TeamworkPM’s Engine Room

As great as it is to release and work on new features it's still really important for us to keep looking for more ways to improve and refine the current features of Teamwork. We are always looking out for ways to improve the user experience and user interface. This month we have rolled out quite a few updates to the UI to make Teamwork easier and more intuitive to use.

Project Category displayed on the project overview

The Category a project is part of not showing anywhere on the actual project overview is something we have heard many times from users through feedback. This month Peter finally got the chance to fix this. The project category is now displayed on the project overview for users who are part of the Owner Company.

Milestone listing and layout updates

This month has also seen a lot of tidying up done to the milestone listings within a project. We have removed the eye hurting bright bar and placed the colour into the milestone date display which lets you know if the milestone is late, upcoming or completed.

The milestone images and text here have also been improved to make them clearer and easier to read. We compacted some wasted space and also introduced more proportioned margins. 

Comment listing and layout updates

We have also given a lick of paint to the comments to make them more pleasing to the eye. You will also notice we have added a very handy hide comment link as well to quickly collapse the comments when they are opened inline from an item such as a task, milestone, file or resource.

The highlight for comments written by you is also subtler and we compacted the Add Comment form until you require it. Any attachments on the comments (and in messages) also got some love and attention.

Task List updates

We standardized the UI for Adding and Editing Task Lists. We had 2 different views when Adding or Editing and we've corrected this. We also added a small but very handy update so Milestones can be created when you are adding a Task List. Now when you create a new task list you have the option to also create a new Milestone directly from the task list creation area instead of having to jump to Milestones, create a milestone and jump back to add the Task List.

The Task Editor

I was going to write a long post describing the new Task Editor.  But I figured a picture, or maybe two and a half thousand brief pictures, would make it all a whole lot easier.  So, I put together some screencasts instead.

 

Screencast 1 : Editing a Task

We'll the start the 'casts by looking at tasks, and in particular, editing. With the new layout, our goal was that after getting to the task screen, you shouldn't be forced to leave task screen.  So you get all of the information that you might need, but when you want to change something you simply do it right there, in place, and not on a separate edit screen.  

We didn't want to have a lot of clutter either.  So when you hit 'Edit', the things that should be edited get bigger and things that shouldn't be edited, disappear.  Just as it should be really.

We followed that up by allowing attributes of the task such as dates, priority and assignment, to be set not just with the normal tap, but also by swiping left or right. Now, a gesture like swipe is one of those things that you're better off seeing rather than reading - so take a look at the screencast to better understand just how quick it is to move the due date on a few days, or assign the task to yourself. Try it a few times and you'll soon find the new gestures becoming second nature. 

 

Screencast 2 : Creating a Task

All of the goodies from the Task Editor screen have been brought over to the Task Creator screen as well. So when you're hit by inspiration and you want to give yourself a task to complete today it becomes as simple as:

1. Enter the title, 
2. Swipe once on "Assigned To" 
3. Swipe once on "Due Date" 
4. … and 4? there is no Step 4! :)

Also in the second screencast you'll notice that the new layout displays any comments attached to the task.  New comments can be added and individuals in the company notified.  Judging by the feedback we've had, this alone is something that will make quite a few of you happy!

 

That's it, hope you like it, and as usual let us know what you think about the changes.

      Mike.

If you've talked to us via the feedback page you'll know that we've been working hard on the latest version of the TeamworkPM iOS app.  You'll also know that we've put blood, sweat, tears and a lot of love into this one.  Prototypes were built and thrown away.  Finer points were argued and sometimes even agreed.  A bucket load of Costa coffee was consumed.  But that doesn't matter any more.  What matters is that TeamworkPM 1.5 is queued up, ready to roll, and will be hitting the App Store in a few days.

 

And we think you'll like it...

 

 

Background

The first releases of the TeamworkPM iOS app focused on giving you the necessities - the basic features you had to have to be able to work with TeamworkPM in a mobile world. But now we want to take the creativity and spark from TeamworkPM on the web and distill it for iOS. That's what we've started to do in 1.5.

 

So what did we work on?  Well, Tasks, Statuses and Timers were our main focus.  But the challenge that we set ourselves was to find a way to add these extra features without adding clutter. We think we've done a pretty good job at meeting those goals and over the course of the next few posts we'll walk you through some of the changes.  So check back regularly and let us know if you agree.

 

       Mike.

 

[this wouldn't be much of a sneak peek without a few teaser screenshots now would it?]

 

Hey All! Thanks for all your great feedback on Twitter (@teamworkpm) and via email, I really appreciate people giving valuable feedback.

So, what have I learned?

• Details matter.
• When tasks are sorted by Due Date, the task is the important bit, the task list is secondary
• When tasks are sorted by Project, the task list is more relevant
• I'm not right all the time ;-)

I have been thinking about this non-stop all night. Peter liked my final version late last night. I liked it late last night but something in the back of my mind wasn't 100% confident that the final direction was the right one. People's feedback indicated that there was more work to be done.

Before I tuck into a massive Easter Feast, I decided to update my work last night taking the feedback into consideration and this is the result:

• If you sort by Project, you now get the view I decided on last night
• If you sort by Date, you get an improved view of version 2 that I threw away last night.

Sort By Project

Sort By Date

You'll also notice that Peter (after we discussed the issue last night) has made a great job of improving the aesthetics of the task listing view. The person responsible is moved to the end now and not BOLD so the tasks are easier to digest and look neater. There is another very good reason for doing this, assigning to multiple people. Once we are finished, you will see "You & 3 more" or "4 people...." and we needed to refactor the listing so we can move in that direction. It will be a thing of beauty!

Once we are 100% happy and the feature is live, we'll do a nice blog post on the main blog on the new changes. This blog (Engine Room) is a great sounding board and is a more personal blog than the formal blog.

Happy Easter Everybody! We like 2 kinds of presents: Easter Eggs and iPad's ;-)

Dan.

For ages and ages I have been meaning to fix up the Everything -> All Active Tasks page. To my surprise, it seems that this page is VERY important to people, it's pretty much the only page Fiona (our graphic designer) uses. I prefer to look at the Dashboard activity and work on my late and upcoming tasks. I might use this page more now ;-)

First, I started by fixing a bug we had. Tasks that were associated with Task Lists which in turn were associated with Milestones showed on the Everything page as no due date!

Second, I wanted to make this page more like a check list of what needs to be done. I always have an A4 Pad next to me when I'm working so as I was sitting back contemplating how I can make it friendly looking, I thought "How about an A4 pad type listing"

Here's what it looked like before I started:

You can see how boring this page is. There was no real distinction between the Projects and the Task lists.

After a few cups of coffee and a quick drive in town to help out a friend, this is what I came up with.

This was getting close and I tweaked the colours a 1000 times. I even contemplated scanning in my A4 pad ;-)

The problem I had with the above is:

1. It was a 3 column layout that cramped the data on small screens
2. It was hard to associate the tasks with the task lists
3. The project and task list name kinda merge together and it's not as user friendly as I wanted.
4. Long project names + Long Task List Names = Messy Screen

It's 23.53pm now and this is where I'm at. I'm getting happy with the layout now.

I like this because:

1. The project stands out even though there is less emphasis on it.
2. The task list is now an integral part of the task display and the indentation clearly makes it apparent that the tasks are part of that list.

That's it for now. All going well, you'll see the updates in the next live version of the software.

Dan.