TeamworkPM’s Engine Room

Important Note : it looks like a few people are having problems logging in for the first time.  Don't worry if you're one of them, simply restart your iPad and you should be fine ( also - you don't need to do the restart unless you actually encounter the problem!).  Apologies for any inconvenience.  Now continue on and enjoy the rest of the blog post!

The rumours were true folks, TeamworkPM now has a dedicated home on your iPad. Download TeamworkPM HD and as soon as you log in you'll notice the distinctive yet familiar look and feel.  We've taken the standard floating panels that you're used to from apps like Facebook and Twitter but we've pushed them further.

The panels smoothly sweep across your iPad's screen.  They can be pushed, pulled and thrown away as if they were physical, touchable things.  They're the perfect size so there’s never too much information.  You don't get swamped in detail, but you can get to the detail fast.  And when you're finished just throw it away to get back to where you started.  

Turn your iPad over into landscape and all of the panels move subtly to make better use of the extra space.  Back to portrait and they all huddle up again, but with the more important panels getting a little bit extra room.

That navy screen you see when you start the app is the TeamworkPM Dashboard.  Just like the dashboard when you're working in your browser, it pulls information ( tasks, messages etc) from all of your active projects.  It's kind of like the launch pad for everything you do in TeamworkPM.  To get you started each morning, the Dashboard automatically shows you a panel detailing all of the tasks that you're due to work on that day.

From there you can move anywhere.  Tap on pretty much anything and a new panel slides in with extra details.  As you focus on this new information, all of the other panels darken out a little.  Throw the panel to the left and it'll try to move over to give you extra room.  Move the panel back right and it'll go to it's original position.  Throw it off to the right with a bit more speed and the panel will simply disappear altogether - not needed anymore.

You can do all of this across any number of TeamworkPM accounts from the one app. Up on the top right hand corner of the Dashboard are your account details. Tap on them and you can instantly switch to a different account, or add a new one.

The main idea behind TeamworkPM on iPad is movement and flow.  Making your Workflow easier makes your Work easier.  But movement is hard to describe in words so take a look at this quick video (or even better go download the app and try it for yourself!)

 
The History Tour starts here or Why has it taken this long?

Let's take a quick spin back through history to explain how the iPad App came to be.
People use TeamworkPM to plan everything from earthquake relief programs right down to the weekend camping trip.  As you can imagine the subsequent range of devices used to access TeamworkPM is huge.  

We're using the iPad app first off to nail everything down, and once we're happy we can start to bring it other platforms - but with the tweaks needed to make it feel more at home of each device.
The obvious advantage of all of this extra effort : new features will appear across all of the devices at the same time.

Read more about the features.

Important Note : it looks like a few people are having problems logging in for the first time.  Don't worry if you're one of them, simply restart your iPad and you should be fine.  Apologies for any inconvenience.  Now continue on and enjoy the rest of the blog post!

The Future

We're releasing Version 1.0 of the iPad app today.  This first version probably doesn't have everything that you need, but it should make working on the iPad more enjoyable. For the bits that are missing a tap of a button brings you to the optimised website.  

However, we're moving fast to fill the gaps.  Even as you download version 1 today, we've already submitted version 1.1 to Apple for review.  That update has a new Events Panel to help keep you on top of your schedule.  

But there's no resting there, after that we'll be adding in Search and Timers with full featured filtering following along (that'll be perfect for managers - the ability to customise the information that you see across all of the projects under your control)

As we said in the introduction, we wanted to get it into your hands as early as possible so that you can help guide its growth and evolution.  We have strong plans for where it should go, but as always we're heavily influenced by your needs.  

If you like what you see then let us know so that we can see the parts that are working right.  If you have an idea then let us know that too - maybe we'll be able to make it happen, or if not, maybe it'll spark off something else.  But most of all enjoy the using our new iPad app - TeamworkPM HD.

Important Note : it looks like a few people are having problems logging in for the first time.  Don't worry if you're one of them, simply restart your iPad and you should be fine.  Apologies for any inconvenience.  Now continue on and enjoy the rest of the blog post!

The Project Panel

A good way to introduce the new iPad app without getting too distracted is to focus on a single panel.  Once you see how one works, you'll be comfortable with all of them.
An obvious candidate is the Project Panel.  It's the hub of getting things done for a given topic so it's likely that you'll spend a good chunk of time here. ( Don't worry Managers, we have new panels planned which will help you to stay on top and in control of multiple projects simultaneously.)

Unlike all of the other panels, this panel is wide.  It takes up the full screen and serves as a background to all your work on a project.  The aim was to make it feel like you've entered a project.  So no matter how many sub panels you drill down through, there’s  enough space to see the project logo in the top left - so you'll always know what you're working on at a glance.

On the left of the Project Panel, you have a standard list of all of the usual project sections - Tasks, Milestones, Messages etc.  If you use either the iPhone or the Android app you'll be pretty familiar with this layout.  

 Tapping on a section will slide in a sub panel from the right.  As you bring in more and more sub panels, they'll re-arrange themselves automatically to give you the best view given the amount of space available.  You can drag, or throw, a panel off to the right to get rid of it - but it doesn't have to be the top panel, you can drag any one and get rid of multiple sub panels with a single gesture.

