What does a next-generation workspace mean? What are the next generation qualities supposed to be?  We answer all these questions and more in today’s blog post. When designing a next-generation tool, one of the more essential qualities is to have a fresh and revolutionary perspective. In other words, what are the current problems we experience in collaborative platforms today, and how can we provide a revolutionary solution? AirSend and Notion have the answer.

AirSend

AirSend is a new collaborative next-generation workspace. Our motto is to get work done better and faster. How do we implement this motto? Through a simplistic and seamless design. We excel as a next-generation tool because we built AirSend from scratch. We planned and designed all features to fit into one workspace seamlessly: 

  • A place to view and upload files
  • Create tasks
  • Write notes
  • Use markup
  • Host meetings

When designing our tool, we knew we wanted the essentials to be easy-to-find and minimized clicks. With this idea in mind, we created a revolutionary solution- everything in one straightforward layout.

The green arrow pointing towards the actions tab. The red arrow pointing towards the files tab. The blue arrow pointing towards the wiki tab. The purple arrow pointing towards the calling function. The essentials are all located in one space.

Sure, you are thinking, “there are already current tools out there that have everything in one space, like Microsoft Teams.” The problem with Teams, however, is that adding features appear as an afterthought. 

Microsoft Teams

The purple arrow pointing towards the posts tab. The red arrow pointing towards the files tab. The blue arrow pointing towards the wiki tab. The black arrow pointing towards extensions that can be added to the taskbar. The green circle is the panel where teams and channels within teams are located. The yellow circle is your menu panel, which allows an external/different view of files, calendar, DM’s, activities.

As you can see from the image, the UI to Teams is complex. The UI is complicated because there are too many things in on workspace. Though these features make Microsoft Teams better, the positioning of them does not. Think of Teams as a renovated house. Sometimes when you enter a renovated home. It looks great, but often when renovations aren’t done right or have unusual additions, it can leave a disappointed feeling.

Picture a house with countertops from the ’60s with stainless steel appliances. It doesn’t look right. That’s what Microsoft Teams is. A renovated house. Whereas AirSend is a brand new house with granite countertops and stainless steel appliances- the features fit the design. Like AirSend, a next-generation workspace, Notion has a fresh perspective on the collaborative workspace. 

Notion

Notion – The all-in-one workspace for your notes, tasks, wikis, and databases.

Notion is a new tool that blends your everyday work apps into one. It’s the all-in-one workspace for you and your team. Notion is an application that provides components such as databases, kanban boards, wikis, calendars, and reminders. Users can connect these components to create their systems for knowledge management, note-taking, data management, project management, among others. Similar to AirSend, Notion has the fresh and revolutionary idea of putting everything into one workspace- as in fitting everything into one piece- like a puzzle. 

Summary

So what makes a workspace tool the next generation? Ideally, an imagined, then reimagined idea that is designed to add all essential features into one ideal workspace flawlessly. These features are easy-to-find and should involve minimized clicks, like AirSend and Notion.