5 Visual Collaboration Apps to Transform Employee Engagement in 2021

They say a picture is with a thousand words – and with good reason. Human beings are neurologically wired to better grasp visual messages at a pace far faster than regular textual communication. Hence, it makes sense that visual communication and collaboration would emerge as a popular way to bridge the gap in human connectivity during the pandemic. 

What is Visual Collaboration, and Why is it So Important Right Now? 

Visual collaboration can be roughly defined as any collaboration medium that allows us to exchange our thoughts and ideas through pictography, visual indicators, and the freedom to document thoughts visually in a given space. While this technically includes video conferencing or screen sharing as well, visual collaboration in the modern context refers to a very specific software category – sophisticated digital whiteboards that enable asynchronous communication and simplify project management, planning, and ideation. 

Research by LucidsparkOpens a new window found that productivity, collaboration, and creativity all took a hit due to the pandemic, remote work, and team members’ resulting isolation. Nearly 1 in 4 employees said that virtual meetings weren’t adequate as they did not provide a visual collaboration space. 

That’s why visual collaboration is so important right now: 

• It enables asynchronous communication so that every team member can log in at a time of their convenience. The message’s impact isn’t lost as there is a persistent space to record ideas. 
• It amplifies the impact of a message, making it much more effective than if someone was to just say it out loud during a video call. This partially offsets the dip in the impact that will naturally occur without the in-person presence of a speaker. 
• It prevents miscommunication, which is a massive risk in a distributed team, compounded by the fact that most employees handle unprecedented schedule adjustments. Having a message visually laid out clarifies a problem better than a social post or email could. 
• It helps to identify bottlenecks faster, as once you lay down an idea visually, it becomes much easier to understand what’s working and what could go wrong. 

Ultimately, it comes down to our cognitive makeup and its conduciveness to absorbing visual loads as opposed to textual or verbal ones. The cognitive load of understanding an arrangement of pictures and visual cues is much lesser than a typical structured email communication or video call – a massive help when employees are already facing the cognitive pressures of adapting to a new modality of working. 

Learn More: 10 Workplace Apps That Grew the Fastest in the Remote Work Era  

5 Visual Collaboration Apps to Try in 2021

While visual collaboration apps might seem like they are meant for small groups or limited team use cases, there are plenty of opportunities for enterprise applications as well. Here are five apps that can enable visual collaboration in your enterprise in 2021, listed in alphabetical order. 

1. Deon Opens a new window

What is it – Deon is a visual collaboration platform designed specifically for the Microsoft ecosystem. It connects with Microsoft apps like Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Office 365 Tools, letting you bring your familiar productivity enablers into a visual interface. Its clients include Audi, BMW, and Rolls Royce, among others. 

Why do you need it – It takes just 30 minutes to learn and is ideal for any company with Microsoft dependency for productivity. 

Pricing – 12 € per user per month for unlimited projects and unlimited items per project; custom enterprise pricing available to remove size limit on project items. 

2. iObeya Opens a new window

What is it – iObeya is a visual collaboration and process management platform designed keeping in mind enterprise requirements. Its use cases include Industry 4.0, digital workplaces, lea project management, and agile teams. iObeya customizes the visual display to meet the exact requirements of your business use case, from Kanban portfolios to a line layouting a manufacturing plant. 

Why do you need it – iObeya works with large enterprises in the industrial sector, making it incredibly scalable for organization-wide applications. Siemens, Philips, and GE are some of its clients. 

Pricing – Custom pricing. 

3. MiroOpens a new window  

What is it – Miro is among the first names that come to mind when we think of visual collaboration. It is essentially an advanced whiteboarding and video calling tool that doubles up as a project management platform. You get a handy library of templates for use cases like meetings, research, and agile workflow mapping. It is SOC, CCPA, and GDPR compliant for enterprise applications. 

Why do you need it – Miro has native integrations with almost every productivity tool you can think of, from storage platforms like OneDrive to messaging apps like Slack and video tools like YouTube. 

Pricing – $16 per user per month for a team with 20+ members; custom pricing for 50+ member teams. 

4. LucidsparkOpens a new window  

What is it – Lucidspark is among the leading digital whiteboard and visual collaboration providers in the market. Lucidspark, in conjunction with its sister diagramming platform Lucidchart, offers a holistic solution for brainstorming and collaborating visually. Like Miro, it has pre-built templates for your everyday use cases, but it doesn’t have video calling capabilities. Instead, it focuses squarely on free-flowing drawings and ideation and simple set-up. 

Why do you need it – Choose Lucidspark if you need a minimalist, easy-to-use digital whiteboarding tool that won’t add any clutter to your ever-growing stack of collaboration apps. 

Pricing – $6.67 per user per month for Teams; custom pricing for enterprises. 

5. SoftspaceOpens a new window  

What is it – Softspace is probably the most disruptive option on this list, using virtual reality to give you an immersive and interactive space for visual collaboration. It takes your existing desktop apps and open windows, moving them into an infinite VR workspace complete with whiteboarding capabilities. Every project has its own persistent collaboration space that you can come back to again and again. 

Why do you need it – The ability to visualize and work with your regular productivity apps in VR without any spatial restrictions is an excellent idea, although collaboration is currently limited to 12 users at the same time. 

Pricing – Still in the development stage, Softspace is available as a free download if you have a VR headset. 

Learn More:  4 Ways to Make Your Virtual Meetings Productive and Inclusive 

Bonus Recommendations 

We have listed five top visual collaboration apps, each with its unique value proposition and applicability. You could consider several others, including popular names like Mural, Conceptboard, Bluescape, Deskle, and Stormboard. These cover the entire spectrum of feature capabilities, from simple real-time asynchronous whiteboarding to in-app video calls, documents management, and productivity reports. 

As 2020’s global shift to remote work opens up a whole new world of collaboration and borderless communication, this is poised to be an important trend. From just $5.67 billion in 2019, visual collaboration platforms will be worth over $17 billion by 2027Opens a new window . Early adopters stand to gain a significant competitive advantage, benefitting from the natural alignment between human cognitive functions and visual workflows in 2021. 

Are you looking to implement a visual collaboration app at your organization? Comment below or let us know on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window . We would love to hear from you!