A Zedu workspace you can walk around
Zedu Tower turns a chat workspace into an office building. Teams are floors, channels are rooms, and people are where their presence says they are. This page explains what you're looking at, what everything means, and how to test it.
What this is
A clickable prototype, built to test whether a spatial view makes it easier to see who's around, reach the right person and join conversations without hunting through a sidebar. It runs entirely in the browser on sample data: 42 people across 10 floors. Nothing is connected to Zedu yet.
You always look through one person's eyes: Avi, on F5 Engineering. Everyone sees the same building, but your view shows only your own conversations, private rooms you're not in stay frosted, and people who keep their details private show presence only. The camera, notifications and inbox are yours alone.
Works on computers and tablets. Phones get a "needs a bigger screen" message; chat on a phone stays in the regular Zedu app.
Not sure what something is? Hover over it. Every floor, room and person has a hint card that says what it is in Zedu terms.
How Zedu maps to the building
| In Zedu | In the tower |
|---|---|
| Workspace | The whole tower (Nexprove). |
| Team or group | A team floor. F5 is Engineering, F3 is Sales & Growth, and so on. Members have their desks there. |
| Public channel | A room on that floor: a team space (open-plan desks), a meeting room, a lounge. Its #channel shows on hover and in the floor plan. |
| Private channel | A room with a lock. If you're a member it looks normal; if not, it's frosted and you only see that it's in use. |
| Direct messages | The other person's office. Your office is where your DMs land. |
| Member | A person. Where they are is their presence: at their desk, in a meeting, in the cafeteria, in the lift. |
| Call or huddle | One conversation: people are either on the phone where they are, or with you in person after you invite them over or walk over. |
| Meeting or call | A meeting room fills up. Joining by audio keeps you at your desk with a headset on; walking in takes the lift. |
| Shared floors | Conference, Cafeteria & Play, Lobby and Basement belong to everyone, not to one team. |
| Facilities | WCs, kitchens, print rooms, storage. Part of the building, not channels. |
The floors
| Floor | What's there | Style |
|---|---|---|
| F8 Leadership | Three exec offices, a private Boardroom (#leadership, you're not a member), Strategy room (private, you're a member), Exec lounge, Exec office. | Walnut |
| F7 Conference | The Conference hall: stage, 180 seats, standing room. Foyer, two breakout rooms, phone booths, coffee point. | Navy carpet |
| F6 Product & Design | Two offices, Sprint room, Crit room, Design studio, Product desks, Ideas lounge. | Light oak |
| F5 Engineering | Your office, Kemi's and Dayo's offices, Standup and Review rooms, phone booths, Eng bay (40 desks in 4-seat pods), Mobile pod, kitchen. | Concrete |
| F4 Data & Platform | Two offices, War room (#incidents, private, member), Data lab, Platform bay, Data desks, Quiet zone, print room. | Terrazzo |
| F3 Sales & Growth | Two offices, Deal room, Pitch room, call booths, Sales floor, Growth pod, Client lounge. | Sage oak |
| F2 Support & Ops | Two offices, Huddle room, Training room, phone booths, Support desk, Ops pod, kitchen. | Teal carpet |
| F1 Cafeteria & Play | Cafeteria (#random), Game room, Music room, Chill lounge, Terrace. | Warm terrazzo |
| Lobby | Reception (#general), Waiting lounge, Mailroom, Atrium, Coffee bar. | Stone |
| B1 Basement | Server room, Archive, Storage, Gym, Bike store. | Dark concrete |
Two views
Tower
A side cutaway of the whole building. Good for "who's around and where". Drag to pan, scroll to zoom, click a room or person to fly there. Each floor shows all its rooms in one strip, so rooms from the window row and the inner row sit side by side. People in the corridor appear slightly faded.
Floor plan
One floor from above: walls, doors, windows, desks in 4-seat pods, meeting tables, booths, lifts and stairs. Good for "who's in that meeting" and "who's sitting with whom". Open it with P, the Tower / Floor plan switch, or by clicking a floor in the left rail twice. Both views run the same simulation.
