CollabHub

Overview

In response to remote employees’ unique challenges, our team designed and tested an information – sharing platform, CollabHub. It helps to enhance communication, knowledge sharing, and team cohesion among remote workers. Our method began with a competitive analysis, literature review, and user interviews followed by design activities and usability testing on prototypes with multiple fidelity levels. Results from usability testing showed confidence and ease of use when working with the platform. Average time completing tasks such as creating group chats and looking up specific colleagues decreased, and 100% of participants agreed or strongly agreed that the system was easy to use. However, the prototype could not fully simulate real-time interactions due to time constraints, requiring users to envision the final product.

Improving communication, knowledge sharing, and team cohesion for employees.

Literature Review was conducted to gather prior research and data about the project space. This helped us understand what has been explored and what has been successful to aid employees with similar problems to the one we are looking on.

We conducted a literature review to understand existing research on remote work better. We discuss briefly what remote work is, its prevalence in the workforce, and challenges relating to knowledge sharing, communications, and system learnability. This review has given us insights into the nature of remote work and guided our design toward a more customizable collaboration tool that supports different levels of synchronicity.

The group performed user interviews to interact with potential users directly to understand their experiences. These conversations informed our Personas and other artifacts, enabling un to follow a user-centered design approach.

We found that both new and experienced employees shared similar experience with remote work, knowledge sharing, and communication/team building.

The following are some of the themes from participant responses:

Knowledge Sharing

Lack of access to the right information is a huge pain point for remote employees.
People appreciate platforms that are searchable or facilitate project management.

Communication / Team Building

Being remote can make it harder to connect with colleagues and resolve issues.
Feelings of community have implications for a sense of belongingness and business justifications to build feelings of trust, feel motivated to solve problems, and for teams to do their job efficiently.

Design Implications

When employees are new, they might benefit from seeing detailed professional profiles, so they know who to ask about different programs, teams, and etc.
- However, more experienced employees might find the detailed profiles less helpful.
Participants also mentioned that being able to see colleagues' skills would be helpful.

We conducted two rounds of remote usability testing. The first round tested our lo-fi prototypes; we used participant feedback to develop the mid-fi version. The second round tested our mid-fi prototype to inform revisions and development of our hi-fi version.

Below are some key findings:

First Round of User Testing:

Breadcrumbs could help users navigate around the website.
Some of the section names in the navigation bar, especially "People" and "Company" could be confusing for some users.
Some participants struggled with finding colleagues that have specific expertise. Part of this was that our prototype prompted them to search; some participants indicated that they are more used to browsing instead of using the search bar.
Overall, the prototype was easy to use. The prototype's features would be beneficial for remote employees.

Second Round of User Testing:

The new names "Social" and "Resources" for the previous "People" and "Company" sections are more user-friendly and less confusing.
The second round reinforced the overall feedback from our first round - the prototype was logical and easy to navigate.

We performed competitive analysis to understand the current landscape of solutions offered to employees. This helped us identify gaps where user needs are not being met.

Platforms such as Slack, Discord, Microsoft 365 suite, and Google Workspace are our product's main competitors. We focused on document/media sharing, communication, personal profiles, notification options, and searching.

Our platform stands out by integrating flexible communication options like video chat, audio calls, direct messages, and group chats to foster colleague connections and knowledge sharing. Also, our profile creation will allow users to showcase professional skills and projects for efficient team building.

Methods

Final Product

Our product is designed to streamline and enhance communication across all levels of the organization. It provides a centralized platform for messaging, file sharing, and collaboration. It ensures that everyone stays informed and connected.

CollabHub has features like instant messaging, group chats, and project specific channels. It fosters real-time collaboration and idea sharing, making it easier for teams to coordinate and innovate whether the employee is working in the office or remotely, CollabHub keeps everyone on the same page, boosting productivity and building a stronger, more cohesive organization culture.

CollabHub is designed to strengthen team cohesion by bringing employees close together, no matter where they are. It has features like companywide event calendar, team specific channels, and virtual hangout spaces. It fosters a sense of community and belongingness, it makes it easy for teams to stay connected, celebrate achievement, and support each other in real time. By providing a platform for open communication and collaboration, our product helps build trust and comradery, ensuring that every team member feels valued and engaged, ultimately creating a more united and motivated work force.

Strengthen Team Cohesion

Feature Exploration

For this project, we focused on the key features we believed were critical for remote professionals. Without this table stakes functionality, more compelling features could be overlooked without integrating back to the features required to complete their jobs today. Based on our user interviews, we believe we can expand upon the features offered and develop the most compelling platform for remote employees.

Conclusion

Collabhub was designed to address the unique needs of remote workers. We began the process by performing user interviews and a literature review to understand the problem. We also performed design activities such as sketching and rapid prototyping, we were able to quickly able to get a low fidelity prototype in front of users to solicit feedback. Online and remote usability tests helped perform design iterations that improved the success of users finding information and completing tasks in less time. Finally we completed a high fidelity prototype that is ready to test with users .

There is still work to do with CollabHub prior to any plans for launch, and as detailed above these include further testing, creating a responsive design for the product, and exploring and developing additional features for remote workers. While the product accomplished the goals of our team, we think there is still work to make this product the most user-friendly solution for remote workers.

Easy Knowledge Sharing

CollabHub has searchable discussion thread, dedicated knowledge hubs, and intuitive document sharing, it ensures that valuable insights and expertise are always within reach Employees can quickly find the resources they need; contribute their own knowledge; and collaborate in real-time, breaking down barriers to information flow. This fosters a culture of continuous learning and innovation empowering everyone in the organization to make informed decision and drive collective success.

CollabHub is designed to streamline and enhance communication among colleagues, fostering seamless collaboration across teams. By integrating multiple communication channels into one intuitive platform, CollabHub ensure that everyone stays connected, whether they are working in the office or remotely. Features like real-time messaging, file sharing, collabrative workspace allow for quick decision-making and reduce the friction often caused by scattered communication tools. With built-in task tracking and transparent workflows, teams can easily stay aligned on goals, ensuring that no message or update falls through the cracks. Ultimately, CollabHub simplifies the way teams communicate, making collaborations more efficient and productive.

Ana Jusay