Standardize Packaging Regardless Of The Contents

Inspiration from a revolution in ocean freight efficiency

There.App upgrades execution by combining relevant project information and capabilities instead of their being spread across various systems and methodologies. The solution is designed for things happening around particular locations, when logistics get even trickier, making our consolidating effect even more valuable. We balance access to any sort of detail related to the particular project that may be of concern to a team member in the moment. The result is a go-to resource whether it concerns an appointment on the schedule, information in a document, how to find a teammate, understanding what’s next to get done, the place where things happen, or other relevant matters.

There’s diversity in these considerations. Schedules, directories, checklists, file folders, photo-rolls, laying out pages, pinning on maps, and chat rooms are substantial and distinctive enough for there to be a lot of popular applications that support just any one of those needs. Here we are endeavoring to address all of them as they relate to some particular gathering and undertaking. We’re being ambitious, and realize there’s a challenge to provide all of this diversity without making things bloated, confusing or counterproductive.

Combining diverse elements in ways that are efficient, cohesive and manageable is a globally relatable challenge, beyond just our considering for software development. An interesting example, that like us concerns being on-the-move, is how container standardization revolutionized shipping and transformed global trade during the 20th century. There were a lot of inefficiency and vulnerability problems in legacy methods of ad-hoc loading, tying down, maintaining and ultimately unloading a variety of shapes and sizes of crates, barrels, bundles and other items directly on decks. Adoption of secure rectangular-box containers that are already filled with the stuff is far more robust and efficient to manipulate and arrange. Living on the San Francisco Bay I regularly see liners passing under the Golden Gate Bridge loaded up with orderly stacks of containers – the modern, global economy on the move.

“Container” is a term liberally used in software too, with some inspiration from its shipping connotation, and it’s a metaphor I extend to how There.App is organized. We have a standard, compact presentation of items of any sort as enumerated above (a task, file, team member, place etc.) to our own rectangle design. Regardless of the sort of item, there’s a visual representation of it on the left (like a person’s profile photo), the name prominently at top center, some other pertinent data below that (like top-level description, or location for an appointment), and on the right the most relevant action to take on the item (like checking a task or viewing some media full-screen). The standardization provides quick understanding of contents in a familiar motif, while the by-module distinction (e.g. checkbox vs. full-screen viewer) clarifies the context.

Tapping the rectangle that summarizes an item is akin to opening a container. It unpacks a dedicated view of the single selected item with all details, linkages and features fully accessible, versus just the essentials that are presented in the compact rectangular framing.

And just like different neighboring containers may variously hold clothes, electronics, construction materials etc., our standardized encapsulations of items of varying types can be logically assembled. Capsules pertaining to a one sort of module can be embedded in certain ways in other modules. If someone uses CHAT to ask where they should be, the response can include the contained version of the relevant item from PLACES module, with capacity to tap for live navigation directly from within the chat, providing immediate understanding and returning attention to live in-person activities. The BOARD module lets a page be built that can combine whatever sorts of items are most important to be at everyone’s fingertips like first can be project manager’s contact card from TEAM module to make self reachable, followed by kickoff gathering details from EVENTS, and then a FILES link to the project briefing document.

There.App emphasizes fluid access to whatever matters right now for a project’s success giving our collaboration app launch distinctively broad scope. Key to making this work has been standardizing any sort of information being consistently presented, even with contextual diversity in the contents, with inspiration from related advances as diverse as global shipping, software development, and live on-site operations.