[Sigia-l] Online collaboration - interaction/interface designers - Where to find them?

[Robin Good]

Hi,

I am trying to identify who and where are interface designers that have
specialized themselves or that are looking to focus specifically on the
design of real-time collaboration tools.

I am in the process of helping a few web conferencing companies refine or
completely upgrade their user interface and I have found it terribly
difficult to find designers that had a keen sense of what is needed in these
types of situations.

The main issue for me is that these types of interfaces require a very
minimalist approach, the ability to visually escalate in complexity as more
advanced functions are needed, extreme ease of use and unobtrusiveness, and
design that makes them intuitive enough for users from Japan to Italy.

If there were many designers working on these parameters I would see the
result of their work on some of the new tools that are surfacing weekly in
this industry. But I see very little. This work is still in the hands of the
graphic designers, designing Jumbo cockpits and having no sense of usability
or dynamic use of screen space.

I need collaboration tools to be dressed with alternate skins depending on
what I need to do and I need components to be as flexible as paper,
cardboards and presentation props are in real life. Resizable, light,
movable, customizable.

I also need to find designers that do not get irritated when I say that the
interface should be as minimal as possible and that collaboration tools
features should disappear as interfaces to reappear only as simple and
intuitive extensions inside other applications.

Am I alone searching for a white elephant, or are there some people that
would want to show me what they are capable of?

In my humble opinion, this sector (interface design for live collaboration
tools) provides such great opportunity and huge diversity of options that it
cannot be ignored for much longer. As we all are going to communicate and
collaborate online in one form or another it maybe time we start thinking if
a PowerPoint-like interface is really best when trying to carry out real
work online.

If you are or know anyone who wants to work in this area or that has quality
skills to show, I would be very happy to hear from you.

Thanks,


Robin Good

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