The idea is that distributed teams don't get to see each other very often. Would it be a minor benefit to team cohesion if instead of text names in certain views, if a small thumbnail image of the user could be displayed instead?
Think like how AIM includes a picture in chat boxes instead of text.
The experiment here is like this - do the people on your distributed team become more real when you see images of them daily in the taskboard or in other team views?
by: Michael B. | over a year ago | Ideas Application
Comments
+1 -- The people would be more real when I see images of them daily. Especially when consultants rotate back to offshore after a stint in-country with the client. I want to see their smiling faces even after they're gone. We've become friends.
Or better yet, if the first name could be displayed WITH the thumbnail photo.
I think this would provide lots of visual impact for the folks working remotely. I hope you consider this idea.
We have team members that have never seen each other. Even displaying a legend (thumbnail photos with names) on certain views would help. Or perhaps a popup legend for a team that can be switched on & off. This would be a huge benefit on the collaboration views (like taskboard, prioritization, etc).
You can now see avatars of your entire team from within TeamRooms. These always appear, along with a TeamRoom name and mascot, to help personalize your team and help people connect, especially those on distributed teams. Note that it's also possible to show avatars of backlog item owners on those cards when showing the OwnerWithAvatar field as one of the backlog item card options.
TeamRoom is available in the Fall 2012 release of VersionOne:
http://community.versionone.com/Release%20Notes/ReleaseNotes2012Fall.aspx