When we started thinking about the design of the all new Basecamp, we had three key things in mind:
- Speed
- Big picture
- Focus
With that in mind, and many experiments later, we came up with a unique interface that is crazy fast, excellent for big picture broad overviews, and perfectly tailored for quick focus with no distractions.
We call it page stacking and we think you’re going to love it. Here’s a brief video I just put together to show you how it works (it looks best in full screen mode, BTW).
We’re just a few weeks out from the official launch. Sign up for a chance at an early beta invite prior to launch. We’ll also use this list to announce the launch.
Ryan Coughlin
on 16 Feb 12Looking great! Got beta access this past week for our design studio. Trying out some projects on it. New experience, but can really see this being useful. Solid tool as a part of our workflow.
Ryan
Frankie Laguna
on 16 Feb 12Wow. This looks amazing! I’m throughly impressed.
The design is stunning.
Alexandre Testu
on 16 Feb 12Amazing work guys. Wow.
Just one question: what typeface are you using? It’s gorgeous!
Donny V
on 16 Feb 12So your using model boxes but calling them sheets? Whatever works.
Nate
on 16 Feb 12Looks good. Can you click on an underlying card on the left side or does that only work on the top? I noticed Jason scrolled to the top every time. Clicking on the left seems more natural.
I like the reworking of the project model and the ability to start at a high level and drill down as needed with focus.
Richard Nyström
on 16 Feb 12Holy cow! I want to lick on it!
Ashish Tonse
on 16 Feb 12Ok that font is beautiful. What fonts are being used?
Donny V
on 16 Feb 12I also noticed the use of the hover event A LOT. A lot of spots don’t look clickable but are. Aren’t you worried that people won’t know what to click? Also are you planning added buttons for this to work on tablets?
Sean Devine
on 16 Feb 12The speed is unbelievable.
Matthew Sanders
on 16 Feb 12Nice. Looks like a lot of good UX has been put into this. I do always appreciate how you guys try to approach things from a very basic mental model.
JF
on 16 Feb 12Looks good. Can you click on an underlying card on the left side or does that only work on the top? I noticed Jason scrolled to the top every time. Clicking on the left seems more natural.
We used to have the left active but we turned it off. It was easy to click it by accident when working with to-dos and other content that’s near the edge of the page.
There are some more tricks that we didn’t show in this video though ;)
Vojto
on 16 Feb 12Wouldn’t be that fast on the first launch: It’s all cached in offline storage, am I right?
MattCodr
on 16 Feb 12Awesome!
And I’m curious, the tabsheet thing is Html5?
Emil Hajric
on 16 Feb 12How are you able to render these pages/sheets in such fast speed? I’m imagining, it’s mostly because you’re rendering them via Javascript and loading them onto the current page.
Kris Gösser
on 16 Feb 12Really love it. Novel and intuitive UI. I disagree with the passive aggressive modal comment. I think those components get a bad rap. Much to Ryan’s comment about tables years ago, there is a time and place for every tool in our toolbox. They way they just used sheets is pretty exciting.
Specifically, what makes this different than “modals” is that the user gets a sense of layers through depth of field (brilliant!). Think of it more like heightened and intuitive breadcrumbs more than stacked modals.
JF
on 16 Feb 12Vojto, it’s that fast. Tiny bit slower on first load, but, yes, that fast.
Mattcodr
on 16 Feb 12Awesome!
And I’m curious, the tabsheet thing is Html5?
SS
on 16 Feb 12There’s no offline storage at play here, and no syncing. BCX was built with speed in mind. Every part of the app is eminently cacheable.
There are no full page loads, either—we use HTML 5 pushState for the stacking interface, which lets us avoid reloading the app with each click.
Wayne
on 16 Feb 12@37signals
I really hate saying this because I’m such a huge fan of you guys but I’m seriously confused at what I’m looking atom the preview.
Yes, it looks “pretty” – but my eyes get distracted having everything on one page. It’s hard for me to even distinguish what this product even does.
