Ad Hoc Group Management in Collaboration Sharing Workflows

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Solution Overview

Problem

Conventional collaboration systems burden project owners with the need to repeatedly enter email addresses for sharing updated collaboration projects, leading to frustration and inefficiency.

Innovation Solution

Implementing ad hoc group management within the collaboration project sharing workflow, allowing users to create, edit, and manage groups directly within the sharing workflow without switching to a separate group management interface, enabling efficient group creation and editing through a unified user interface.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Ease of operation

If project owners manually enter email addresses for each user in the sharing workflow, then the system can share the collaboration project with individual users, but the project owner experiences increased workload and frustration

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveease of sharing projectVSAvoidtime spent entering email addresses

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent merges the group management functionality with the sharing workflow by allowing users to create, edit, and manage groups directly within the sharing interface. This integration eliminates the need to switch between separate group management and sharing workflows, enabling users to select and share with groups in a single unified interface, thereby reducing the time and effort required for project sharing.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #5Merging (Combining)

Solution Approach 2:

The sharing workflow is enhanced with multi-functionality by incorporating group management capabilities directly into it. Users can perform multiple operations (creating groups, editing group members, sharing projects) within the same workflow context, making the system more versatile and reducing the need to perform repetitive manual entries for each sharing action.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

2Adaptability or versatility

If a separate contact management UI is used for group management, then group management functionality can be provided, but the sharing workflow becomes more complex and requires multiple interface switches

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvegroup management capabilityVSAvoidworkflow complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent combines the group management interface with the sharing workflow interface into a single unified UI. Users can create groups, edit group members, and initiate sharing actions all within the same workflow context without switching to a separate contact management interface, thereby simplifying the overall system architecture and user experience.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #5Merging (Combining)

3Productivity

If project owners repeatedly update the project and share updated versions with multiple people, then the collaboration project can be kept current, but the burden on the project owner increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveproject update frequencyVSAvoidease of sharing updates

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The system allows project owners to pre-configure groups with multiple members before sharing updates. When updating the project, owners can simply select the pre-configured group rather than manually entering each member's email address again, enabling frequent updates to be shared efficiently with multiple people without increasing the per-update burden.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentUS11663540B2Ad hoc group management within a collaboration project sharing workflow

Publication Date: 2023.05.30 ADOBE INC

AI summary

A content collaboration system displays a UI allowing a project owner to create and edit a collaboration project, and share the collaboration project with other users. To share the collaboration project, the project owner starts a sharing workflow by providing a user input to the collaboration system UI. The sharing workflow allows the project owner to identify other users with which to share the collaboration project. As part of the sharing workflow, the project owner can input a request via the collaboration system UI to manage (e.g., create or edit) a group of users. In response to such a request, the collaboration system UI causes the group to be created or changed as requested. In response to a request to share the collaboration project with the group the collaboration system UI causes an invitation to access the collaboration project to be sent to the members of the group.