Visual Collaboration

What is visual collaboration?

Visual collaboration or design collaboration connects teammates through visuals to communicate effectively and break down complex concepts into digestible information. Visual collaboration is especially helpful for remote teams who want to improve asynchronous communication and work together in real time.

A process that consists of connected activities, visual collaboration allows team members to create a system of ideas and designs. The process ensures that companies stay innovative and keep their plans scalable while developing solutions that provide value to customers and enhance their journey.

Project leaders use visual collaboration platforms to offer teams an infinite digital canvas through features such as whiteboard, diagramming, simultaneous editing, and video conferencing.

These platforms engage remote and hybrid teams with collaboration and productivity applications for varied use cases like project planning, storyboarding, and prototyping.

Visual collaboration process

Visual collaboration must be treated like any other business collaborative activity in that it must occur at every stage of a project, from ideation to insights to outcomes.

Using visuals throughout the planning process creates a comprehensive picture of the goals, milestones, and deliverables to be achieved. Visual collaboration is at the heart of the project life cycle and provides opportunities for improvement at every part of the workflow.

• Identify gaps in current systems: Visual collaboration starts with visualizing the current state of technology, workflows, infrastructure, and customer journeys to understand what ideas and deliverables should be highlighted during collaboration.
• Brainstorm: The next part of the process is collectively brainstorming the ideal solution to a problem and finding ways to deliver that outcome. Ideation techniques such as mind mapping are powerful visual assistance tools for organizing information.
• Ideate: Teams also use diagramming software to create visuals out of data and images. Diagramming programs allow users to view and edit files simultaneously, which is helpful when creating project-wide templates.
• Conduct idea syntheses: Once the ideas come together, stakeholders managing the project can make decisions based on insights derived from data. Affinity maps are a valuable tool for categorizing overarching themes and getting to the issue's root.
• Plan projects: The visual collaboration process involves building wireframes and prototypes that align with the decisions made cross-functionally. Processes, timelines, and dependencies of the project are visualized to make meaningful changes.
• Continue to improve: Visual collaboration isn’t designed to conform to one method; it can change over and over again within the same project as different people bring different ideas and thinking to the table.
  
  To optimize working efficiency, it’s essential to continuously review what worked and what didn’t during the collaboration process through regular feedback loops.

Benefits of visual collaboration

Visual collaboration is more than just a space for lines, shapes, and idea dumping. The benefits of the process go beyond simple brainstorming and extend to every stage of a project.

• Improves team communication. Visual collaboration works in real time and helps teams understand points of reference clearly and succinctly. This helps break down big ideas across dispersed teams.
• Enhances information retention. Tools like interactive whiteboards and flowcharts keep employees more engaged than static documents and manual processes. Increased engagement leads to better focus and improved information recall.
• Boosts innovation. Visual thinking organizes and communicates complex problems using words and images to convey meaning and illustrate relationships. Reviewing changes concurrently helps everyone understand their impacts quickly.

Applications of visual collaboration

Visual collaboration applications are endless, as employees can apply the methods to several industries across different sectors to support conceptualization, project ideation, and design thinking.

Some common examples of visual collaboration include synthesizing ideas, supporting agile methodologies, developing organizational charts, and visualizing the customer journey.

Business

The primary purpose of visual collaboration in business and consulting is to facilitate communication. Templates and optimization canvases improve operational efficiency and bring large teams together to visualize project goals and blockers.

Brainstorming and diagramming solutions are effective methods of interpersonal communication and information sharing within and between organizations. Visual collaboration tools also integrate well with team collaboration software to facilitate communication and access to shared knowledge and files.

Education

In the recent past, virtual learning through collaboration has become a primary mode of teaching and learning for educators worldwide. Sharing content in real-time, embracing group learning, and using virtual classrooms as online learning environments provide space for creative interactions.

Visual collaboration increases flexibility in the modes of learning (peer reviews, game-type testing) and communication between students and teachers that live in different regions. Stakeholders can use screen sharing and whiteboarding to sketch, present, and discuss topics simultaneously.

Best practices for visual collaboration

When done effectively, visual collaboration encourages team members to be more creative within the existing infrastructure. Since the process of visual collaboration looks different for each team, it’s essential to keep some best practices in mind to ensure maximum engagement.

• Accept different forms of participation. Visual collaboration can seem overwhelming for some people since it requires them to be the center of attention which isn’t suited to everyone’s personality. Collaborative whiteboards are a great way of getting introverted members and siloed teams to interact with others or contribute to mockups through chat.
• Collect feedback regularly. Visual collaboration exists to make connections between participants easier. Collecting feedback about which methodologies work best for everyone’s needs is essential to making the activity work cohesively for everyone.
• Encourage downward communication. In a remote work environment, introducing new ways of working can be simplified if senior leaders express their excitement about the new process. Providing guidance and assistance on visual collaboration is critical to faster adoption.
• Focus on integrations. Collaboration and productivity go hand in hand. Choosing visual collaboration applications that integrate with existing document management tools is essential to making the tools work for everyone in a cohesive manner. Evaluate available options in the market and assess which processes and features work best for the team’s requirements.

The use cases of visual collaboration are endless, as it can be transformed depending on the business context. Learn how the product design process uses visual principles to build a product that customers will love.