Desktop Zen
8 Tips for Distraction Free Remote Collaboration
Screen-sharing is a reality of the modern workplace. Every day, I use screen-sharing software (like WebEx or Skype) to collaborate with colleagues who may not be in the same location.
But the screen I share during meetings isn’t necessarily the screen I use the rest of the day. I configure my desktop differently when I share my screen to keep participants (and me) focused on the presentation. Here are eight things I do to ensure the screen I share is the screen others should see. (My examples are specific to the Mac operating system, but these same ideas apply regardless of your platform.)
1. The less chrome, the better
When sharing your desktop, maximize the viewable space–the less chrome you have, the better. Designers use the word “chrome” to refer to parts of the interface that don’t directly contribute to the task at hand. Think: navigation menus and toolbars. Chrome is supposed to help productivity, but it distracts from the content of a presentation. Application toolbars intrude on the window, taking away screen real estate from the stuff you’re trying to show.
Learn the shortcuts in applications that let you hide toolbars. When using your browser, for example, hide as many of the tools as you can. Some browsers like Safari have quick shortcuts to remove your Bookmark toolbar (Cmd + Shft + B). Hide the bookmarks toolbar and address bar. Prepare the browser by opening only the tabs you need, and bump up the text size for web sites. Even Google Docs has options for showing compact views of the toolbars. Your audience will thank you for it.
2. Hide your dock and close applications
Like application and browser chrome, the dock takes up space on the desktop. It’s a place to see what’s open and running and to access those applications quickly.
On screen, the dock eats up valuable desktop space. More than that, it distracts from the presentation. You want to feature your work, not animated chat icons. Hide your dock or if you have a second monitor, move it there so it isn’t visible.
While you’re at it, close all applications that you don’t need while collaborating, so they don’t accidentally intrude on your presentation.
3. Turn off application notifications
Most communication channels include notifications–disruptive alerts about new emails, voicemails, instant messages, Facebook posts, tweets, and much much more. When sharing your screen, these notifications are as distracting as background noise.
While collaborating remotely, you don’t need these notifications. They clutter the system tray and toolbar, distracting participants with changing colors or shifting icons. Turn off and hide all notifications; the world will still be there when you’re done collaborating. Plus, there’s nothing more embarrassing than an email notification that didn’t get picked up by your spam filter.
4. Set expectations with Instant Messaging
For me, instant messaging is an integral part of my professional communications. This is where informal meetings happen. It’s where I check in with a project manager or colleague on the status of a particular task. Its ubiquity, pervasiveness, and exposure on-screen demands managing expectations. People need to know when they can or cannot contact me.
Create a handful of custom ‘Away’ messages, using your IM client of choice — and use them religiously.
- On Conference Calls: set your status to “stay hidden” until the meeting ends.
- When Using Skype: mute all incoming calls so as to not accidentally answer an incoming call.
- Use Adium (the IM client consolidator for Mac) to set your own custom status messages by selecting “Custom…” from the status dropdown. You’ll receive a pop-up window like the one below.
IM status is a way to set expectations for communication. Use it consistently and stick to it. The more you do, the more people will respect your status indicators.
5. Keep desktop clutter to a minimum
Just like clutter on a physical desk, the clutter on your computer’s desktop is distracting. Folders, files, mounted drives and other digital flotsam make it difficult to find things among the clutter, but also give participants a view into your other projects or personal life. In short, use your desktop to hold files relevant to the current presentation.
6. Choose appropriate wallpaper
I can remember when desktop backgrounds were referred to as “wallpaper” and it was truly like wallpaper in your home. Desktop backgrounds give a little personal flavor to an otherwise monotonous space. Sometimes, those backgrounds make for poor collaboration venues.
Besides distracting participants, desktop backgrounds can make it difficult for you to find working files specifically for the meeting. Windows and Mac come with slick default backgrounds that contrast nicely with files and folders, and are optimized for the least amount of graphics lag.
7. Use an appropriate screen resolution
Just like you wouldn’t use a 30-person meeting room for a 4-person meeting, you shouldn’t keep your screen resolution optimized for your 30 inch monitor for people who are viewing your desktop on their laptops. Retaining such a high resolution has two unwanted effects:
- The presentation will be rendered very small on lower resolution screens
- The network has to send much more data to support the screen sharing
Before sharing your screen, regardless of your audience, size your screen resolution down to 1280 or 1024, and be prepared that your windows will need resizing as well. Prep your desktop before your meeting. If you’ll be presenting, give yourself a few minutes ahead of time to make sure everything you’re showing presents well on a small resolution.
8. Reduce system load
By now you’ve closed your unused applications and turned off your notifications, but there may be additional process that run in the background you hardly notice–DropBox syncs and back-ups. Network speed is vital to remote collaboration, since audio, video, and screen-sharing may be active all at once in one session. Any other services running can slow down or cause data transmission issues, limiting the effectiveness of the meeting.
Turn off cloud storage services like Dropbox or Amazon Music Player that constantly sync in the background. Even Time Machine (a back-up application) can cause network slowness, and in turn, reduce the responsiveness of your machine.
Preparation, preparation, preparation
In-person collaborative meetings are far more productive when you’re prepared. Likewise, remote collaboration can be more productive when you’ve prepared the “space” to get work done.
If you’re daunted by the preparation, post a checklist next to your monitor. I’ll leave you with a bonus tip: to make sure I don’t forget anything, I have two desktops. I created another account on my machine that has a collaboration setup–all these tips wrapped in a nice package. Before collaborating, I switch accounts on my machine. The second account is my secret weapon for collaboration efficiency.
Want to learn more? Check out my slides on remote collaboration for designers. This deck gives a high level overview of collaborating with remote teams outside of your desktop.
Originally published at www.eightshapes.com on August 9, 2011.
