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Visual Task Management for Individuals and Teams
- ryanbrunner 14y agoIt's certainly "prettier" than Trello, but I'm not sure how functional it would actual be in a real world scenario. There's no functional benefit as far as I can see to putting things in fancy-looking circles, and (I'm imagining) the usability of that interface is severely diminished as you start to get a large number of items in any particular category. A great example of how great UI doesn't necessarily equate to great UX, in my opinion.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- cgislason 14y agoThe circles actually seems to reduce value because there is no intuitive order to each group. In some (many?) use cases for Trello, priority is important. One thing that the circle metaphor does add is nested groups, which I can see being important for a different set of use cases.
- ams6110 14y agoVideo wouldn't load for me, but I gather that priority is indicated by the size of the circle? That said, I tend to agree. Trello works at least in part because it's immediately intuitive to anyone who's ever made a "to-do" list or used cards-on-a-whiteboard to manage a project. The Droplist approach is a cool idea though, and for some things it might be better.
- cgislason 14y agoI played with it a bit and unless I missed something, the size of the circle is only related to how many other circles are inside it.
- william_uk 14y ago> I played with it a bit and unless I missed something, the size of the circle is only related to how many other circles are inside it. This is true - the group (used to categorize task circles) grows to fit the content. We did play with allowing task circles to be resized to show priority/effort, etc, but couldn't get it to work well. We may revisit it, though.
- muyuu 14y agoCan't you order the circles any way you like?
- cgislason 14y agoSort of. You can rearrange the task circles, but they float into a somewhat arranged layout. In practice this means that the order is not immediately obvious.
- cyanbane 14y agoI haven't decided if I agree with you. I was able to convert 2 Trello boards to it in under 10 min (smaller boards). Pretty much the circles equated to the columns the way I was using in Trello (todo, waiting on, in process, done) however I liked the idea that I could break out todo into multiple circles based on the channels the tasks came through. I then was able to color code all the circles for easy visibility. I am not saying I am by any means a convert from Trello at this point, but the fact I could get all this up in a rather quick manner and have a quick visual representation to look at quickly was nice and gives me enough faith to test it out for a week or two. Note: Trello has this color representation also with editable labels, of course. For some reason I dig the circles though.
- dechols 14y agoBingo. The whole point of Trello is to mock up some manual end-to-end process. The natural state of this is columns that consist of "Backlog, TODO, Doing, Done". More advanced versions of this look something like, "Vetting, Grooming, Backlog, TODO, Doing, Done". The circles kind of kill the whole point of a taskboard, IMO.
- bane 14y agoI also usually insert a "Paused" between TODO and Doing in case a "Doing" task stalls out. Rather than putting it back into TODO, I use Paused to indicate that once the issue that's causing it to stall is remedied, it's at the absolute top of the priority queue to get worked on.
- dechols 14y agoYep. I've seen this too, usually as the "Blocked" state at the end of the process. Items that go in the blocked state need a blocked reason.
- lazyjones 14y agoI don't really like curved text, that is just hard to read. While more such project management tools are undoubtedly a good thing, I'd much prefer to have one I can host myself for corporate use (for security/confidentiality/hacking on it).
- dropdownmenu 14y agoBe careful to not get caught up in making something too pretty. It might help get some initial sign ups, but people will leave quickly if the app is not useful.
- brador 14y agoIs their a twitter bootstrap style thing for web apps? Something to make the layout and buttons easier to get just right?
- ryanbrunner 14y agoUm, isn't Twitter Bootstrap a "twitter bootstrap style thing for web apps"?
- fein 14y agoJust one thing: make your modals close on the click action for the actual close button on the modal. Right now, you can dismiss the "edit task" modal by clicking outside of it. This causes you to lose any work done inside said modal via misclick.
- william_uk 14y agoThanks for this. I personally like just clicking off to dismiss the modal, but admittedly if we keep this we need to be a bit cleverer in terms of not just losing the changes.
- vineet 14y agoI like it. It lets me see all the items at a higher level. The best part so far is that I can move groups into one another. Using it quickly makes me want a couple of features: - not needing drag n drop for something (like creating a new task or group - be default putting them in the previous group or top level) - being able to add tasks that are at the intersection of two groups. I imagine this would look something like a venn-diagram. Finally, I am reluctant to support a startup unless I know how you are planning to survive. Is it going to be advertisement? not yet release feature? large teams? Once you do this, I will be more comfortable telling others.
- Ygg2 14y agoFrom FAQ: Is DropTask really free? Yes! In the future we plan to offer paid-for business accounts and premium individual accounts (each with additional features), however the basic version of DropTask will remain free.
