Video Communication Web App
Volley
Volley is a video messaging program that allows teams to communicate and collaborate spontaneously together.
web
web
mobile
mobile
desktop
desktop
embedded
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/628fcc1631ad0b25b32f223e/62c5df9570a69b79c6d2c519_volley-feature-image-2_fe25e19ecd3ccb2d1839c16b8e269f2a-min.png)
Fewer meetings. Faster work. Deeper connections.
Volley is an app for asynchronous communication that allows users to send each other short videos, called “Volleys.” It aims to facilitate team communication faster than Slack or email with fewer interruptions than a meeting. In addition to video, users can send text and photos.
Volley piloted their iOS mobile app amid Covid-19, as a way to help teams meet less and get more done.
Before Volley, team collaboration consisted of drawn-out, in-person meetings and long, context-less emails. The Volley mobile app allowed users to create virtual teams and record short, threaded video messages using their phones.
Recognizing that the future of work is flexible and distributed, Volley tasked Atomic with creating the Volley desktop app. The desktop app allows Volley users to communicate cross-platform.
The mobile app speaks to Volley's idea of the spontaneous work style of the future. But the desktop app enables a workflow that aligns with the current state of work— users who are already sitting at their desks but want to get more done.
When brought together, the desktop app and mobile app allow teams to work wherever, while getting the benefits of face-to-face conversations without the challenges of traditional meetings.
Josh Little, Volley CEO
Coordinating Stakeholders
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/628d552469d2a1b0c6b730a9/63625c0796c6527710c14ea9_Recycle.png)
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/628d552469d2a1b0c6b730a9/63625c054b004d70d1c2c567_Groups.png)
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/628d552469d2a1b0c6b730a9/63625c028a367e8a4bebfcc0_Computer.png)
Volley In Action
We used the Volley app to conduct this case study interview. Check out what Volley CEO, Josh Little, had to say about his experience with Atomic.
Technical Specs
Atomic designed the system architecture and wrote software and firmware for:
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/628d552469d2a1b0c6b730a9/6362571bbe17203b58c6ab7b_network.png)
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/628d552469d2a1b0c6b730a9/63625882a89d6c4d89f0e07f_gateway.png)
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/628d552469d2a1b0c6b730a9/636258867bb31f12ea922948_web-app.png)
Kaitlin Diemer, Atomic Object Delivery Lead
Phase 2: Developing a Full-feature Workshop Experience
We used the Volley app to conduct this case study interview. Check out what Volley CEO, Josh Little, had to say about his experience with Atomic.
With the Learning Map developed into a digital product, Root wanted to further help users dive into their organization’s strategy, financials, or processes with a second release. Among other features, they sought to create a kind of a virtual whiteboard, where everyone’s voice could be heard in a fun, engaging, and meaningful way.
Atomic’s Software Design Practice Lead in Ann Arbor, Bryan Elkus, led design work on the project. He saw the user experience of going through the Learning Map activities as a type of collaborative online challenge.
Under the guidance of Atomic's Software Consultant & Designer Bryan Elkus, the project emphasized collaborative user experiences, akin to an online group challenge, focusing on:
- Consultants facilitating onboarding, ice-breakers, and exercises.
- Client company employees engaging in organizational change.
Atomic Object Software Consultant & Developer Matt Soto his development work focused on delivering Root’s vision of polish, complex features, and emphasizing a business model around the digital product.
Root's VP, Nate Butki says Atomic’s consultative approach helped the project team uncover and address underlying needs rather than merely executing requests.
“Atomic didn’t want to just figure out what we wanted and give it to us—but rather figured out the need and helped us with it,” he said. “If they had listened to us and spit out exactly what we asked for, they would have only gotten 80 percent of it. Atomic’s team asked the questions and pushed us further.”
