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In Part I of the Remote Design Collaboration Survey Results, I reported on the quantitative findings of our pilot survey conducted at the Enterprise UX conference. Check out the full results online.
This post summarizes findings from an open ended question in the survey. We asked:
What are the top three aspects of remote design that frustrate you most?
I used MURAL to find patterns the qualitative feedback. I first imported the responses into Google Sheets. From there you can copy and paste data right into MURAL.The text of each cell is automatically converted into an individual sticky note.
Pretty simply and pretty cool!
I used the Cluster feature in MURAL to group responses into themes. I also changed the color of the sticky notes to show the groupings. It’s easy once everything is in a digital format.
Clear patterns emerged. Some of these apply to remote work in general:
The above issues affect all types of work. There were two primary design-specific issues that emerged as well:
An inability to draw freely and spontaneously is a key frustration for remote design based on this survey. One person wrote: “hard to share quick throwaway ideas and sketches.” Another commented on the inability to spontaneously sketch with others: “Not able to just walk over and sketch together.”
There were other comments about tools for sketching. People found it hard work without a whiteboard. One person commented: “Not being able to sketch in a non-janky way.” At MURAL, we’re trying to hard to address this pain point directly!
Working remotely also affects the design process. People commented that it’s difficult to get on the same page, in general. And decisions are harder to make. This affects the quality of work.
One person indicated their frustration: “Review of design after it has been developed (quality assurance)”
At MURAL we aspire to make remote design as smooth and natural as possible. We believe it doesn't have to be so frustrating. Both creativity and distributed teams are increasingly becoming integral to the future of work, and we want to be a part of that future.
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