(Newswire.net — August 13, 2021) — With remote work being the order of the day for most companies around the world, online collaboration tools that connect teams and allow them to work together in a virtual environment have become an essential part of the workflow process. Such tools have been around for some time now but have recently emerged as a necessity rather than an option. Let’s take a look at some of the top collaborative platforms for various purposes. But before that, let’s explore how these tools can help people and what elements make up a good online collaboration tool.
How Can Online Collaboration Tools Help People and Companies?
The obvious answer to that question is that it provides a way for people in different locations to connect with each other virtually over the Internet. This is an essential component of the work-from-home model but it can also be applied to an office environment where different teams often sit in different parts of the office or in headquarters versus branch and satellite offices. But connectivity with each other is a very broad benefit. Here are some more tangible and intangible advantages of using online collaboration tools.
- Seamless Communication – Having access to online collaboration tools enables employees to communicate with each other in an effective and real-time manner, which means conversations can be instant, as opposed to waiting for a response.
- Easy Sharing of Resources – Files, documents, and other resources can be shared with online collaboration tools.
- Project Management – Projects and their individual tasks can be closely monitored to ensure schedule compliance.
- Real-time Editing – Co-editing of documents, designs, and other assets can be made possible with online collaboration tools because new information is updated almost instantaneously. This avoids sending files back and forth as well as issues with version control.
- Social Interaction – A very important part of working remotely is the ability to chat with your colleagues or videoconference with them whenever you need to. This social interaction is enabled by most online collaboration tools and is essential to the well-being of employees.
What Makes a Good Online Collaboration Tool?
So, we know what such tools can facilitate and enable, but what are the core elements that must be present in such a platform? Let’s take a look.
- Real-time Environment – The advantage of being online is that information transfer is instant. For instance, a project manager makes a change in a document in London and the designer in Tokyo will see it immediately and, if needed, can act on it without delay.
- Annotations – Another crucial component of a collaborative system is the ability to add your thoughts and comment on a particular file in the form of annotations. These annotations must then be visible to everyone else who is collaborating on that file. That’s when online collaboration becomes truly effective.
- Adequate Functionality – Collaboration is just one part of the equation; the other part is whether or not the tool in question is capable of executing various tasks. For example, how useful would a cloud storage service be if all you can do is upload and download files? That’s not a collaborative setup; that’s more like a middle-man connecting two parties without letting them collaborate with each other in a meaningful manner.
- Role-based Permissions – A collaborative tool must be able to restrict access at various levels depending on the role of the person accessing it. If not, every person with access will have the same permission level, which is not ideal.
Now that we know what advantages an online collaboration tool brings to the table and what it must be able to do for the user, let’s look at some of the best collaboration tools available today.
5 Best Tools for Collaborating Online
These five utilities cover a wide range of industries due to their applicability in almost any segment. The services they offer include design collaboration, document collaboration, task tracking, project management, communication, file sharing, etc., all of which are typically used in any office setting. We’ll look at the best features of each of these platforms to show why they’re so important and how to best utilize them to maximize productivity in the remote work setting.
Wondershare Mockitt
This platform Wondershare Mockitt is an online user flow, design, and prototyping tool hosted on the cloud. Each of these functions serves a specific role in the UI/UX design process and allows designers, project managers, clients, developers, and other stakeholders to be on the same page with regard to the design phase of a project.
- User Flow Tool – One of the useful tools in Mockitt is the flowchart module, which allows designers to create task flows and other types of user flow to help explain processes within the app or website. This allows the client to get a clear view of how the application works or how customers will interact with their website.
- Design Tool – To complement the user flow, Mockitt provides a robust vector design tool for drawing and editing vector graphics. With Boolean operations, Bezier curves, fill & stroke, and other features, it allows designers to create custom logos and other vector drawings to complement the vast library of assets already available in Mockitt.
- Prototyping Tool – Mockitt’s strength is rapid prototyping, and UX designers can quickly create highly interactive models of the final app or website with simple linking and the addition of gestures, animations, transitions, effects, etc.
