GitSpace - Ambient Visualiation for GIT

Developers across the world use a version control system called Git for collaboration on software projects. Git keeps track of all changes in the project, and who made them, making the development process flow smoothly. Git is for the uninitiated a difficult software to use and understand. It is completely text based and includes an array of new terminology. This leaves non-engineers completely out of the loop when it comes to project progress.

However, while Git is a great tool for software engineers, most companies will include non-engineer employees. We believe that it is highly beneficial for all of the employees to have an intuitive picture of the product they are delivering.

That's where our solution Gitspace comes in. Gitspace is a tool for visualizing Git-projects and their code in a way that's both efficient and enticing for everyone involved within the company - not just the developers! Gitspace visualizes any Git-project as a neat looking star constellation, where folders are represented as stars.

Photo by Mario Romero CC BY

Gitspace really shines in the meeting room. A manager leading the meeting, can use Gitspace as a powerful tool for showcasing progress, even on an individual level.

New employees can get a lot out of Gitspace. As the star color is mapped to programming languages, a quick gaze of the different projects will give you a broad and complete overview of what technologies are used within the company.

All this is made possible through a mobile app. The app includes controls for displaying more information to be shown on the screen.

Gitspace has controls for identifying what folders have been modified during a time interval. This is great when you need a quick recap or on boarding. The bigger the star, the more recent the latest activity in that directory was. For example, if a bug was introduced sometime in the past 3 hours, you can show only the activity for those hours, which might narrow down the possible sources of the bug.

Photo by Mario Romero CC BY

Gitspace allows for a visually appealing ambient view, showing nothing but the stars and their connections. In this view, potentially sensitive information is hidden: folder names, names of developers, and file types. This ambient view would be perfect in the lobby. The visualization is a live view of the repository, so any new changes will show up in real time as a powerful lightning strike.

To see how the team has worked during some period of time, for example a 3-week sprint, it is possible to rewind the repository view and play it back. In this way, the habits of the team become visible. Perhaps the work tempo is very slow at the beginning of the sprint, turning hectic towards the deadline. Gitspace exposes planning problems like this, allowing them to be mitigated.

Photo by Mario Romero CC BY

In conclusion, GitSpace provides an ambient and visually appealing visualization that bridges the gap between developers and management while at the same time offering more in-depth information on demand.