Bluescape Reviews

So fun to work with co-workers using this digital tool. Its perfect for creative design teams, trying to visualize concepts together.

Initially, there was a bit of a learning curve to understand the tips and tricks to optimize use, but after figuring those out, it was fun.

I love the navigational canvas tool. I makes it so much easier to pinpoint items in the space. I would love to see this feature expanded into a folder/group format (similar to psd layers). This way I could group several canvases associated with a singular space.
I also love the grid tool. I allows me to present large documents (pdf) in a visual storyboard format in addition to traditional paged document. As a design instructor, I can spread out my lectures to appeal to visual learners. I would love Bluescape to save me a step and be able to break it out into separate pages for me.
I am excited about the integration with zoom and adobe suite but have yet to try them out.

I dislike the limitations in the creative tool such as color, shapes, fonts, pen strokes. I find this very limiting. I need more options to work effectively. I'm hoping that these features are built out quickly, for such a robust program the tools are very basic. I also am not fond of the black space. In certain situations, I'd prefer the option of selecting a white space.

* The potential ability to collaborate and keep all the elements in a visually clear virtual workspace: my line of work & teaching is heavily visual and having instant access to all the images in an organized and easy to scroll through environment is very useful.

* Inability to 'annotate' (draw over) in 'PRESENT' mode. This creates a huge inconvenience for my classes and I have ti revert to using Zoom & share screen for this part.
* The students can't vew the content of PDF documents with 'vewer' only priviledges: they can see only the front page of the document but can not flip through the pages. This goes for Keynote and Power Point as well. Some of the lectures are proprieatary and while I need the students to be able to access them at their own time& convenience for reference, I have to give them 'viewer' status only so they don't download or alter them (a possibility if I invite them as 'editors'). A 'viewer' should be able to view a document or a presentation, not just the front page.
* Still buggy: for example, switching 'leaders' during a meeting does not always work. Even if the participan's list on the left shows the leader we switched to, students still see the screen of the previous leader even if the 'eye' is off. This happens accasionally but not always.
* Aside from 'undo', having a 'redo' option would be very convenient.
* Some students get kicked out of the workspace and can't login: they receive messages that their passwords are incorrect. This can not be the real problem in most of the cases as they use their college credentials and passwords which work just fine on the college servers. The emails from Bluescape with the password reset links or code never arrive (not in the SPAM folder either).

1. The Visual content of what is shared in Bluescape makes it the most efficient way for everyone in the team to understand and process the ideas. It is well recognized that visual data is processed a lot faster by the brain than text.
2. Teamwork: When everyone can SEE everything, it creates the best environment for ALL to engage and exchange and therefore to come up with amazing solutions/Innovations.
3. Easy to Use: It takes not more than 20-30min to start working with the platform and this is a huge advantage when you want/need to have everyone onboard.

I don't find part of the platform that I don't like. It augments everything I do/use and I like it.

I love how my student teams can collaborate and develop their products/services and then their business plans to launch. The tool allows them to collaborate easily and at the same time see what other students are doing.

Students are initially cautious about any new tool. But, in no time they are working within their assigned team canvases.

I like how we can organize our thoughts, processes and weekly project lists. It helps us stay accountable for what we have committed to. I love how there are always some enhancements as well as new features added from time to time. I really like to be able to customize colors and fonts!

I do not like the cursor tracking feature that was added recently. It is very distracting to our team. Would like to know if it is possible to turn this off. I can see how it could be useful when trying to point something out to a remote user while on the phone.

The canvas lets you create a collaboration area in whatever way works for your team and project best. There are very few limitations, and that really helps with quick updates and on the fly collaboration

The pen tool is a little tricky. I wish you could draw from canvas onto the picture, but instead you can only do one or the other.

Bluescape is easy to use if you use the software regularly. Great for presentation meetings and Design In Real Time. I love how the presenter / user is able to have Video Conference as well as Draw and write on the screen. In addition, the notes that will be on the screen are able to be stored for later use, emailed to individuals as well as you are able to access your workspace / project file from your mobile app.

I do not know or have not practice much on Bluescape to have a "Con" comment.

The ability to reorganize information in an organic way.

I wish that you could preview comments in the Comments Panel before opening up a specific note.