- william_uk 14y agoFounder at DropTask here. Thanks for your comments, we'll give them some thought. In terms of how we will survive, as Ygg2 has posted from our FAQ, we plan on charging for premium features and business accounts which will offer team administration/reporting, etc. In the meantime, we are well funded :-)
- mikemoka 14y agoThis looks useful, beside looking prettier because it gives you a quick overview of everything and lets you zoom in/out on the specific activities, it feels more productive, the only thing that is non apparent is how dependent or subsequent tasks may be clearly visualized with this approach in my opinion.
- jbranchaud 14y agoTrello really excels as a smartphone app. It is especially clean and functional in that setting. This approach, while pretty in the browser, probably couldn't function on a smartphone.
- raeldc 14y agoI like everything except the circles and how I had to drag drop before I can create a task. Droptask should also make a card wall layout and make the circles optional. The circles layout is too polarizing an interface to be the "muse".
- adrianhoward 14y agoHave to admit - from the video and a five minute play I find it very hard to imagine using this for anything. The information density is very low. Doesn't seem to allow you to easily order tasks beyond dates. Lousy on phones. I could go on. List aren't boring... there useful. I don't go to my project management software to be entertained - I go there to get shit done ;-) What I want to know when I go to project management software is what everybody is doing now and what needs to be done next and by whom. This interface seems to hinder not help with that.
- calinet6 14y agoThe problem with lists is not boredom, it's importance overload. When you have 1000 items (conservative for our business, in Asana we must have at least that many), the problem is that no matter how many categories or hierarchies you make, there's no way to make sense of the information overload. I call it importance overload because that's what it is: when everything looks the same and feels the same, everything becomes the same importance. And when you have 1000 items of the same importance, nothing is important. This is a design paradigm used on information. I think it works well to describe the problem. There's no list structure that yet exists that solves this problem. Nothing that brings your list of 1000+ things into a manageable analogue of what is actually important for you to see and do at any given time, in any given context. I don't think this is it, but it's getting closer. And "lists" are still not sufficient. We can do better.
- sigkill 14y agoI'm no programmer but I suddenly thought of a possible solution - adaptive sizing. Depending on the importance, the first few words of the task would appear bigger or smaller appropriately. I'm sure this would work great on the desktop but I have no idea how good this can be designed to appear on a mobile phone screen (3.5-4.5inches).
- calinet6 14y agoYes, I'm thinking along those lines. I have a product idea for solving this problem... just no time. :)
- cscru 14y agoIs there an "import from Trello" feature on the cards? If I could do that it would be easier to compare properly. It looks great though, well done.
- davidcristello 14y agoThis looks like a headache to work with. Wasn't a fan and didnt have enough value to try and test out. Will keep on radar but doesnt look promising or a decent replacement to trello
- foresterh 14y agoI think this could be a great addition to the normal list view. Different people process things better or worse with pictures vs lists vs charts,etc. I think this could be a great tool for planning or just looking at a snapshot of your day, developer, project, etc.But in order to be a full fledged issue tracker, you need to be able to filter, report,pivot,etc. Just my two cents.I think it looks great and is promising.
- zoobert 14y agoThis is nice but miss a way to order tasks and groups (using priority for example). Would be also nice to relate groups to each others with a link (arrow something) to organise your project diagram. Finally the print doesn't work. If you cannot print to provide an overview of all the tasks of the project then this tool is less useful for me as I would like to bring my task split to a meeting room without an internet connection for example. It would be nice to print only a sub selection as well (only the selected groups). Anyway I like the zoom an unzoom functionality that provide a quick way to have an overview of the tasks.
- tommi 14y agoBoring round lists of tasks.
- FrejNorling 14y agoWhat's the stack behind this? Very nice by the way!
- william_uk 14y ago> What's the stack behind this? Very nice by the way! The entire app is written in CoffeScript - we're using Node.js on the backend and the front is mainly SVG/D3.js/Backbone.js.
- FrejNorling 14y agoThanks!
- dgreensp 14y agoThat's the coolest web app demo video I've seen, possibly ever! Looking forward to trying it. I actually visualize tasks as bubbles or blobs in my head, so this should be interesting.
- dragonbonheur 14y agoImpressive. It's nice to see alternatives out there.
- FrejNorling 14y agoThis might be a bug, or not. If I have 2 groups with different colors and put one inside the other, the inner group changes color. Did not expect this behavior.
- william_uk 14y ago> This might be a bug, or not. If I have 2 groups with different colors and put one inside the other, the inner group changes color. Did not expect this behavior. This is by design - we simply could not get the visuals to look at all decent with mixed colours for nested groups. The idea is that the one colour applies for the entire category.
- FrejNorling 14y agoOk, that's fine! Thanks for the clearification.
- vph 14y agoIt would be interesting if there is a study that comprehensively measures if these pretty tools actually improves productivity in comparison to using simple text editors. My guess is they don't. My guess is people might find them fancy and pretty initially but eventually recognize that they don't actually improve efficiency or effectiveness.