Focusing on someone
Click a person and the camera zooms in and follows them. Their room becomes a sharp window and everything else is dimmed and slightly blurred, so you only look at what matters. The window moves with them as they walk, ride the lift and change floors, in both views. Click a room to put the window on that room instead. A green "Following" chip shows what they're doing; press Stop or drag the view to stop following, and Esc to clear the focus.
Statuses and privacy
| Presence | What you see | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Active | At their desk or moving around. | Answers calls and messages. |
| Away | In the cafeteria, game room or music room. | Messages reach them there; they reply later. |
| Do not disturb | Office blinds down; red door in the floor plan. | Calls are declined automatically, messages wait quietly. For you, notifications are held. |
| Offsite | Not in the building; their desk shows "Offsite". | Reachable by call or message, e.g. "Working from home today". |
| Offline | Empty desk with an "Offline" sign. | Messages are left as a note on the desk, e.g. "Asleep · it's 2:40am in Toronto". |
On top of presence, each person has a live activity, shown on hover, in their details and in the People tab: "On a call with Musa Garba", "In Weekly sync", "In the lift to F1", "Playing ping pong", "Heading to the Kitchen". Calls and meetings are links, so you can jump to the person they're talking to or the room they're in.
Privacy: people can choose to share presence only. Bisi (COO) does in the sample data: everyone else sees "Busy" and "Location hidden", but can still message or call her.
Actions
| Action | What happens |
|---|---|
| Send message | Delivered instantly. Your courier bot then carries it to wherever they are, so you can see where it went and when it was read. Turn couriers off with the Couriers button. |
| Call | You both pick up phones and a line links you. Nobody moves. If they're already on a call, you're told who with. |
| Add to call | While you're talking to someone, call more people. They join the same conversation by phone and stay where they are. |
| Invite over | They come to you. You get up from your desk and everyone stands together. Invite as many people as you like. If you're on the phone with them, they hang up and walk over: the call becomes a chat in person. |
| Walk over | You go to them, take the lift if needed, and stand right next to them until you end the conversation. |
| Join a meeting | From the meeting card or the room: Join by audio (stay at your desk) or Walk in (take a seat). |
| Follow | The camera keeps that person in view as they move. Clicking someone does this automatically. |
One conversation at a time
Calls and get-togethers are the same thing: a conversation. Everyone in it is either on the phone (where they are) or with you in person. The chip at the top lists who's with you and who's on the phone, with one End button. Ending it hangs up the phones and walks everyone, you included, back to their desks. Remove one person from their details panel.
Special rooms
Seats around the table. When it's full, latecomers stand behind the people sitting down.
For all-hands. The speaker goes on stage, the front rows fill first, and overflow stands at the back.
Someone is on the decks (Seun, in the sample). Click the room to see what's playing and who's listening, then Listen in from your desk or go there. Real audio comes later.
Ping pong, arcade, foosball and FIFA on the big screen. Click the room to see who's playing what. "Open games" links to the games page in a new tab. The games themselves live on other platforms and aren't part of this prototype; this link will point there.
How notifications work
- Messages are instant. The courier is decoration you can turn off. Nothing waits for an animation.
- Only things that need you pop up: a message to you, an incoming call, a meeting starting. At most three cards, top right, each with its own buttons: Reply inline, Answer or Decline, Join by audio or Walk in.
- Everything else goes quietly to "Building activity" in the Inbox: calls ending, notes left on desks, colleagues starting calls, people declining.
- Do not disturb holds everything. Calls are declined and logged as missed. A counter sits in the top bar, and you get one summary when you switch back to Active.
- Off-screen people get an edge marker. If someone with unread messages, or someone you're on a call with, is out of view, a marker on the screen edge points to them. Click it to fly there.