Using the metaphor of tabs really works for me and I’ll be sticking to the old Basecamp.
Hopefully some of those performance tweaks will carry over to the old Basecamp product.
Marco Berrocal
on 16 Feb 12Put me on the love-wagon please. It looks amazing. I like Basecamp but hated to navigate through different stuff (files, discussions, etc) but this just does it.
I signed up for the beta :)
Luis Santander
on 16 Feb 12Looking great, you made the natural clutter of a project look beautifully simple. And fast. Can’t wait to test it out.
Roger V
on 16 Feb 12I’ll echo the other comments and say the product really does look great. However, it seems very heavily dependent on the mouse for just about every action. Will there be any love for keyboard shortcuts?
JF
on 16 Feb 12Will there be any love for keyboard shortcuts?
Yup. We’ll save that for another video.
Ed
on 16 Feb 12Congrats guys, you’ve changed the game again.
Mattcodr
on 16 Feb 12Well I really love easy interfaces, and I think you managed that, it’s clean, easy and just few clicks without losing direction from where you started and where you are going.
Brilliant!
Anonymous Coward
on 16 Feb 12Interesting design for a business oriented app – reminds me of Pinterest though a wee bit too much. I see this coming out as the new trend in UIs this year – we will see it more now I am sure. I don’t see it as a “game changer” though.
sam
on 16 Feb 12so what happens when I open say 5 sheets, does the UI adjust to that? would the hitbox to go to previous sheets get smaller with more sheets? I don’t see how this UI scales.
JF
on 16 Feb 12Sam, it scales. Nothing goes beyond 4 levels, and most things are 2 or 3 levels max. You’ll see when you use it.
Čelo
on 16 Feb 12Very nice and very fast. Congratulations.
Derek
on 16 Feb 12SHEEET That is fast! Can wait to see the post on how you achieved that speed.
One observation (Not that you need them). When you clicked to see an individual message thread, I expected the new ‘sheet’ to scroll to the top so I could read the thread from the top to bottom. Instead it seemed to hover about where the previous sheet was? Was this on purpose or is there a reason behind that choice? (Seems there usually is a reason)
JiPé
on 16 Feb 12The sheets based interface is pretty awesome. Easy to understand and to contextualize. This is a great improvement compare to the cluttered interface of the current Basecamp (that I dislike using – sorry to say). It is now closer to the simplicity of Backpack, a product that is to me the pinnacle of tasks management and documents repository.
I really appreciate those changes and look forward to try it.
Just awesome guys.
JF
on 16 Feb 12One observation (Not that you need them). When you clicked to see an individual message thread, I expected the new ‘sheet’ to scroll to the top so I could read the thread from the top to bottom. Instead it seemed to hover about where the previous sheet was? Was this on purpose or is there a reason behind that choice? (Seems there usually is a reason)
It’s context. I clicked on that message from the catch up sheet on a specific day, so I’m anchored to that point in the conversation. This way I don’t have to scroll down to find the new comments on that day.
However, if I would have clicked that message from the discussions list itself on the discussions list, I’d start at the top.
Darcy Fitzpatrick
on 16 Feb 12Nice!
I’m curious as to why you feel the need to float sheets over the main project view in the first place? In the video you talked about apps having too much chrome, and then the sheet effect appeared.
Why can’t going to different sections of a project occur on the same plane as the project itself, doing away with the need for concepts and metaphors in the UI? I’m curious to know what it is that you feel this adds to the experience?
jfoxny
on 16 Feb 12How do you handle the browser’s back button? Does the back button work?
jfoxny
on 16 Feb 12How do you handle the browser’s back button? Does the back button still work?
Derek
on 16 Feb 12@JF Ah, makes sense! Thanks for the reply.
JF
on 16 Feb 12@jfoxny Yes, the back button works.
JF
on 16 Feb 12Why can’t going to different sections of a project occur on the same plane as the project itself, doing away with the need for concepts and metaphors in the UI? I’m curious to know what it is that you feel this adds to the experience?