- andrewflnr 14y agoMy guess is that making it really easy to move things between lists, easier than dd and p in vim, makes it more likely for people to actually update the list(s) than if it were just a text file.
- kelvin0 14y agoYou probably also advocate using shared folders to collaborate on code development too? Those darn kids and their 'innovations' ...
- vph 14y agoMake no mistake, I'm not against real innovations. For example, I've been using git and advocating for it, while many of my peers are still with older CVS systems. The point is if you masquerade a solution to a non-problem with pretty things, it just wastes everyone's time and energy. Like I said, it would be interesting if there is a study to find out if any of these pretty task management tools actually increases productivity.
- kelvin0 14y agoDid you wait for a study before you switched to git? Or did you simply start using it cause it made sense? Let's be realistic here ...
- ataleb52 14y agoIt's a cool looking alternative. But functionally I know it doesn't really meet my needs. The circles make the calendar view somewhat confusing to look at and I'm not a big fan of not being able to look at my tasks in order that they have to be completed within an individual group. Cool idea just not very useful for me personally.
- ripter 14y agoSo far it beats Trello on the one issue that bugs me most. When I complete something it actually goes away instead of sitting there forever.
- bane 14y agoThis looks like a great alternative to Trello. I'd also add the option to have bullseye nested circles to indicate priority. Typically there are fewer high priority items than low, and this metaphor should support that use case. It also helps coax the user that attending to high priority tasks is like hitting a bullseye.
- ROFISH 14y agoDoes it have dependencies? Team management can't work, in my opinion, if you have a task named "fold shirts" but it appears and is assigned before somebody "buys shirts".
- dreamdu5t 14y agoThis is the real nut to crack with project management.
- william_uk 14y ago> Does it have dependencies? Not as yet, but this is an early release of the product and we are aggressively adding new features and improvements. This is definitely something we are considering.
- anandkulkarni 14y agoI like this concept, and I think it can be improved through some more experimenting with the UI. Here's my feedback: from an interface perspective a visual process for organizing tasks is very appealing. But things weren't as intuitive as Trello. For example: clicking a task didn't let me edit its name; it brought up a window. Clicking "new task" was my first step, when really, I have a list of groups I want to create (like in Trello) Speed is really crucial for me in using a system like this.
- william_uk 14y agoThanks for your comments. Some kind of 'quick-add' for tasks and groups is definitely something we are considering.
- pgcosta 14y agoIt looks really good, and seems very simple and intuitive. You should add Polls or ramifications or both. Imagine if there are 3 options to make a task. You should be able to show those three options, and let the people vote on the one that should be made. Just a thought. Good luck.
- bsg75 14y agoWould a directed graph metaphor add to this? If task circles could be linked in order of precedence, and project circles linked to show resource collaboration, the resulting diagram layout could be visually useful. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/39/Directed_acyclic_graph_3.svg/356px-Directed_acyclic_graph_3.svg.png http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/39/Dir...
- desireco42 14y agoOK so I don't think I would say, replace Trello right now, but this is really neat service, well done. I especially like how things are visual and how you can zoom in and out and see this as potentially very useful feature. I will continue to review it and use it. Also, describing it as Trello killer, I think made us expect way too much of it. So this might not worked the way it was intended.
- teyc 14y agoThis is visually very interesting. You can tell that there is a lot of care being put into the transitions and all. It's a pretty competitive market out there in terms of "to do lists". With a good UI, it gives you a fighting chance. Sure it might not be for everyone, but that's the point. Segment the market and fight for your share. How did you find backbone and D3. Do they play well together in terms of overall code maintainability? What worked and what didn't?
- bithive123 14y agoI'm going to try this for a while since it was easy to start using it with my Google apps domain. Within the first few minutes it has become clear that I need a way to convert a task into a group. I find myself wanting to express task dependencies by dragging things into each other but I can't drag a task onto another task. Annoying. Edit: Also, a visual indicator of task progress, or more intermediate states (blocked, started, in progress, etc) would be helpful too. Edit 2: And I've hit an arbitrary three project limit. So much for dumping my task list into this thing. Evaluation concluded.
- quizotic 14y agoWow. It's SO beautiful! And I love the care you took to show me how to use it. I have no idea if I'll continue use it on a daily basis (Trello for now), but it's fun, and pretty. Well done, and thank you!
- william_uk 14y agoThanks for your comments - much appreciated!
- codeme 14y agoNice UI! I will give it a try.
- martinstartsup 14y agoInteresting tool though right now in our company we use Symphonical.com a lot as it is well integrated with Google+ Hangout and has useful templates to organize and share tasks.
- irmbrady 14y agoWill there ever be time tracking? That's one feature I really wish Trello had by default.
- william_uk 14y ago> Will there ever be time tracking? That's one feature I really wish Trello had by default. We are currently considering all feature requests and this is one I've heard a few times. As such, it is definitely something we will consider!