One of the biggest benefits of using Mockitt is the user-friendly and intuitive interface, which allows new users to jump right in and feel comfortable within a few minutes. Moreover, deploying it across multiple locations is as easy as accessing the tool through a browser and setting up a free account. This can subsequently be linked to an enterprise plan with multiple users who can collaborate with each other in a real-time environment, whether it’s for co-editing designs, providing live comments and feedback, sharing a prototype, or handing off the design to the developer.
Nifty
Nifty is a centralized project management tool that allows teams to set goals, timelines, task-sharing, and do various other actions in a real-time environment. It gives users a holistic view of their tasks, shared files, chats, meeting tools, and all the resources they need to communicate effectively while managing a project.
- Goals with Visual Timelines – This feature makes it easy to see the status of any high-level goal in a convenient colored timeline that progresses automatically as sub-tasks are completed.
- Organize Tasks – Tools such as Swimlane views, lists, and Kanban allow project managers to have a clear oversight of tasks, task owners, and deadlines, which aids in streamlining process flows within the project and helps avoid confusion and redundancies.
- Content Creation – Documents, Wikis, and Notes can be created quickly and shared with others. There’s even integration with Google Docs if that’s your preferred document collaboration platform.
Figma
Another great online design tool is Figma. Although not as intuitive as Mockitt, it is more popular because it pioneered the concept of online design collaboration. With over 2 million users and an active community that contributes free and premium design assets, it’s definitely one of the top online collaboration tools around.
- Built-in Libraries – Figma comes with a default set of asset libraries that is very impressive. On top of that, the marketplace offers a rich collection of free and paid assets that you can download and use in your designs.
- Vector Drawing Tools – The unique Arc Tool and the standard Pen Tool give Figma the ability to create stunning vector graphics and edit them. If you don’t find what you need in the asset libraries or the marketplace, you can create it yourself in minutes.
- Prototyping – Prototyping on Figma is a little more complex than doing the same task in Mockitt, but you can create highly interactive prototypes once you learn the ropes. Besides, Figma has a vast collection of learning resources as well as third-party tutorial videos and other useful content.
Monday
Monday is the company behind Work OS, a customizable workflow platform that allows you to integrate various apps and modules to create your own unique workflow management system. The platform is rated highly by users and offers a whole range of collaboration features like Kanban, file creation and sharing, custom automation, and more.
- Platform Integrations – Users can add existing tools into their custom workflows, such as adding Outlook and a shared or private calendar so incoming meeting request emails are automatically recorded on your calendar app.
- Workflow Automation – Alerts, reminders, notifications, task assignments, etc. can be set up using rule-based triggers. Such process automation greatly enhances the efficiency of a team because the right person gets notified about the task at the right time.
- Gantt Charts – Gantt charts offer a way to effectively manage people and resources, showing you a visual representation of tasks, capacity, milestones, etc. that also aid in efficient planning to achieve optimal resource utilization.
Google Docs
Millions of people around the world use Google Docs as their preferred platform for document collaboration. The advantage is that Google Docs is part of G Suite, a huge ecosystem of cloud-based applications or Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) apps that can be accessed securely with a Google account. The number of integrations, add-ons, and extensions available from third parties makes this platform much more robust than what it can achieve on its own – and that’s saying a lot!
- File-Sharing – Permission-based file sharing and co-editing capabilities allow remote work team members to work in real-time regardless of their location.
- Export Options – Files can be converted and exported in numerous formats including Text, HML, and more.
- Easy Editing – Editing a Docs file is as easy as editing a document in MS Word – possibly easier since you don’t have to worry about your work being saved. Version history is captured so you can always revert to an older version of a document, but the auto-save function is the best way to make sure that all changes are preserved.
Final Words
Using online collaboration tools is quickly becoming a necessity rather than an option. Nowadays, employees are so used to instant access to anything they need that many silo-based platforms are becoming obsolete. Everything is online, and that’s what makes it accessible from anywhere. With companies rapidly undergoing a digital transformation in the wake of the pandemic, online collaboration tools like Wondershare Mockitt, Figma, Google Docs, and others are quickly replacing traditionally licensed software that needs to be installed on each machine. Online tools, in contrast, only require a modern and updated browser to deliver the same kind of functionality but go several steps ahead by making it a real-time collaborative landscape. If you haven’t switched your teams to online collaboration tools yet, you should seriously consider the platforms we’ve suggested here today.