Test scenarios
Open Tests in the top bar. Each scenario scripts a situation, plays it out in front of you and ticks off checks. Use 4× speed, or Run all (21 scenarios, about five minutes at 4×).
| Scenario | What it proves |
|---|---|
| Message a teammate at their desk | The courier takes the lift to Tolu on F6; read; the reply arrives as one card. |
| Message someone who stepped out | Zainab is away; the courier skips her empty office and finds her in the cafeteria. |
| Message someone offline | A note is left on Ngozi's desk; delivered but not read; no pop-up for you. |
| Call instead of walking | Kemi answers; both hold phones; her status reads "On a call with you"; you never move. |
| Call someone on Do not disturb | Dayo's call is declined automatically, with the reason. |
| Incoming call | Femi calls; a ringing card appears; answering from the card connects. |
| Do not disturb holds notifications | A message and a call arrive while you focus; nothing pops up; one summary when you're back. |
| Join a meeting by audio | Four people walk into the Sprint room; you join from the card; their status says "In Weekly sync"; the floor plan shows them seated; you stay at your desk. |
| Walk to a meeting | You take the lift to F2 and sit down in the Huddle room. |
| Packed meeting room | Eleven people, eight seats: three stand behind. |
| All-hands in the conference hall | 26 people take the lifts to F7; Bisi goes on stage; front rows fill first. |
| Call several people | Kemi, Uche and Chidi join one call from three floors; nobody moves; ending hangs up everyone. |
| Turn a call into a chat in person | On the phone with Femi, Invite over: he hangs up and comes to your office, you get up to meet him, and it stays one conversation. |
| Invite several people over | Kemi and Joy come and stand with you; Dayo declines (Do not disturb); then Uche joins the same conversation by phone. |
| Click to focus | Clicking Kemi zooms in, follows her and shows the focus window; the window moves with her to the kitchen; clearing the selection removes it. |
| People use doors, not walls | Samples ~150 positions of a walk between floors and fails if any step goes through a wall. |
| Follow a person | The camera stays on Joy across floors, in the tower and in the floor plan. |
| Private status | Bisi shows presence only; Kemi shares activity and location. |
| Hover hints | Hovering a team space, a meeting room, a floor and a person explains what each one is. |
| Walk over | You walk to Chidi on F3, end up right next to him and stay until you end the conversation. |
| Incoming message | Amaka's card appears instantly; her courier follows; unread shows in the inbox. |
Shortcuts
| / | Find a person, room or #channel |
| P / T | Floor plan / tower view |
| ↑ ↓ | Floor above / below |
| F | Fly to yourself |
| Double-click a person | Follow them |
| Esc | Stop following, back to tower, or clear the selection |
What's real, what's mocked
Everything is sample data: 42 people, 10 floors, canned replies, a scripted DJ and a scripted game room. The clock runs about 12 times faster than real time so walks and meetings don't take minutes. Colleagues wander to kitchens, the cafeteria and the game room, and call each other now and then, so the building feels lived in. There's no login, no backend and no Zedu connection. Each visitor's browser runs its own copy, so two people testing at once won't see each other.
It's built to stay light: flat SVG and CSS, no 3D, no images, and only the floor you're looking at is drawn in plan view.
What changed
v5
- Click to focus: the camera zooms in and follows the person, and a sharp window on their room dims and blurs everything else.
- Calls and huddles are one conversation. Add people by phone, invite several over, or walk over; a call turns into a chat in person when you invite them over.
- When people come over, you get up and stand with them; when you walk over, you stay next to them.
- Link previews: title, description and a share image for Slack, WhatsApp, X and LinkedIn.
v4
- A bigger building: 10 floors, 42 people, open-plan desks in 4-seat pods, smaller private offices, more meeting rooms and phone booths.
- New floors: Conference (hall with stage and 180 seats), Cafeteria & Play (cafeteria, game room, music room), and a gym in the basement.
- Each floor has its own interior style.
- People walk through doors and along the corridor instead of through walls, with a test that checks it.
- Full meeting rooms: latecomers stand behind seated people.
- Follow a person across floors.
- Live activity on every person ("On a call with…", "In Weekly sync", "In the lift to F1"), Offsite status, and privacy for people who share presence only.
- Hover hints on every floor, room and person.
v3
- Floor plan view, notification cards and inbox, Do not disturb, off-screen markers, realistic people without floating icons.
What's next
- Connect to a Zedu workspace: generate floors from groups and rooms from channels.
- Real audio for calls and the music room.
- Calendar-driven meetings that announce themselves.
- Drag yourself onto a room in the floor plan to join it.
- Per-person privacy settings in the app, instead of in sample data.