thisis-mahyar
commented
1 month ago BaseCamp
Basecamp is an efficient collaboration tool used by thousands of teams worldwide. Teams use Basecamp to track assignments, collaborate on documents, plan projects, chat, and more.
The sentence below is what Basecamp says about itself:
Basecamp is the project management platform that helps small teams move faster and achieve more than they ever thought possible.
User Interface
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When you first enter the main page, you’ll notice plenty of adverts and slogans. I don’t think this is a good approach for users who want to focus on work, not be distracted by unnecessary visuals.
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Overall, the main page feels quite messy. The text is mostly presented in a raw format, and the UI team hasn’t done much to refine its design. Additionally, the words are too close to each other, and the color scheme isn't very appealing. The combination of plain black with more than one color (green and orange) doesn’t seem pleasant to me.
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Moreover, the profile icon is placed too far out of sight. If you’re not paying close attention, you might miss it entirely.
User Experience
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The Project page is designed as simply as possible. You can't see any complexity here.
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In Message Board, you can see a simple editor where you can also give style to your text. Compared to markdown, it is more begginer-friendly as markdown has its own syntax. But I prefer markdown. Because it has kind of became standard in many sites (But I'm not sure that this is a markdown or not!).
Flows and Processes
1. How to sign up?
The sign up process is easy and short!
- Hit the green botton at the top-right side of the home page. You'll be directed to login page.
- Here, you'll be offered to use premium version. But we'll stick to the free version!
- Enter your name, email, organization name.
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In the last part, create your password.
2. Your dashboard
Welcome to your dashboard! You can see some options here. At the top menu, there are Home, Lineup, Pings, Hey!, Activity, My stuff, Find. And then you can see your organization's name, and below there are two buttons: Make a new project, Invite people.
3. How to create the project?
To create a project, you need to take some steps first:
- Name your project
- Add a description (optional)
- Specify start date and end date
- Choose which tool you're going to use (will be discussed later)
- Choose who's on the project
Do the thing above and go to the next part.
Here is the revised version with corrections for grammar, clarity, and flow:
4. Inside the Project
When you first enter your project page, you’ll see an interface like this. You can use each of the following features as needed.
<img src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/3c7d7b6e-6f90-4c25-9619-185adbaa5bc2' width=350>
3.1. Message Board
Here, you can post announcements, pitch ideas, provide progress updates, and keep feedback organized.
- Tap the green button to add a new message.
- A message consists of a title and content. Type your information in these two sections.
- You can also format your text using the editor.
- You can either save your message as a draft or post it.
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Once posted, others can comment on your message.
3.2. To-dos
Here, you can create lists of tasks, assign items, set due dates, and discuss progress.
- Click the green button (+ New list) to add a list.
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Add a description to your list, similar to how you do in the message board.
Next, add more details to your list:
- You can assign the list to someone.
- You can notify people when the list is completed.
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You can set a due date (deadline) for your list. It can have a single due date or span multiple days.
3.3. Docs & Files
Here, you can add or share documents, files, images, and spreadsheets. As shown below, there are multiple options.
- Click Start a new doc to create a document. The document follows the message board format.
- You can also Make a new folder to organize your files for easy access.
- There's an option to Upload Files from your local storage.
- The remaining options allow you to link files from different platforms like Figma or cloud storage services (or Basecamp itself).
- If none of these options suit your needs, you can link to an external website by clicking External Service.
3.4. Chat
This is your mini chat application! Here, you can casually chat with your teammates, send messages, and share files with each other.
3.5. Schedule
- Here, you can view your To-dos organized by time, helping you manage your project more effectively.
- You can also sync this calendar with other platforms like Google Calendar.
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Click + New event to define the start and end dates, and assign the event to others. Just like with To-dos, you can also add links, notes, and more to the event.
3.6. Card Table
This is a visual, Kanban-style tool for process-oriented work.
By default, it has 5 fields: NOT NOW, Triage, Figuring it out, In progress, and DONE.
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You can create cards by clicking the green button + Add a card. Define the title, assign the card, set a due date, and add a description. Then save the card.
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When a card is first created, it will be moved to the Triage section, meaning you’ve created it but haven’t started it yet.
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You can also move the card to NOT NOW if you don’t plan to start it soon.
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When you're ready to begin, move the card to the Figuring it out column. As you progress, move it to In progress, and once the task is completed, place it in the DONE column.
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You can personalize your Card Table by renaming the boards or adding new ones.
5. Line up
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This part is a guntt chart showing your projects and tasks in a timeline.
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You can add markers to highlight the specific dates on the chart.
6. Activity
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This section is someting like your history of what you've done recently.
Conclusion
Overall, Basecamp is a very simple tool with only a few features built into it.
It is much simpler than other project management tools (even GitHub Projects has far more features in comparison!).
Personally, I didn’t like it for several reasons. It feels more like a basic Android app than a web app suitable for large-scale projects. In fact, some Android apps, like Evernote, offer more features than Basecamp. True simplicity lies in organizing numerous features in a way that doesn’t overwhelm the user and makes the app enjoyable to use. However, Basecamp’s simplicity results from its limited feature set, which, in my opinion, is not an example of the "art of simplicity."
That said, Basecamp is clearly a small tool compared to other platforms. I do think it can still be useful for our team to gain insight into how a project might look in its early stages-something many more advanced tools don’t show because they are so feature-rich and polished.
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