DIGITAL TOOLS USED IN MY CURRENT WORK

I work as a councelor in a reception center. I work in a very cooperative team, so collaboration tools are important to us. We must communicate efficiently both inside our team, and between teams. For information transfer, we use meetings, but also electronical platforms.

Our client information systems are the primary place for storing and editing client data. There are also several other platforms, i.e. an app to keep track of our workshifts, one to report a danger or a risk situation, and one for live translation.

We also use the common Microsoft collaboration tools, main one being Microsoft Teams. In addition to instant messaging and remote meetings, we use it to keep track of tasks. I have also used the Microsoft To Do to keep track of my own tasks. We also store files in Sharepoint. For sending emails and for an electronic calendar we use Microsoft Outlook.

ASANA

This was my first time getting to know Asana. Initially it reminded me of Microsoft Teams’ Tasks, but upon deeper investigation, it appeared to have more layers and options than Teams.

Asana seems a great tool for management, allowing to set organizational goals, and to break them down to smaller sub-entities. It also provides simple, informative visuals to keep track of team’s advancements, such as how much time a given team member has used to a given task (provided, that this was documented). I’m not so familiar with the specific needs our management might have for a collaboration tool, but I imagine they could benefit from Asana. However, I assume that our organization isn’t yet ready and equipped to utilize all the data, that Asana could gather.

To understand Asana better, I got a free trial of it. Asana seemed mainly to be a platfrom to visualize and organize complex workflows between colleaques. The user can set projects, tasks and sub-tasks and assign them to team members. When utilized correctly, it could replace meetings, emails and chat messages. If the whole team learns Asana’s functionalities, it could be a great tool in simplifying workflows. However, I was wondering, whether we actually would need all the multiple functionalities. Our tasks are usually small enough to be managed by Microsoft Teams. I’m also not sure, if it’d be necessary to document our work to such a detail.

Asana syncs with Outlook and Teams, and it offers some automation options. For example an Outlook email can be converted into a Task in Asana, or the progress of an Asana task can become an automatic Teams message. Also Microsoft’s Power Automate can be connected with Asana. Personally, I have found automatic task-related messages to be somewhat irritating, as they tend to clog my inbox. I am interested in work automation, but it needs to be something that actually simplifies the workflow.

I have had some not-so-successful tries with Microsoft Power Automate, so I was interested in Asana’s automation options. According to ChatGPT (2025) Asana’s built-in automation works mostly for task and project automation within Asana, whereas Microsoft Power Automate is best for cross-app automation for processes within Microsoft 365 apps and third-party apps. It seems that Asana might not make work automation drastically easier. Probably I’ll still need to learn Power Automate, if I’m interested in advancing my automation skills.

My initial reaction to Asana was positive, as I am very interested tools that promise to simplify or automate workflows. Upon further exploration, I begun to doubt whether it’s functionalities would drastically improve our work. I am still curious for Asana’s possibilities, so I will rate it 3/5.

DEEPL

DeepL was a new tool for me, and as I my work revolves a lot around different languages, I was interested in what it could offer. We have good translator apps for spoken language, but written text can sometimes be a challenge. Google Translate doesn’t always work perfectly, especially if the original text isn’t so clear. As I’m always curious to try things in practice, I took the free trial again.

First I gave the app one of my course assignments to translate. It did quite a good job, and translated the document well, although I noticed a couple of small errors. DeepL also provides an image translation extension. I was really impressed, that it actually allowed me to capture (“screenshot”) the part of screen I wanted it to translate. This functionality, if working well, could be really useful in our work. However, it seemed to have some difficulty reading written language, as the translation from images was quite bad.

I also compared DeepL’s text translation to that of Google Translate. The translations were fairly similar, but DeepL seemed to pay a bit more attention to nuances. I also tried the text enhancement tool, which allowed me to choose the style, towards which I wanted to enhance my text (i.e. academic or friendly). I asked ChatGPT to make a similar enhancement to my text. I’m not an expert, but I still felt like the app did a slightly better job. However, language nuances are not a necessary thing in my line of work. Maybe those things matter more in the business or academic world, but not in my work.

The app advertices itself as highly secure, but I was still left wondering, if it would pass all requirements to be used in our workplace to handle sensitive client data. An app, that processes images of sensitive client documents, should adhere to the highest level data security.

While the app can be useful for those aiming for polished language use, I don’t think it would add much value in our specific field of work. The only beneficial addition, the image-to-text translation, seems to still require further development. I would rate DeepL 3/5.

EVERNOTE

I choose evernote, because I find to-do-lists helpful tool at work. Evernote advertises itself as an information bank. It allows to create a to-do list and notes, but also stores documents, images and links. You can also search through your notes (also, with an AI-powered search) or share them.

