Design Board (Paid Add-on)

Written By Timothy Murenzi

Last updated 9 days ago

Design Board is a visual review surface inside Comms — pan/zoom on a canvas, pin comments to exact spots, [at] mention with context. Built for plan reviews, and any conversation that needs to point at a specific place.

What it costs

Design Board is a paid Marketplace add-on.

  • 14-day free trial on the card on file

  • After the trial, billed monthly to your connected payment method

  • No card on file? Workroom prompts you to add one via Stripe Checkout before activation

Activate from App Marketplace → Design Board → Start trial.

Opening a Design Board

Once the add-on is active:

  1. Open any project channel in Comms

  2. Click the Design Board tab at the top of the channel

  3. Drag-drop or paste an image onto the canvas — moodboard tile, plan PDF, rendering, anything

Each project channel gets one Design Board. It's separate from regular chat — messages don't bleed across.

Working with the canvas

Pan/zoom:

  • Drag the canvas to pan

  • Mouse wheel / pinch to zoom

  • Spacebar + drag for precise pan

Add a pin (comment anchored to a spot):

  1. Double-click anywhere on the canvas

  2. A pin lands at that point

  3. Type your comment in the popover

  4. @mention someone if you need them to respond

The side panel opens when a pin is selected:

  • Info tab — pin coordinates, who created it, timestamps

  • Product tab — link a product from your catalog to this pin (useful for "this is the sofa I'm specifying")

  • Comments tab — threaded reply chain under the pin

Adding products from the board

Click a pin → Product tab → + Add Product → pick from catalog. The product appears anchored to the pin. Now you can:

  • @mention the client to ask for approval

  • Build out a multi-product moodboard with cross-references

  • Create Invoice from Board — action menu at the top of the board → pulls every linked product into a new invoice

@mention with context

Type @ in any pin comment to ping a teammate or client. The notification they receive includes:

  • The board screenshot (the area around the pin)

  • The pin's comment text

  • A deep link straight to the pin

So they land on the right pin without having to hunt for it.

Who can see the Design Board

The Design Board is a channel feature — anyone in the project channel can see and contribute to the board. Excluded clients are walled off the same way they are for the rest of the channel.

You can also invite specific people to a single pin's thread without giving them broader channel access (advanced — see your account rep).

Good to know

  • One board per channel. Channels and boards are 1:1.

  • No size cap during trial. You can pile in as many images as you want; performance stays smooth thanks to lazy-loading.

  • Boards autosave. Every drag, every pin, every comment lands instantly.

  • Boards live as long as the channel. Delete the channel and the board goes with it.

  • Read-only mode. Clients can view + comment but can't move underlying images or delete pins they didn't create.

Troubleshooting

"The Design Board tab isn't appearing." The add-on isn't active on this account. Check Settings → Apps → Design Board. If it's there but showing "Trial expired", reactivate from the Marketplace.

"I uploaded an image but it won't appear." Refresh the board. Very large files (>50MB) can take a moment to process. Re-upload at a smaller resolution if it still doesn't show after a minute.

"My client clicked @mention notification but landed on the channel, not the pin." Their browser may be blocking the deep-link redirect. Have them open the notification email link directly instead of from inside the in-app notification panel.

"Create Invoice from Board pulled in too many products." The action grabs every linked product on the board. To scope it, archive pins you don't want included before clicking the action.