Desk View.
Sasha Mitchell.
DeskView.
Executive Summary. 3 The Product. 4 Market Research. 6 Competitor Analysis. 7 Future Partners. 10 Marketing Stratergy. 11
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DeskView.
Executive Summary.
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A collaborative tool to aid long-distance communication to be used alongside live video software. DeskView allows you to live-stream your deskspace to aid collaborative opportunities such as brainstorming, craft workshops, portfolio reviews, live note-taking and interviews.
DeskView.
The Product.
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The device holds your smartphone or tablet still by attaching to any nearby sturdy object. The device can be moved higher or lower depending on what you are trying to show, such as close up notes or larger mindmaps. This is a great tool for visual learners when explaining your ideas can be difficult, you can sketch out your thoughts as a diagram, mind map, or illustration. From creative to corporate businesses, from students to directors, this tool can be used by anyone who wants to enhance their long-distance collaboration. You would use this while video calling and wanting to support your communication with physical demonstrations. This tool will not always be necessary when they do not need to show any physical body of work or vocal communication is suffice. While on a video call, you can join the call on your device connected to DeskView as well as a laptop or computer in front of you for a more rounded communication.
DeskView.
The Product.
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DeskView.
Market Research.
Video calling is used normally by people who are trying to communicate long-distance, this can be worldwide or nationally. This is normally used when physical faceto-face meetings are not possible. People collaborate long-distance when there is no feasible way to meet up physically but they want or need to team up to work on a project. This collaboration will usually take place within the normal business hours of the day, for the UK this may be 9am and 5pm. Collaboration for some teams may only be a 10-minute call to a full day’s work. This tells me that collaboration is usually a vital part of some working environments, if DeskView is used with video calls this could enhance this experience and improve the quality of work as well as the communication. Long-distance collaboration may occur because of multiple office locations, freelance work with clients globally, teaming up on projects with people or companies that are not in easy reach. There are many reasons for not being able to meet in person and with today’s technology, we should be getting closer to achieve the real thing. Distance collaboration is used when a person or company are reaching out to other people for development on a project, network, give or receive information. They are trying to share information, their thoughts, opinions and ideas. This is usually done best with video calling as you can use body language to express this as well as see the body language of someone receiving it. DeskView is allowing an extra visualisation tool that allows you to share all of this with physical note-taking or small sketches. People who are trying to communicate normally use desktop software or a mobile device. DeskView is developed around the idea that you are using a desktop application and having a portable device to hand to aid you.
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DeskView.
Market Research.
I produced a survey to get a better opinion on whether this tool will be useful for many people and what they could you the device for. I asked 9 short questions, beginning with information on the audience, whether they are a creative or not, and what best describes the position they are in. I asked whether they collaborate often and if they ever work long distance. I also asked whether they wish to collaborate more in the future. This information was a good starting point to get a better idea of the audience. I then showed them my video for DeskView. With them now knowing about the product I asked whether they would find this tool useful, whether they would use this product or recommend the product to someone. I finally ask what they would use DeskView to achieve. I sent this questionnaire out on social media so I could get a range of responses from a range of different people. I only got 20 people to fill out the questionnaire for now but this short experiment allows me to get a better idea of my target market. What this information told me is that with people from the creative industry and from other industries, from students to directors, many people believe that DeskView is a great tool for collaboration. The device improved the majority of the interviewees perspective, with most people saying they do not collaborate very much in the role they are in but they would be inclined to use this tool in the future or recommend the tool to be used by a colleague, friend or family member. Those who collaborate often believed they would definitely use DeskView. There were many suggestions for its use, from interviews, meetings, collaborating with colleagues, and even workshops.
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This research was a small insight to the audience in which I want to target. I would want to research further into the industries that would find this most useful and more specifically how it could work into their current methods of distance collaboration.
DeskView.
Competitor Analysis.
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DeskView is purely an adaptation of a product that is already available on the market. As I am taking a phone holder and giving it a new purpose, I do not have a competitor per se in that area. However, the software that attempts to achieve what I am, collaboration. The device is an aid to be used with software already on the market, such as Skype or Appear.in. This means that these tools aren’t competitors either, they are partners. I want to analyse how this tool compares with software/ tools without using DeskView, but not to compete. This diagram shows how other methods of communication aid collaboration or work long distance. Working on a project alone does not aid collaboration and does not work long distance. Whereas a phone call works long distance but does successfully aid collaboration and a workshop may aid collaboration but doesn’t work long distance. Video calling does achieve both however DeskView pushes the experience to work better long distance and achieves better collaboration.
DeskView.
Future Partners.
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I have based my product around its use alongside a video calling app. There are many applications that work with video calling today, FaceTime, Whatsapp, Skype, Appear. in, Join.me, Facebook messenger, Google Hangout, and so many more. Some applications may work better than others with DeskView. If you want to show both your body language as well as your desk you need whatever application you are using to be signed in on both your desktop and your portable device. This already rules out applications such as Whatsapp, that cannot be used on the desktop. For some of these applications, you need to be signed in, in which case you need to have two accounts for this to work, which starts to get confusing and messy. This leaves only applications which work as a room that you can join to work Zoom.us, Gruveo, Linkello are all some of the applications that will work the best with DeskView. But out of all the nolog in, no-download room share video calling applications there are on the market at the moment, Appear.in is the best. Appear.in was awarded as one of the “iPad Business App Winners� of 2018 Tabby Awards. The desktop and smartphone applications are both free to use. You can have up to 4 screens in one room, which will allow free communication between two people who are both sharing their webcame and DeskView.
DeskView.
Marketing Stratergy.
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I want to advertise the DeskView product idea working alongside the Appear.in software as an example of how the tool can be used. I would want to try partnering up with a video calling company, whether that is appear.in or another similar software. This will not only help to better explain what DeskView can do, but it will help upsell the product to the products exact target audience. I want to advertise my product initially with an explainer video that is short, quick to understand, and clear to see the opportunities the product might have for different people and industries.Â
Click any image for link to video.
DeskView.
Marketing Stratergy.
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I will also be doing some targeted networking via social media, mostly Instagram and LinkedIn. I will use the page to show short GIFs of how the product can help different people, industries, as well as creative practices. I will be sharing my own use of the product, to begin with. After getting a small following of the product, I want to target some direct people in industries I feel could have great use of the tool and send them the product for free. I will be requesting a short 5-10 second video of what they are doing with the product as well as a short endorsement quote. I can then begin sharing these as GIFs. I can begin trending these posts with the hashtag, #sharemydeskview. With this very specific hashtag, I can track who is getting involved with my product and who is following. Using Instagram as a marketing tool does take a lot of time, but it is a cheap way of initially kicking off this collaborative tool.
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DeskView.
Sasha Mitchell.