Bluescape Reviews

Pros

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.

Cons

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

Pros

The software offers a comprehensive field for us to look and review work of our peers and visualize the coming weeks into a graph. It has allowed our professors to lecture upon and correct our designs right in the platform.

Cons

The software is finicky and allows some range of movement on certain softwares vs others. I personally have an older Mac computer and it often lags behind a bit moreso than other types of websites similar. The “follow leader” button only works sometimes during our lecture and require some us to pause our professor in order to catch up or figure out the problem. Our professors don’t entirely know how to use all the buttons and can sometimes lead to lengthy expanses of time trouble shooting. In this way it is more complex than other softwares and offer some buttons we never use or consider using.

Pros

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.

Cons

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.

Pros

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

Cons

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

Pros

The ability to collaborate from anywhere with anyone.

Cons

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

Pros

The most important aspect of this software in terms of its usefulness and niche is the multi-user functionality, enabling multiple persons within a class or a team to collaboratively share ideas. This software is essentially a digital whiteboard, albeit with additional features that make it suitable for these times and days.

Cons

While I did not find any significant issues with the software, I think that in general there are a few bugs and glitches here and there that are yet to be ironed out.

Pros

What amazed me about Bluescape when I first started using it was the ease of use when using the user interface, as well as moving around documents in the workspace.

I also appreciate the real time collaboration features like voice, and video capabilities. This allowed for ease of use.

Cons

I commonly lose connection to Bluescape, as well as audio issues, and having to reload the page.

Pros

I love the fact that all files can be put into one big workspace for everyone to see and interact with. It makes it easier for group collaborations.

Cons

The website is buggy and takes some time getting used to. For those with limited knowledge on tech, it can be tricky navigating Bluescape at first. There is also a login glitch which blocks you from accessing your workspaces temporarily.

Pros

I love the UX design and how easy it is to access all spaces of the platform.

Cons

When files are imported, they appear way too small.

Pros

Very interactive and can see multiple forms of media.

Cons

Might seem overwhelming at first when you see all the content on the screen.

Pros

Easy / fast to upload images and add comments, relativity easy interface. Easy to access remotely and edit.

Cons

Selecting items on a Canvas can be tricky, no way to easily select items one by one, you have to use the sidebar to change to marque, and even then the selection box will select items other than images you have to de-select (i.e. background box, etc.) Constantly get reconnecting message even when internet is connected fine. Can not zoom out to see entire contents of workspace if you have lots of canvases.

Pros

I like how organized it is. It really helps me stay on track with what I need to get done with during the week. It is also very easy to upload your work.

Cons

I don't like how big the workspace is. It makes it difficult to find things sometimes, but once I do I am able to be very organized.

Pros

It’s nice to see everything all at once, watch people collaborate live, and leave comments on others work.

Cons

Every time I use it my computer freezes, if I click wrong while writing then all of my text disappears, the navigation menu is confusing, and to go to a single bluescape board it opens like 3 tabs.

Pros

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.

Cons

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.

Pros

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.

Cons

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.

Pros

I love the collaboration aspect of it and it has a lot of functionality for working with teams. The tools that are provided, are very effective for showcasing ideas and showing examples. Bluescape also allows you to create canvases so you can organize information effectively. Showing and sharing are definitely a focus point in Bluescape.

Cons

It crashes occasionally and sometimes the functionality of the tools can be clunky. It can be difficult to understand and grasp when you first get started.

Pros

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

Cons

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.

Pros

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.

Cons

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

Pros

Love reviewing creative marketing materials in this platform.

Cons

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

Pros

Really great for visual people. Can hold so much content and easy to navigate and communicate through the various features. Some of the upgrades have really elevated the experience.

Cons

New features for excel don't seem to work right and the video conferencing sound isn't very good. We just abandoned those features and use with Teams.

Pros

Bluescape has some of the most innovative and futuristic features available. For example:
- Huge canvas allows incredible amount of information to be kept in a single location
- It's an amazing collaboration tool, and allows users to share the canvas and the workspace simultaneously, and also allows voice or video communication
- Ability to create virtual desk, and literally, virtual desk with all the personal items including pictures, flowers, computers, etc.
- Easy to share any files or tools via Bluescape
- Perhaps the most functionally rich collaboration tool available

Cons

Perhaps because of so much functionality and capabilities, here are several down sides:
- It can be a bit slow at times, and may require refreshing
- Difficult to navigate on the phone - it's designed for computers, not phones, so understandable

Pros

I like how it is easy to interact with and easy to use.

Cons

The scrolling in and out is kind of weird for me.

Pros

Easy to operate and the smart grid function is great

Cons

The smart grid could not move along with Marquee tool
The smart grid could not enter numbers on cell height and width

Pros

Functions are straightforward, nothing complicated.

Cons

It's very frustrating to navigate, especially when multiple users are allowed to edit a workspace and sometimes one can make a large selection to delete a whole area. There are also several disconnections happening from different users in one session.

Pros

Easy to capture a lot of information in one place, lots of features, not very difficult to use.

Cons

The imposing black background feels like you are throwing your documents/information into the ether and hoping it will stick.