it simply advocates, having an application when you just need it, instead of securing space in phone’s memory. It is of course bound to have a larger market impact next year.

Trending 2017

With all these popular trends hitting application development and technology market in 2017, there are few major changes which will impact the app development market in 2017. Swift, Apple’s own programming language is taking over Objective-C for coding purpose. More and more developers will be adopting this platform and it will be a game changer as it holds the ability to provide a better user experience and better features.

Last but not the least, offering classy and smooth user experience is key essential for all applications to succeed. At the end of the day, though, providing a premium and smooth user experience is the key for all apps to succeed, especially in 2017. Understanding customer requirements and having exquisite design skills has become the mandate for best mobile application development process.

Share with us what more mobile application development trends you want to watch in the year 2017.

References: mindinventory.com, yourstory.comm, gizbot.com

How Google is strategizing against fake app ranking?

With the app explosion crossing every possible bar each day there has been an ever-increasing cut-throat competition. For the small and initial level app developers, an app store visibility is of utmost importance and gives and unmatchable and an immense boost to the new debut. Taking into considerations how much time and money and overall efforts goes into developing an app and its subsequent ranking in the app store, the app ranking manipulation is a booming cottage industry.

People are no more oblivious to the fact that the developers have been using illegitimate ways to manipulate the ranking of their apps in the app store. They cater to various means like fake reviews, fraudulent installs, incentivized ratings, etc. Various companies dealing with providing app reviews offer five-star rating making pretty much penny against it. All these are unscrupulous activities and Google comes with stringent policies and tools this time.

“…we are rolling out improved detection and filtering systems to combat such manipulation attempts.” says Google.

Google has recently announced that it is rolling out filtering systems with better finesse to combat the fraudulent app ranking business. The fake reviews and downloads are against Google Play Developer Policy and is bound to bring harm to the Android Community. Google hence announced a new Play Store system that will give worthy punishments to developers who are found involved in fraudulent activities or manipulating ranking tasks.

The new filtering system which Google talks about is exceptionally more accurate than its predecessor. Apart from being more accurate, it is also more automated i.e it has the capability to automatically pick out the apps which have climbed up the app list using fraudulent measures. At the same time, it is more proactive. Developers who will be found responsible for repeatedly getting involved in unethical means to rank their apps might have to remove their entire portfolio of apps from Play Store.

Google had repeatedly reminded the developers that even if they are asking any third party like a marketing agency or so to promote their apps they should be certain that it is legitimate to avoid any kind of potential issues. This step was crucial and necessary to uphold the integrity of Google Play.

“If an install is conducted with the intention to manipulate an app’s placement on Google Play, our systems will detect and filter it,” warns Google. “Furthermore, developers who continue to exhibit such behaviors could have their apps taken down from Google Play.”

It’s a definite and most awaited decision taken by Google to ‘protect the integrity of Play Store’. Because the apps that top the chart with illicit means harm the apps that would otherwise be deservingly on top. Thereby in turn affecting the consumers who are using them. So to give the users the best that they deserve and the developers their credits Google had taken endless initiatives to enhance their filtering systems.

Accurate app ranking in the Google Play Store has a long way ahead and will result in mutual benefit for both the developers and the consumers. On one hand, developers who put in their endless efforts to make high-quality apps will enjoy higher ranking on the chart and better popularity if users download them legitimately. On the other hand, the end-users or the consumers will be able to download and use apps based on real metrics of the apps and not by just getting visually attracted by the inflated numbers and stats.

However, the good news being Google has already started rolling out the new system and some apps’ position may alter in the charts for better or worse! The new system will push the bar to a certain extent, but it might not come out as effectively as it may seem and may not be able to eradicate app fraud completely. But still, it’s assuring to know Google is taking steps to ensure it doesn’t disappoint it’s Android users in seeing accurate app rankings. So guys here is wishing you all a happy and safe downloading ;).

If you like this post or want more information, feel free to write us at sales@algoworks.com.

Related post: How to Promote Your Mobile App – A Complete Guidebook

Image source: Algoworks, The Hacker Store, Sensor Tower

Why Software Product Re-engineering Is A Necessity?

Why Software Product Re-engineering?

To improve the performance of the existing products often enterprise level software needs to be modified and updated. The redeveloped software product holds better stability. As software products are faced with ever-increasing competition it is necessary to add more functionalities. The improved product user-friendly and flexible and of course will attract more customers. With all new look, the look and feel of the product get change. With software product re-engineering even the existing bugs will be corrected.

Software product re-engineering is important because any established product at any given time can become obsolete with due course of time. Catalysis of such a product is bit difficult and expensive too. The solution is to build a product for potential clients which are for the wide segment. Also, several business owners are aiming high for migration of their legacy products to a mainstream technology and new platform.

Since the IT industry is always changing hence businesses which have used their products for last many years would require replacing fully the solutions in near future. Of course what worked in past may not any longer work now. And in order to address the shortcomings companies would require spending a lot of time, money and effort.Businesses that have used certain products for many years may think that these solutions must be replaced fully in near future.

The process of software product re-engineering basically improvises the existing software which can be controlled, understood and used fresh. With the advent of time, software applications need to be sync with the contemporary trends and technologies. There are many businesses which are completely dependent on software applications and hence comes with a lot of risks. It is therefore expected that software systems should be flexible and open to accommodate changes if needed.
Some systems are having functions which are no longer needed and are outdated. Therefore, the product re-engineering process becomes a mandate as it helps in analyzing, examining and altering the existing systems. The product re-engineering process involves a combination of various sub-processes which involves steps like restructuring, translation, reverse engineering, re-documentation and forward engineering. The main aim is to keep the present functionality intact and adding more functions to better efficiency. Since great amount of money and time will be invested in growth and evolution of the previous system and the replacement cost will be high therefore software re-engineering is always a feasible solution.

