Contextual Tasks
Workframe
Overview / Problem
The Workframe platform centers around collaboration for commercial real estate teams. We wanted to provide a way for CRE teams to collaborate with one another on important documents and stay within the context of that document when creating tasks.
Our target users are commercial real estate managers, project managers, and their team members who are constantly trying to collaborate and communicate with one another around commercial real estate projects. Our users wanted to be able to collaborate on documents, but wanted to be able to specify what they were talking about. The largest issue our users faced was that they would constantly send emails back and forth to one another with attachments and would have to print them out, mark them up, re-scan them (or take a photo), and then email it back. Needless to say, this process was not only extremely tedious but it left room for error and lost documents. This loss of documentation would cost time, which inevitably results in these time-sensitive projects becoming late and the company losing money because the service was not delivered on time. This could be upwards of hundreds of thousands of dollars lost if things are not on time.
Solutions and Key Takeaways
To solve the issue of document mismanagement and difficulty in collaborating with one another, I crafted an interface where users could create tasks directly within the context of documents that they have stored on Workframe. Users could then comment on those tasks, plus add additional images and supporting details so that all important information was documented as system of record. With everything being managed in a single space, users would know where to go to find relevant information regarding their tasks and projects, and would not have to dig through various online drives or emails.
The differentiating factor with our software is that users can specify what they're talking about by using "beacons" (green location dots). Beacons allow users to reference specific things in their document so that task objectives are clear. I decided to add numbers to beacons so that if a user adds multiple beacons to a single task they can reference within the description or comments section what needs to be done around each task. This saved the user the hassle of having to create 3 separate tasks for one overarching task.
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