ConceptShare Helps Design Teams Collaborate

Source: webworkerdaily

As web workers, we have access to plenty of generalized collaboration tools: email, instant messages, wikis, social networks, even the lowly telephone. But sometimes particular situations call for specialized tools. ConceptShare is one such tool, built specifically to manage the process of collaboration on visual design projects among far-flung design teams and their clients.

As a focused tool, ConceptShare makes this particular process very easy. First, you create your account (a simple matter of registering and waiting for the confirmation email) and then you create a workspace. The next step is to upload “concepts” (graphical images) to the workspace and to invite the rest of your team to join you. Then you can start using the ConceptShare tools to discuss the concepts.

These tools are straightforward, but they get the job done. You get the ability to add annotations to your concepts, using text or lines or freehand scribbles. You get panning and zooming. You get conversations, both in chat and in saved comments. And you get a voting/approval system so that everyone involved can sign off on the final design concept.

There’s a free level that’s just good enough to try things out (one workspace, three images) and then pay-as-you-go plans from there with more capacity. Version 2 just launched, with a cleaned-up user interface and customizable layouts, along with other minor improvements. They’ve also partnered with Corel to launch a co-branded CorelDRAW ConceptShare site that emphasizes using CorelDRAW to come up with designs, though like the main site it can handle pretty much any popular image or video format.

If you’re looking for a way to save on some client meetings with a browser-based tool that just about anyone should be able to understand, ConceptShare should do the job.