Technical Specs
Atomic designed the system architecture and wrote software and firmware for:
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/628d552469d2a1b0c6b730a9/6362571bbe17203b58c6ab7b_network.png)
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/628d552469d2a1b0c6b730a9/63625882a89d6c4d89f0e07f_gateway.png)
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/628d552469d2a1b0c6b730a9/636258867bb31f12ea922948_web-app.png)
Kaitlin Diemer, Atomic Object Delivery Lead
Phase 2: Developing a Full-feature Workshop Experience
With the Learning Map developed into a digital product, Root wanted to further help users dive into their organization’s strategy, financials, or processes with a second release. Among other features, they sought to create a kind of a virtual whiteboard, where everyone’s voice could be heard in a fun, engaging, and meaningful way.
Atomic’s Software Design Practice Lead in Ann Arbor, Bryan Elkus, led design work on the project. He saw the user experience of going through the Learning Map activities as a type of collaborative online challenge.
Under the guidance of Atomic's Software Consultant & Designer Bryan Elkus, the project emphasized collaborative user experiences, akin to an online group challenge, focusing on:
• Consultants facilitating onboarding, ice-breakers, and exercises.
• Client company employees engaging in organizational change.
Atomic Object Software Consultant & Developer Matt Soto his development work focused on delivering Root’s vision of polish, complex features, and emphasizing a business model around the digital product. Root's VP, Nate Butki says Atomic’s consultative approach helped the project team uncover and address underlying needs rather than merely executing requests.
“Atomic didn’t want to just figure out what we wanted and give it to us—but rather figured out the need and helped us with it,” he said. “If they had listened to us and spit out exactly what we asked for, they would have only gotten 80 percent of it. Atomic’s team asked the questions and pushed us further.”
Nate Butki, Root VP
Taste-testing the Product in the Field
Delivering A Great Product and An Empowered Team
By getting to share their decades’ experience with agile practices, Atomic’s team got to watch the counterparts at Root develop new skills over the course of the second engagement.
Soto says he loved watching Root’s inherently collaborative culture adopt the agible practices they were learning.
“After a few months, they loved how easy and smooth it was to make last-minute changes, to pivot in another direction, and use feedback to spend their time where it was most impactful,” he said.
Root’s Jared Page says the agile approach to product design, development, and management he saw during the engagement had a profound impact.
“One of my favorite things about this project is that everyone got better—better at our jobs and better with communication; it just feels cool,” he said. “Sometimes you work for a year and don’t know if you’ve improved but everyone could look back on this project and say they’ve improved. This project changed the way I will work forever.”
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/628fcc1631ad0b25b32f223e/63458ea233bd9ae29288e563_volley-results-2-optim.png)
Results
- Volley works seamlessly across mobile and desktop platforms.
- 500 teams and a few thousand users are currently on Volley, split between desktop and mobile.
- Positive feedback from stakeholders on the initial release of the desktop app.
Coordinating Stakeholders
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/628d552469d2a1b0c6b730a9/63625c0796c6527710c14ea9_Recycle.png)
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/628d552469d2a1b0c6b730a9/63625c054b004d70d1c2c567_Groups.png)
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/628d552469d2a1b0c6b730a9/63625c028a367e8a4bebfcc0_Computer.png)
A Partnership with a Storybook Ending
We used the Volley app to conduct this case study interview. Check out what Volley CEO, Josh Little, had to say about his experience with Atomic.
The team’s careful project management, client communication, cutting-edge architecture, and cohesive design strategy helped the team ship the product on time and on budget.
Reflecting back on the multi-year, high-profile project, Robinson said Atomic helped his company arrive at a special moment in time.
“We'd never done anything this big. Ever,” he said. “We’re live across all the major pillars Atomic said they would deliver on. It was delivered on time, on budget, to expectation, live. Not three or four milestones late with people leaving and the platform half-baked and full of bugs.”
StoryLoom began open-beta in December 2022. A global launch is scheduled for the spring of 2023.
“We’ve been given a rare opportunity," said Robinson, "to find success by chasing opportunities Starship Enterprise-style: going where people aren’t—pushing boundaries.”
Kaitlin Diemer, Atomic Object Delivery Lead
Atomic provided front-end web app development for Volley using TypeScript, React, Apollo/GraphQL, and Electron. The front-end web app is attached to Volley’s existing back-end. The Atomic team created an automated build and deployment pipeline so that new Volley builds could be deployed to their users quickly, prompting the users to reload their apps.