It gives you a sense of place and depth that makes it surprisingly easy to use. It’s something you have to experience to feel. Curious to hear what you think once you’ve used it.
larryhbn
on 16 Feb 12Looks incredible. We have been going through the process of becoming ISO9001 certified for our product since we deal with a ton of chain of custody issues. I wish I had seen this 6 weeks ago – when I had to design our documentation plan – Basecamp Next appears to flow exactly the way we designed our process. Not all is lost, however, as most of our current plan is based around Basecamp, Campfire, Backpack and a ticket system. As soon as we can switch over it will be worth a “continous improvement” exception to the documentation. Can’t wait!
Julian
on 16 Feb 12Why, oh why are redesigning a website that millions use and love. Basecamp is fine is it, so please don’t change it. I know how to use, so don’t you dare move stuff around, forcing me to spend my time learning where stuff is just because you needed something to do. Were users demanding these changes? I doubt it, so don’t create work for yourself.
Nobody
on 16 Feb 12This looks awesome! I didn’t realize how good the new UI is until you opened the image with the old one, it was shocking.
I was expecting a state-of-the-art web application with BCX, and this demo really demonstrates it.
I have a some feedback, though… no big deal, given the titanic amount of CSS/Javascript this app probably uses.
First, the clickable area when you stack sheets. As other commenter says, it looks a bit confusing, maybe changing the contrast of the text (the link) when it belongs to a stacked sheet, and adding some kind of background color change when the user rolls over it to help recognize that area as clickable, something subtle, like the upper menu.
Second, the scroll. As everything is displayed in a single page, it could be great if each layer remembers the page’s scroll position when it was sent to a lower level in the stack, and also, go to the top if a big layer is opened (you had to scroll up when you opened a discussion in 5:08). This way, you would have been able to go to the discussion, open it, read it from the top, and go back to the position you had before in the previous layer.
— Again. Great product. Congratulations.
Richard Nyström
on 16 Feb 12@Julian Relax. The old version will still be available.
Bailey
on 16 Feb 12Now you might actually convert me into a customer.
Focus: on what people need, not what they think they need.
JF
on 16 Feb 12Second, the scroll. As everything is displayed in a single page, it could be great if each layer remembers the page’s scroll position when it was sent to a lower level in the stack, and also, go to the top if a big layer is opened
Scroll positions are remembered when you go back in the stack.
The reason that didn’t open at the top was because I clicked it “back in time”. It’s anchoring to the comments from a day in the past. This way I don’t have to scroll down to find the comments I was interested in – Basecamp takes me right there.
Glenn Meder
on 16 Feb 12It looks great! Thanks for the video. I love this very simple tour of the product. I’d like to see this for Highrise. Thanks.
jfoxny
on 16 Feb 12@JF Thanks for the reply. The back button has historically been a major downer for AJAXy UIs. I’m curious to know how you guys dealt with it or is that not what we’re seeing here?
JF
on 16 Feb 12As everything is displayed in a single page, it could be great if each layer remembers the page’s scroll position when it was sent to a lower level in the stack, and also, go to the top if a big layer is opened
Scroll positions are remembered when you go back in the stack. We have that covered.
Re: go to the top. You don’t always want to go to the top. We do the right thing in that case. In the example in the video, I was looking at a thread from a few days ago. So when I clicked it, it anchored me down to the comments from that day. If it took me to the top, I’d have to scroll down to find the stuff I wanted to see.
Manuel F. Lara
on 16 Feb 12Two questions:
- will we be able to import/transform Basecamp Classic projects into Basecamp Next, or will be having to start from scratch?
- will we have to pay a separate monthly fee if we’re already paying for Classic?
Adam Helweh
on 16 Feb 12I love, love, love that stacked page UI guys! Great job with that. Not sure if I have ever seen a web app use that kind of interface, but it’s sure to catch on.