Structured Process Of Software Product Re-engineering

Successful software product re-engineering process involves a structured flow:

• Keenly understand the need of client’s current business model.
• Identifying the existing features.
• Figuring and addressing the problem areas which requires modification.
• Identifying and addressing the problem.
• Planning and prioritizing all the new features which could meet the current market requirements.
• Re-designing scalable, robust and extendible architecture.
• Testing & delivering re-engineered product.
• Providing value-added support in live environment.

Conclusion

There are many leading IT service providers which offer a product re-engineering services. The process involves rebuilding the previously developed solutions hence allowing these systems to always be upgraded and updated over time.

Such companies hone team of skilled engineers who can help in modifying your current business product and fix the existing bugs which may harm productivity. Partnering with an experienced team of consultants will help you in reducing the costs and turnaround time along with improving quality deliverables. Choosing right technology partner enterprises can help you in reduce market and IT risks along with maintaining the highest levels of efficiency.

References: inxee.com, adaequare.com, encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com, q3tech.com, cybage.com, openxcell.com

Want a Thriving Business? Know How Awesome App UX Design Helps You In This

UX and Its Impact:

As per ISO 9214-210, mobile user experience has a formal definition but it can be understood as “How people actually respond to what they experience”. This includes both your system and how people react to it. And since you can’t directly control those reactions, it is always more important to consciously create whatever you are putting in front of them.

Whether it is button placement, font size or colors used, every aspect of your product or system affects the app UX design. This explains that a clever design and fine-tuning gives you power to positively impress your customers.
We must know that positive emotions build brand loyalty. Every customer of yours represents a customer lifetime value. By providing an exceptional experience, you can unlock this value for your company.

You must know that if your users fail to find information easily or have trouble buying your products, they will soon leave your website and will shop elsewhere. Let’s have some idea why.

App UX design is so much important:

• It increases sales and online conversions.
• Great user experience improves search rankings.
• It improves brand perception.
• Improves Google search rankings.
• Reduces the cost of development and support.

Can UX really help sales?

Let’s go in more detail and see how an awesome app UX design contribute to increasing sales?

Jakob Nielsen, a Ph.D in human-computer interaction, explained that amount of business is a multiple of three factors which include unique visitors that visit you online, conversion rate and loyalty rate. Although the unique users are the direct results of SEO but even the SEO is indirectly related and affected by User Experience.

Hence, the formula gets driven:
Revenue = U * C* L
(where U stands for unique users, C stands for conversion rate of users and L as Loyal users)

You need to have a strategy in your hand in order to deliver a great user experience. You need to plan first your retail app UX design and for that, you must definitely have a great UX designer which plays a vital role. A UX designer must follow a number of essential steps for achieving a set of loyal users.

Five Golden Rules To Increase Sales and Enhance Brand Loyalty:

1. Know and Understand Your Users: It is imperative that you have a thorough understanding of your targeted audience in order to develop a fantastic app UX design. Your users can be categorically be divided as ‘the power shoppers’, ‘the recreational shoppers’ and ‘repeat shoppers. The ‘power shoppers’ are those who always look for technical and strategic user experience. The ‘recreational shoppers’ are those who hang around and they become your real customers only if they experience something awesome and ‘repeat shoppers’ are who come back to your application/website time and again. They come due to the friendly and promising user experience.
2. Design Layout of Your App: Your app must have an intuitive design which should be convenient to use like easy navigational features. It should also have high visual quotients like images different angles, rating and reviews and large display images. This also facilitates an increase in the conversion rates. The functioning of the button also matters a lot. If they fail to function well, the shoppers will lose their interest and will shop from your competitors.
3. Make your design a perfect ‘payment’ page: The payment part is the vital element of your application. It should have simplified the user experience. Whether this app user experience includes appealing colors or easier navigation or a few tweaks but at the end of the day what really matters is that it should be handy and easy to use. The ‘add to cart’ button must be readily visible to users as this increases the conversion rate. Hence, an important factor of increasing the amount of business is an increase in the conversion of recreational and repeat customers.
4. Divide into steps and don’t overload your contact page: Your customer are of great relevance for your business and hence they would seek complete transparency in process workflow. They would definitely be interested in knowing how their payment will be processed and if it is really secure or not. It has been figured out that the number of steps of a transaction must be restricted to three and hence it should be restricted to three. This should be dynamic and animated so that users do not find it monotonous. Also, it must be ensured that registered users are never asked for the same information again. This bothers customers a lot.
5. Easy Checkout: Apps which have a clumsy and unmanaged checkout, the customers gets fussy over this. All good retail apps must have good UX and have their checkout option or button on the right-hand corner. To expedite the process it is advisable to place the button next to the ‘add to the cart’. You must give ’save for later’ option otherwise you may end up losing potential customers.

UX design cannot be ignored!

At the end, your UX must focus on all aspects of why they are using it? What is the only purpose behind using it? Are the goals achieved by your UX? It is a never ending process and you will have to be the user to understand what your customers would prefer over another set of options. A good UX ensures your customer remembers your app/website when they are gone. And know this fair and straight, this is just half the job done. The mandatory half. 😉

If you want to know more, you can write to us at sales@algoworks.com or make a call at +1-877-284-1028 (Toll-Free).

References: Wholedesignstudios, Whatusersdo