Your design is as good as it’s usage. Timely feedback is essential during the visual design process to ensure that the design will work. Multiple locations or not, face-2-face meetings are challenging always. Emails are often an overkill for sharing visuals (too heavy!?) and expecting someone to do the hard work of articulating minutely his feedback (too textual!). I’ve been a part of several such iterations where the correlation between text and the visual is blurry and hence ineffective. Overall the process contributes to a frustrating experience.
Collaborative tools and apps have become inseparable from any process where timely and recurring feedback is expected. The elaborate Basecamp is one of the best there is – for most of your needs, and hence commercial in nature. Some use Google Docs to achieve a seamless process. While I’ve used both these platforms, I was constantly hunting for something simpler for visual feedback. I found two apps that I found impressive for obvious reasons.
Cage App
Cage App is one of the most focused and minimalist applications I have come across recently. Features that stand out:
- Simple interface
- Quick sharing
- Easy feedback and collaboration (specific areas on screen too!)
- Smart menus
- Free of cost
Concept Board
Concept Board is another application focused on sharing visual feedback easily. While the application has commercial plans that allow much more than its free plan, the free plan covers enough for most independent designers and usability consultants. Notable features:
- Simple and intuitive
- Variety of graphic tools
- Easy drag/drop upload of images
- Easy collaboration
- 25 simultaneous concept boards in Free version
Vishal Mehta is a usability professional who loves to play chess and has a strong eye for details. He’s also the CEO of IDYeah Creations, a UX practice in Pune, India. Vishal is also a guest blogger on UXBooth, Technorati, BlogCritics, and SAP Community Network.
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