If you're in portrait mode the activity section takes up most of the screen.  This is where you can keep in touch with everything that's happening on the project.  Just like Latest Activity in the Web App, you'll see all of the tasks, messages, milestones, comments, files and notebooks as they’ve been added or edited over the last while.  If you want to find out more about a particular activity, simply tap on it and a new panel will slide in with the extra details.

When you rotate the iPad into landscape mode, instead of simply expanding out the activity column, you get some statistics about the Project.  The top green progress bar represents every task in the project - irrespective of who it's assigned to or when it was completed.  If it's a long running project it can be fun to know just how many hundreds or thousands of tasks your group has gotten through!  

The next section breaks down all of those tasks that have either a Start or a Due Date. You can instantly see the proportion of tasks that are due today or, hopefully not, have run late.  Tap on any of the donut graphs and a very handy panel slides in listing just those appropriate tasks.  So it's your one stop shop for everything that needs to be done straight away, or should have been finished before now!

When you're finished with those tasks, throw away the panel and you're back to the Project and the final section - the people section.  Here is the avatar of every person working on the project.  If you haven't uploaded a photo of yourself yet then now you have some incentive, as every time you open a project you'll see the community of people pulling together to get it over the line.

Syncing

Unlike the iPhone or Android apps, you don’t have to remember to sync with the server. Every time you slide in a new panel it instantly checks to see if there’s any new information ready to download.  It’s pretty much transparent so mostly you won’t even notice it happening.  But for those of you who still have the habit : pull to refresh is there for when you feel the need.

That's it.  We have a cunning plan to make this panel even more useful, but we'd love to hear what you think.  What would you like to see here?  Be as mad with the ideas as you like - they may not make it in, but they might inspire something that does!

Read more about what we have planned for the future of the app.

We've got a really nice update to the iOS app this month, we have added a few really nice new features to the App.

Search

First up, and the most obvious: full Search available right from the main screen.  Type in anything you waant and it will go search the server for the latest most up-to-date information possible. Tap on one of the results and if it's something that's not already on the phone the details will be instantly downloaded automatically for you - so no stale information here.  

The list of search results has been designed for quickly skimming through, however if you need more detail then tap the 'Expand' button and it will give you that extra bit of context. Hit it again to go back to the simple display.  And finally, to help you get around, start scrolling and a large index bar will fade in allowing you to jump straight to the section that you're most interested in.

Notebooks

The Project screen sports three new sections, one of which is Notebooks.  As you'd expect, this new Notebook section gives you the ability to read all of your Notebooks directly within the app.  So no more having to go out to Mobile safari and zooming around to fit the notebook to the display - the display fits the notebook. Exactly.

Files

Just like Notebook, the Files section gives you full access to all of the files available in your Project. Plus, as you can see from the screenshot, you can easily send the file to your favourite App.  So if you like reading PDF's in iBook or presentations in Keynote, no problem

Contacts

Finally, Contacts.  A full listing of everyone associated with the project, this screen has a couple of nice touches.  Each detail of the person's information can be used - so, for example, tapping on a Skype address gives you the option of starting a Skype call, a chat or simply copying the account name.  Same goes for GTalk, Email and, of course, Phone Numbers.

We hope you like it and as usual, let us know what you think!

Download the app from the App store today.

One of the most requested features, for the iPhone app, was to have some way to track and log time.  And to be fair, the phone is a perfect device for this kind of thing.  Whether you're in a meeting with a client or working at your desk, the chances are that you'll have your phone near by.  As I write this post, in a café in Blarney, the phone is serving me some Hotspot goodness while displaying a full screen TeamworkPM timer - reminding me to stay on the straight and narrow.  Time is money after all.

So what have we done?  Well, as you'd expect you can quickly start a timer from any task or project. (Sorry Martin not from a Milestone!).  When you do, a big, easy to read, timer is displayed. Stick the phone in the dock and the screen won't dim.  So while you work, a single glance towards the phone will remind you what you're working on, and how long you've been doing it.

But you don't have to stay on the big timer screen. You can continue moving around the iPhone app as normal.  To remind you that you're working on something a small timer will appear at the bottom of both the Task List and the Dashboard.  Clicking on the small timer brings you straight into the full screen timer.

Now, when it comes to tracking time it seems people fall into one of two camps: some like to set out what they are going to do at the start, while others prefer to wait until the end when they say what they've been working on. You can work either with TeamworkPM.  For example, if a call comes in and you want to know how much time it sucks up - just hit the project timer and press play.  You don't have type anything until after the call. But if you want to set out what you're going to do, tap the edit button, enter a description and hit continue instead of upload.  That way you can work away and have the timer remind you what you're working on.

As with the previous post, seeing this stuff is better than reading it.  So I've recorded another screen cast.  When you're watching it, just try to imagine that your finger is the little arrow moving around :)

That's it.  Version 1.5 of the TeamworkPM iPhone app should start showing up in the App Store at some stage today, so keep an eye out for it and as usual, let us know what you think!

      Mike.

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?]