Why Instant Messaging Apps Shouldn’t Be Used For Design Collaboration

What starts with an innocent “quick message for approval” on an instant messaging (IM) app, later snowballs to an avalanche of back-and-forth file exchanges for iterations and endless revisions. If it a chat group that is collaborating for online proofing, the likelihood of a timeline for final delivery can get stretched, and chances that the designer might even feel lost.

Although it would depend a lot on the temperament of the design reviewer, there are creative collaboration ways you can use avoid your creative file from being named “final_final_final_final_final_final_final_video-V15”.

If you are one of the creative minds that involved in multiple creative projects, chances are you are already backlogged with concurrent projects and unplanned iterations. We understand it can be difficult to convenience your client or review team to get you off the IM distractions and allow you to focus on your work.

Therefore to help you collect some points, we have enlisted the top-15 concrete reasons why instant messaging apps shouldn’t be used as an online proofing software alternative.

You can share this list with your collaborators to convenience them to start using a proofing software that’s rather created from scratch for design collaboration:

1. IMs don’t support all design file types and sizes to preview and review for changes.
2. IMs don’t have any control measure who gets hold of your work and where it gets reshared.
3. IMs don’t send out automated reminders for pending approvals.
4. IMs don’t have all the marking and annotation tools to give clear feedback, e.g., freehand tool, comment box, circular/box/arrow annotation, etc.
5. IMs don’t have seamless integrations with design software *Adobe Creative Suite) or storage applications (Google/OneDrive/DropBox).
6. IMs don’t allow side-by-side file comparison, which becomes very important for video and multi-page PDF documents. 
7. IMs don’t have the option for guest commenting, and every collaborator either needs to be added to the chat group or a new group needs to be created.
8. IMs don’t have advanced design proofing features likes – watching the video in slow-motion or previewing HTML banner files on various device sizes.
9. IMs don’t allow you to store or archive files (with or without review comments) in folders of various categories. 
10. IM’s don’t give a bird’s eye view or maintain an activity log of each file for future reference.
11. IMs don’t allow to clearly mark the status of the file, i.e., approved, in-review, rework, pending approval (or any other custom status of your choice). 
12. IMs takes up every collaborators’ storage space.
13. IMs can confuse when there are multiple collaborators, multiple versions, or concurrent files are under review.
14. IMs group might have members that are not required in the group that can be a bother for both sides.
15. IMs don’t just miss out of many other handy design proofing features, but also portray the design agency as an unorganized one.

Remote working culture is mainstream now, using instant messaging apps like Skype, WhatsApp, Hangouts, etc. becomes an obvious first choice for faster design collaboration; however, it also becomes a sure recipe for the unaccounted use of time.

Therefore any professional design agency must look for online proofing software that accelerates the design review process by cutting down the overwhelming messages exchanges. Most of the online proofing tools improve efficiency in design collaboration; however, many of them lack some critical functionalities, which can be a deal-breaking at a later stage.

Therefore we have listed the 12 Features to look for while evaluating an online proofing tool.

Let’s admit it; no one likes to continually get annoying work messages with versions of design files filling up the phone storage. IM apps aren’t an effective medium for design collaboration because they were never designed for it. The chances of missing out or misinterpreting any comments are high, and they do not provide onsite and offsite teams with the ability to share team feedback, suggest changes for the video format, and preview the results in real-time. QuickReviewer is designed to avoid such cacophony by streamlining all the design changes.

Moving to new software for any client or collaborators can cause short-term confusion and some resistance. However, once they get used to the new way of the design review process, very quickly, they will only want to use professional online proofing software for it.