One curious feature in Evernote is audio note recording and transcription. Basically, you can speak out what you want and the app writes it down. This could come in handy in busy situations at work. Also, Evernote provided an image-to-text function, which actually worked well! It successfully transcribed a handwritten piece of text that I had created using the Paint app. A functioning image-to-text app, combined with an outside translation app (like Google Translate) could make it easier at work to read foreign-language documents. I did not test, whether Evernote also reads cyrillic script, but if it does, even better! Evernote also claims to be able to turn videos and links into text.

Another handy feature is PDF and image editing and PDF conversion. Editing and converting PDF’s can always be a hassle, so it would be helpful, if there was a designated app to use for this.

Evernote is also a collaborative tool, allowing you to create and assign tasks. Evernote integrates with Google Calendar, Google Drive and Outlook email. At work we use Sharepoint for storing information, so in that sense Evernote would not sync well with our existing systems.

As far as note-taking and content storage goes, I feel like the To Do -list and Sharepoint are good enough tools for us at work. However, the AI transcription of videos, images, texts and audio, was impressive. I would rate Evernote 4/5.

MURAL

There have been brainstorming and service design workshops in my organisation, that have been carried out using Miro. Therefore I wanted to familiarize myself with Mural. According to ChatGPT (2025), Mural focuses more on structured collaboration, and is used in design thinking, UX research and innovation teams. However, Miro is a more general-purpose tool, that works well in wide range of uses.

Mural’s basic functionalities reminded me of Miro. Mural also comes with an AI feature, that can automate parts of the brainstorming/service design processes. For instance, when brainstorming with sticky notes, it can help to automatically cluster them by topic. It can also create a concise summary of all ideas. It can even generate new ideas itself.

As much as I know about service design, Mural seems to be a great tool for that. It seems like the advanced version of Miro. We could utilize Mural when we have brainstorming or service design sessions with our team. I rate Mural 4/5.

PI

My last choice was PI, which stands for Personal Intelligence. Within a short amount of time I have become a massive user of generative artificial intelligence. Even while writing this text, ChatGPT assisted me in i.e. polishing my language or calculating the amount of words I have written so far.

The experience with PI was different to many other AI models. The webpage was more visually pleasing, and I was able to choose the AI’s voice. I allowed PI to introduce itself to me. PI was supposedly designed for interesting, informative, engaging and friendly conversations with people. While ChatGPT’s focus may be to provide accurate information, PI’s focus is more to be a friendly AI that can have engaging conversations. (PI 2025).

I also asked PI how it could be helpful in my work. It told me, it could help with translation, give information on cultures and local resources, and by providing emotional support to clients. Apparently it speaks English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, English-based pidgins and creoles. (PI 2025).

My own initial thought was, that PI could be used as an emotionally supportive tool for clients to speak with. But hearing how limited language options it has, ruled out this option. PI seems like a nice, more “humanly” take on AI chatbot, but I don’t think it would add us any value that ChatGPT or Copilot don’t already bring. I would rate it 3/5.

PROS AND CONS OF THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA AND DIGITAL APPLICATIONS

When thinking of social media I often think of Facebook or Instagram. Doing this exercise has widened my idea of what can be considered as social media. Using social media wisely can have a positive impact on a workplace. Facebook, Linkedin or Instagram can be used to advertise a workplace and to get visibility. Of course social media can also be used negatively, and we should always be mindful of what we post there with regards to our work.

As I already mentioned, I am really interested in collaborative and automation tools that aim to make workflows more fluent. But achieving simplier workflows isn’t just about adding a bunch of new apps or platforms. Most of us already use several apps and digital platforms in our daily work. I think it’s more essential to cut out all unnecessary functions (and apps) to simplify processes. I understand that sometimes several different digital platforms are needed. Then, it’s great to have them communicate with each other. Many apps that I listed, communicate with i.e. Microsoft 365 apps, which increases their usability.

Digital tools are as helpful as their users allow them to be. If only a few members of the team uses them, they won’t bring the optimal profit. This is true especially in the case of collaborative tools, such as Asana or Mural. Therefore, if these tools are incorporated as a part of work, it’s important to teach them to the whole team.

SELF-EVALUATION AND REFLECTION

I found this course to be perhaps the most interesting one so far. The assignments were approachable but challenging. I use English daily, but forming sentences and writing long official texts proved to be a challenge. I also had trouble narrowing down my texts, as I felt like there’s a lot to say. I definitely learned a lot during this course.

This course also taught me things about myself. During my studies I have discovered that I have an interest in service design. Looking through the topics of this course was inspiring, and highlighted what kind of work I would like to do in the future.

I have used AI as a source in the following ways:

ChatGPT. (2025, March 10). Personal communication. OpenAI. Questions asked: “how do asana’s automation tools differ from Microsoft power automate?” and “What’s the difference between Mural and Miro?” www.chatgpt.com

PI (2025, March 10). Personal communication. Questions asked: “tell me everything about you”, “how do you differ from ChatGPT?”, “I work in a reception center for immigrants. How could you help in our work?” and “what languages do you speak?”.