INTRODUCTION
Ever sit in a video call and have this happen?
Two people talking over eachother. Sitting in a long silence not knowing who should speak first. Frustrating meetings that feel like nothing is getting accomplished.
It is not fun.
But what can be done?
THE PROBLEM
The issue correlates to how we perceive sound in real life.
In the real world, sound is all around us, coming at us from every direction constantly, at different volumes and tones.
Yet when we chat online all of the 3D sound gets funnelled and compressed into one channel, one frequency.
What would happen if we kept the sound separated in 3D?
THE SOLUTION
Meet Proxi.
A fully customizable proximity based chat client.
And she is here to change how we communicate online.
STRATEGY
Purpose based functionality.
Everyone's digital chat needs are different, tailor Proxi to work best for you.
Set up a virtual board room, assign roles, efficiently multitask with whiteboards, monitor sharing, and shared notepads.
Design an inviting classroom, organize seating charts, manage who gets to talk, when they can, and for how long.
Create multiple rooms for chat, switch between them with ease, control how loud the rooms and other users are to you.
Build a hangout space, incorperate video and music streaming services, invite your friends and have a digitial party.
KEY TAKEAWAY
If we have learned anything as humans from the eventful year of 2020 it is that the human connection is a most precious treasure. When we were all forced online we had to adapt to overcome new challenges to old problems, and thus, due to the rapid need for adaptation, we stopped trying to improve simply to satiate demand.
Our goal with Proxi is to give users the freedom to create an online chat environment that works best for their digital communication needs. Proxi uses a simple mechanic that can be easily transferred to each environment allowing for a virtually unlimited well of opportunity.
From education to business to entertainment to every day. With a need for online communications comes a need for a unique and dynamic experience that can truly benefit each user to the peak of their own individual needs.
DESIGN
Simply a Playground of Possibilities.
THE BASICS
Proxi Chat works on a simple concept, 3D sound. Video games, movies, music, all of these arts already utilize 3D sound to create an immersive experience and now is the time to bring a new medium to this standard.
When users are in chat rooms each one will be given a unique audio channel and a space in the virtual chat room. When in chat rooms if User A is on the left of User B, User B will hear User A out of their left ear. By utilizing this simple mechanic we are able to accomplish much more.
THE SECTIONS
Proxi’s chat rooms are set up in three different sections. The first section is the largest, called Communities. Similar to individual servers from other chat clients, Communities can be made by any user, that user becomes the admin and can set up the Community how they wish.
The next section exists within the Community and they are called Spaces. Each of these Spaces can be customized using different plugins within Proxi, such as seating charts, streaming services, screen sharing, game streaming. The Spaces can also be set up using both company and community generated templates that suit a variety of needs.
The last section exists within the Spaces and they are called Groups. Admins and similar roles can group users based on individual wants and needs. From a class of students that all collectively need to mute their microphones, or an audience for a streamer that wants to Q&A their fans, or gamers with large raiding parties that need to split up into smaller factions to communicate. Once separated into groups admins can control the overall volume of the different groups.
THE ROLES
When a Proxi Community is created, the creator becomes the admin, all other users added by the admin are set as basic users, but don’t think that is all the roles there are. Admins can create and assign unique roles to different members of the community, customize how much each role can control in the Communities, Spaces, and Groups, and give them custom names for better organization.
