#sketchspace

Ahh, the journey of an internet startup.  Sadly, ours has not been nearly as dramatic and romantic as the folklore led us to believe it would be.  The team has yet to pull a single all-nighter in a garage, for instance. (Although a couple nights we had a nice 2 hour nap.) None of the team has plotted to cut another team member out (as far as I know...).  And while the server did crash at one point, we're pretty sure it wasn't because thousands of people tried to view the site at the same time.

So, what have we been up to?  We pushed our team to have the first phase live in time for the AIA Convention so we could promote it in New Orleans.  

You can see more photos on our facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/OpeningDesign/166660190027702?sk=wall&filter=2

The timeline was rushed, so we didn't have time to work out any bugs before we put it out to the world.  After we told people the tool was live, we stood by anxiously to see what would happen.

Would people want to use it?

Would they understand the interface?

Would there be glitches that would turn people off?

...And so far, it's been encouraging!  We've got a tremendous amount of positive feedback, despite a few bugs and glitches. (which are expected in the first couple weeks of a launch)

Having talked with a number of users, they're already using it to communicate with their dispersed team.  They especially like the 'TimeSlider' feature, that allows them to 'go back in time' and see how the sketches and overall conversation evolved. 

I've been using it to work with my associate architects in another city on an engineering judgment for pipe penetrations.

The best part, SketchSpace, is totally free.  You don't even need to create an account to use it.

Your session is stored forever, so bookmark the link and you can always go back to it.  You can use it as a wiki record of a design issue.

In the next phase, we'll be adding much more to the site.  You'll be able to name and search for your past Sketchspace sessions, create user profiles, and post questions and answers to the world like an online forum.