A Simple Collaborative Pointing Tool
I am working on a usability study where I need to be reviewing wireframe mockups over the phone. I knew this was going to be a problem, as even if we are looking at the same image, it’s not entirely clear what the person on the other end of the line is looking at or referring to.
I had seen some nifty whiteboard applications that used flash. My initial thought was to find one where images could be uploaded, and then both of us could draw directly on the image.
I started looking at various collaborative applications. There is no shortage of options, but each one had a critical problem.
GoToMeeting – Only allows Mac users to view presenter screen (not clear if there is a true shared screen).
Zoho Meeting – Private beta. And I think it follows the same one-to-many (presenter-audience) model. I want everyone to have equal control.
Vyew – I thought I had finally found a winner. I was able to upload images and draw on them. People could access my room with the room number, without a complicated registration process. But only I could draw on the images – not guests! Their metaphor is that I create my “book” and then show it to people. The same presenter-audience model as zoho meeting.
ConceptShare – A slick way to gather feedback on visual work. It’s more designed around the idea of creating notes and then attaching them to a document, as opposed to a real-time collaboration environment.
So, I was frustrated. How hard could it be? Which is of course, the last thought one thinks before starting to build it myself.
But it all worked out.
It’s a pain to demonstrate networked applications, so I whipped up a simple model to show the interaction. Two or more people load a URL. Anyone who clicks on the image, moves the cursor. It’s that simple. And in my tests it worked perfectly. There is no interface, you just use it. And it is very natural to click on something which speaking.
Looking back, it’s actually a dead-simple flash application. What’s novel is that I’m saving some data to a “shared object” on a Flash Media Server. So, when one of the people viewing the application, clicks on the screen, it updates the cursor position in the shared object, and then the cursor position is updated on all screens.
If you’d like more info on this application, give me a shout.
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