Meeting Bridges: Designing Information Artifacts that Bridge from Synchronous Meetings to Asynchronous Collaboration

Editorial verdict

Methodologically sound academic study. The mixed-methods approach (interviews, survey, co-design) provides credible grounding for the 'meeting bridges' concept, though the findings are exploratory and design-prescriptive rather than evaluative — treat as a design framework proposal, not validated evidence.

Executive summary

This paper addresses the growing problem of 'Zoom fatigue' and 'collaboration overload' experienced by remote and hybrid workers, arguing that over-reliance on synchronous meetings negatively impacts productivity and well-being. The authors propose a design concept called 'meeting bridges' — information artifacts specifically designed to encapsulate meeting content in ways that facilitate post-meeting asynchronous collaboration and sensemaking. Drawing on a mixed-methods research design comprising 13 semi-structured interviews, a survey of 198 information workers, and 16 co-design sessions, the study identifies five primary uses of post-meeting information: as an archive, as task reminders, for onboarding and inclusion support, for group sensemaking, and as a launching point for follow-on collaboration. The research further finds that existing meeting artifacts — notably notes and recordings — are insufficient for serving these purposes effectively. From the co-design sessions, the authors distill key design principles for creating more effective meeting bridges. The paper concludes that information artifacts capable of enabling continued transformation and engagement with meeting content represent a significant design opportunity for supporting asynchronous work.