It has helped with internal communication. Leadership, All Company and Department meetings all use Bluescape to keep information organized as well as a history. Set agendas are used and updated every quarter. We also use it as a searchable database for photos and documents.

constant changes, just when i get my company use to one way of doing things you go and change it. way too many text and notecard updates too close together. I strongly feel that updates should be done every 90 days with detailed overview. It makes me crazy and I use bluescape all day every day.

Bluescape is easy and the features are very intuitive. Once you understand the capabilities, the digital pin up board becomes a think tank of ideas, inspiration, a way to show process and a quick way to present in a creative platform. The best part is seeing the "road map" you've created that leads you through (just have to make sure you be organized and systematic about your placement). You can easily access on your phone, tablet and computer. Bluescape offers a touch screen tv that enhances the user experience to another level of productivity. PDF files can be expanded full screen for professional way to present, comments can be written directly and provides access to allowable users. The tool is instrumental to anyone. The blank palette allows for an endless possibility of creation.

What I least like about the software is that I didn't discover it sooner. Would've made my job more effective in the past. As Bluescape has added features, my experience has evolved to more complex use cases that can only come with the time you put in. Can't wait to see what Bluescape has in store for the future.

Having a visual of all content in one place.

I am sure it can do video conferencing, but we are usually in another platform and just end up sharing our screen vs having people join through the session. Now that we have a combination of in person and virtual we need to figure out a seamless way to integrate everyone.

Great way to share course content, love the visual ability to follow the flow of information. Good tools for making class notes that are then accessible to students the entire semester. It definitely aids team collaboration.

Most of my major critiques have been addressed in updates this past year -- e.g., ability to pin all assets. I would like to see Slack or another messaging platform integrated. Change tracking features are also needed, especially in the educational area where I have 100+ students interacting with the workspace. I would like to know who made what changes at what time.

I like that it allows us to collaborate as designers together, but apart.

Sometimes the tools (like the pens or erasers) are clunky and hard to find. I know they will be more refined as time goes on. I know this because the tools have gotten a lot easier to use in the last 2 years.

I love that the software is so approachable. I am a "super user" within our organization and am responsible for encouraging the use of Bluescape within our development process. It is fairly simple to get customers comfortable enough to begin interacting with a Bluescape session.

I don't like the way PDF documents render when not selected or activated. They often appear blurry and aliased. It makes them difficult to reference without taking snap shots of every section you're talking about.

I love that Bluescape keeps my team on track - since we use it for our ongoing meetings and training our new employees have access to several years of collective knowledge in an organized, intuitive workspace.

Having multiple users dropping in content often means documents are scaled inconcistently. Through training of our users we have gotten better about this.

Bluescape was so helpful when all of our teams were working from home! It allowed us to leave work up for review and collaborate as a team as if we were around one table in the office.

We have been unable to @everyone and get all team members tagged and this would be so helpful if fixed!

Ability to paste from anywhere, mark up, and drop files into the work space so the whole process timeliness of design is visible.

I think creating an organizational template became crucial, since we have big teams - people would put things on the workspace with more or less order... creating a chaotic bear if someone wasn't helping keep it organized. Templates help.

Love reviewing creative marketing materials in this platform.

The inability to present presentations with animated gifs in the workspace and the webex integration hiccups we’ve run into

Being able to upload files for employees

When it won't take my uploaded files. Also not always giving notifications.

Being a remote and international team, Bluescape has been essential to create to space that a art boardroom or story room would, where ideas and images and process can be shared and reviewed together and on one's own time.

Buggy, lags, the alert system is unreliable or maybe i am not aware of my settings.

I love that Bluescape gives me a place to organize my ideas and sketches like a digital pinboard. I also love that I can present and collaborate remotely with other team members.

the drawing tools used to be more intuitive, but have gotten much harder to use since recent updates.

Fun to see other ideas and it is really easy to tag other people.

Trying to draw on the canvas.....can be difficult. Also seems like the tools change often.

The collaboration and file sharing. Keeping everything in one spot is so helpful.

It's expensive and hard to get the proper technology that works with the touchscreens.

The ability to collaborate from anywhere with anyone.

URL links can't be easily shared while collaborating virtually.