Cameron
on 16 Feb 12Looks very cool. I think it is the right time for basecamp to do this and get back to the cutting edge. Simplicity FTW.
SS
on 16 Feb 12@jfoxny, we use HTML 5 pushState to support the back button.
JF
on 16 Feb 12will we be able to import/transform Basecamp Classic projects into Basecamp Next, or will be having to start from scratch?
You will be able to copy your Classic projects over to Next. The features aren’t identical, so not everything is copied over, but we’re clear about that during the process.
will we have to pay a separate monthly fee if we’re already paying for Classic?
Classis users will be getting an extended free trial. When it’s over you can choose to use one, the other, or both. If both, we’ll be offering a discount. Details on this when we launch.
Quiller
on 16 Feb 12Really loving the visual appearance and speed, speed, speed! I was paying close attention during the video and it looks like discussions and todos are pretty much unchanged in core functionality and features compared to the current version. Are there any plans to include new features, especially for the woefully lacking todo system, but still in user-friendly way?
I’m ready for Basecamp to grow up a bit and push the boundaries of what can be done while keeping an intuitive and simple interface. I’m not yet convinced that BCX is going to be that much more efficient for me if it still lacks a true bug tracking solution.
I mean, it is primarily intended for people developing interactive and software products, right?
Quiller
on 16 Feb 12Really loving the visual appearance and speed, speed, speed! I was paying close attention during the video and it looks like discussions and todos are pretty much unchanged in core functionality and features compared to the current version. Are there any plans to include new features, especially for the woefully lacking todo system, but still in user-friendly way?
I’m ready for Basecamp to grow up a bit and push the boundaries of what can be done while keeping an intuitive and simple interface. I’m not yet convinced that BCX is going to be that much more efficient for me if it still lacks a true bug tracking solution.
I mean, it is primarily intended for people developing interactive and software products, right?
jfoxny
on 16 Feb 12@SS Thanks for the reply. I didn’t think that IE 9 supported that. It must be nice to have customers on modern browsers! With many government types as customers, we find ourselves still needing to support IE7 (and only recently ditched IE6). :-/
JF
on 16 Feb 12I mean, it is primarily intended for people developing interactive and software products, right?
Basecamp is not primarily intended for software developers. It’s intended for projects of all kinds. Publishers, designers, lawyers, accountants, authors, universities, manufacturers, software companies, charities… They all use Basecamp. We won’t be adding industry-specific features to Basecamp.
SS
on 16 Feb 12@jfoxny, you’re right. IE 9 doesn’t support pushState but IE 10 will. IE 9 users get full page loads with each click but everything still works.
Ebo
on 16 Feb 12Just wondering: Is this based on the analysis of real basecamp usage data (what would be great), or just on simple prototyping?
Mikita Mikado
on 16 Feb 12Pinterest’s concept is getting to the world of business SaaS. Very interesting to see the results of this experiment.
EH
on 16 Feb 12I like the new breadcrumbing style.
pwb
on 16 Feb 12Do you guys use any specific frameworks for the front-end, JavaScript-based or otherwise?
Tom Stoecklein
on 16 Feb 12Oh, man. I think I know how crack addicts feel…. I need me some of that Basecamp Next. Maybe just a hit or two…
Karri
on 16 Feb 12Although not probably intended for solo work, I can already see handling projects on my own with BCX.
Think about, say, creating an animated webseries. Every episode gets its own project where all the artwork goes. As with all other files related to it. After pushing out 50 episodes, BCX would still serve as a fast central place for checking any previous stuff out.
It’s all there. In this case, the question of max file upload size of course raises, how much video it could hold for example. I’d really want to see the calendar.
All in all, at least for me, I feel that BCX does exactly what it needs to do and not much else. But what it needs to do, it does well and it does it fast. The simplicity, yes, an overused term but here it really seems to be present. Much simpler than I initially thought it would be and much better than Classic than I imagined it could be.
