bridge

DTCC Research Project

This semester we were a part of the DTCC research project with the subject “Digital Collaboration and Communication” together with the EKA in Tallin and the ESADSE in StÉtienne, supported by Erasmus+. We were mentored by Marc Guntow. The project has been worked on over the span of the last two years with different groups each semester. May 2023 there will be a concluding exhibition where all the projects that have been developed over the last two years will be presented to the public. With that let us introduce our contribution to this project, bridge.

bridge

With bridge we want to connect existing tools and software to create a structured overview about all the important notifications and information you receive during your workday. Bridge enables a much-needed transparency between colleagues through statuses and shared activities while allowing free distribution of one’s own tasks throughout the day alongside your colleagues activities, integrating the different worklfows of your team into one another.

Modern collaborative work is full of distracting notifications and meetings, which has a very measurable impact on its quality.

The basis of hybrid work, or teamwork in general is effective communication.

Our goal is to effectively structure and cluster all the different communication flows that pop up during a workday.

Bridge consists of two parts: A hardware controller and the interface.

Controller

Through an external interaction element we outsource collaborative interactions and thus create the necessary focus and time to engage with one’s own workspace more effectively.

Interface

The interface controlled by the hardware aims to structure and organize communication during the workday.

Our concept is based on connecting the different apps needed in a workflow. That means, we want to provide the intersection, that structures and concludes data from other apps. We accomplish this by sorting Notifications not by App, but by the Project team it is important for.

With different statuses, such as currently in “Train”, “Lunch”, “Quick Break”, “On the way”, “AFK” we enable your teammates to know your current status and availability. This leads to the needed transparency for teamwork and makes clarification attempts more efficient.

In this way we create personalized, sorted inboxes, for example the personal inbox at the top of the interface and project specific inboxes at the bottom.

From your inbox you can either reply immediately to a message, while bridge assists you with quick action proposals based on the message itself. Otherwise, you can move items you want to engage with later on to your watchlist.

From there you can assign the task to your timeline within a certain timeslot for you to complete
This will automatically be visible for others. In your timeline view you can switch to edit mode and intuitively move your time slots around. Details like preparation time before a meeting will automatically be added into your view.

Inside the watchlist, you can also set a timer for a task you received and from there integrate it into your timeline.

Controller Mechanics

The controller features a split design, with a mechanical mechanism integrated into the base that enables smooth sliding in all four directions. The Arduino Micro triggers commands when connected to the laptop, while a rotary encoder and four buttons provide the desired tactile feel during the interaction with the controller.