JF
on 16 Feb 12Karri – totally. This was one of the big ideas behind the new Basecamp. Remove some of the formalities and make it more flexible for even more projects. I’m using it on a few personal projects right now and it’s been great. I’d never have used Classic for these kinds of projects before. I know others at 37signals are doing the same thing.
Rich
on 16 Feb 12@Wayne: the links at the top of the project page (“271 discussions”, “88 to-dos”, “80 files” etc.) have the same function as the tabs in old Basecamp.
If I had an invite I could help more. Ahem. :)
Taylor Miles
on 16 Feb 12Looks pretty slick.
Jeff Putz
on 16 Feb 12Looks good. Even feels a little “Metro”-ish, which is not a bad thing.
Max Giraldo
on 16 Feb 12Awesome.
Anonymous Coward
on 16 Feb 12Guys, this is great! I am absolutely delighted at the prospect of using this.
Classic had become a little flat in use, and I have been looking around at other products and testing them out. None fit the bill, most often because they tried to do too much. I was left using Classic, but wishing that something more 2012 was out there. Now it seems that it is, and that I don’t even have to go through a whole migration process to get it :)
If you have any spare early beta invites remaining, I’d really love to get one (I signed up on the site aaaaages ago) but either way I look forward to diving in and using it soon.
Thanks guys :)
Jeffrey R.
on 16 Feb 12Thanks for the preview. It looks great! The speed alone makes everything that much easier to use.
I cannot wait to try BCX. We use Writeboards for just about everything, so I look forward to giving “Text Documents” a try. I’m sure I’ll miss Textile (have some old school macros to easily create a Table of Contents in them), but I understand how having two (and a half) different input modes adds complexity.
Being able to “pin” favorite Projects to the top is a great feature. I wonder if that is per user or global…?
JF
on 16 Feb 12Being able to “pin” favorite Projects to the top is a great feature. I wonder if that is per user or global
Per user.
Anonymous Coward
on 16 Feb 12Guys, this is great! I am absolutely delighted at the prospect of using this.
Classic had become a little flat in use, and I have been looking around at other products and testing them out. None fit the bill, most often because they tried to do too much. I was left using Classic, but wishing that something more 2012 was out there. Now it seems that it is, and that I don’t even have to go through a whole migration process to get it :)
If you have any spare early beta invites remaining, I’d really love to get one (I signed up on the site aaaaages ago) but either way I look forward to diving in and using it soon.
Thanks guys :)
Robert Benjamin
on 16 Feb 12Still waiting on my beta invite, but it looks amazing! Speedy and clean, just the way I like it.
Andy
on 16 Feb 12Okay, so the first one did post. Promise I wasn’t spamming you guys. And I’m an anonymous coward (!)
Hangs head in shame
Grant Bissett
on 16 Feb 12Looks like very thoughtful design. Makes me wonder why the page stack system isn’t used as breadcrumbs in, say, an online department store.
Americo Savinon
on 16 Feb 12Nice! Or should I better say: “Baby I like it”
Ryan Fischer
on 16 Feb 12It is looking really good. The sheets feature is an interesting idea to redefine breadcrumbs, a UI staple. It looks really promising but again its one of those things you need to test drive to appreciate.
It is great that you are looking at every little detail no matter if it is the norm. For better or worse, that’s how innovation will come about for how we use the web.
Can’t wait to try it!
Luciano
on 16 Feb 12Is better integration with Highrise on the roadmap?
Brian Armstrong
on 16 Feb 12Looks great – and a nice UI innovation.
I kept wanting to hit the escape key to take off the top sheet!
Daniel Øhrgaard
on 16 Feb 12Great work! And great presentation, too – smooth and well-paced. Kudos on that too, Jason. I think I caught some Steve Jobs-ian segues in there :)
Alex Heimann
on 16 Feb 12Looks great. How is the Calendar going to work with Milestones/Events etc?
Victor
on 16 Feb 12@Jason
You might want to take notice at how many upvotes are in favor of the statement on Hacker News that ‘The new “sheets” UI paradigm is strange to me…’.
It’s the #1 upvoted comment.
Seems like lots of people find the new redesign confusing to use in practice.
Christopher Roeleveld
on 16 Feb 12Love that page/sheet mnemonic. Really brilliant UI work!
Richard Bird
on 17 Feb 12The buzz around “Basecamp Next” is justified.
I’ve been on the BCX beta team since the beginning. And I have to tell you that for months I was completely puzzled and frustrated by what I was looking at. (I made that known to Jason again and again. No secrets.)
Nonetheless, the 37signals team remained true to their mission.
In the last month, alone, the improvements in presentation and experience have been astounding. So much so that, my own staff who previously said they would never use Basecamp Next (users of BCC since launch), now can’t wait to explore it on live client projects.
Victor
on 17 Feb 12@Everyone
Does anyone else feel that Next no longer feels like a Project Management application but instead, just a fancier version of (not Basecamp, Backpack)?
Victor
on 17 Feb 12@Everyone
Does anyone else feel that Next no longer feels like a Project Management application but instead, just a fancier version of MBackpack (not Basecamp, Backpack)?
Peter Jennings
on 17 Feb 12@Victor I don’t! I like what I see, and I trust 37S enough to be sure that I’ll enjoy USING it even more. I’m impatient to try it – you seem impatient to find reasons not to. :)
Ryan Walker
on 17 Feb 12Great video, Jason – it’s impressive and obvious to see how much care 37s is putting into the product. Very innovative touches in there; should be a great inspiration to product managers everywhere.
I can’t wait to try it out.
David Andersen
on 17 Feb 12As a consultant on ‘enterprise’ software, I’m 100% confident that this sort of thought is not put into anything I’ve worked with. It’s very refreshing.
Scott
on 17 Feb 12Let’s see the calendar!
Scott
on 17 Feb 12Unrelated: are the ads on the Deck still “well vetted” do you think? While reading this post, I was surprised to see an ad for Path while David called it a “rogue app”.
JF
on 17 Feb 12Scott: We’ll highlight the calendar in a future video.
Darrin
on 17 Feb 12Sure is purdy! It’s so simple looking to use but yet so different from the previous version that I think its smart to keep both around. People like me who will be all over this in a heart beat but a lot don’t like change, especially when just about everything is different as far as UI goes.
I can’t wait to start using it
AC
on 17 Feb 12@Jason
What’s the primary font used? No longer looks like Helvetica.
Is it Calibri?
Line Atallah
on 17 Feb 12How about writeboards? Are they disappearing? And Calendar?
JF
on 17 Feb 12How about writeboards? Are they disappearing? And Calendar?
Writeboards are now called Text Documents. They’re not exactly the same, but they serve a similar purpose.
There’s a calendar. It’s the best one we’ve ever built.
Anthony Barone
on 17 Feb 12I knew you guys would solve the switching cost riddle. Totally impressed with product and execution. Can’t wait to experience first hand. No question a lot of love and care in this product. Did logos go away? Since I use basecamp in so many contexts, that might have been the best decision I should of made in basecamp classic.
Jeffrey D
on 17 Feb 12This looks great. Way to think outside the boxer briefs.
Matt
on 17 Feb 12One of the things I love about BaseCamp Classic ;) is the activity stream, right when you login. It’s my personal newspaper and answers ‘What the hell is going on here?’. It looks like the News has been dropped. Is that correct?
Emily
on 17 Feb 12Looks really great!!! Can’t wait!!!
Ben Kinnaird
on 17 Feb 12Thanks Jason. After all the teasing, I’m really pleased to now have a feel for ‘real’ usage of BCX
Being able to star/favourite projects is something I have been waiting for in classic. We have loads of projects on the go but only a few that need my dedicated focus. Being able to list them up top may well give me a real speed boost when working on auto.
Basecamp is fast compared to other products I use but doesn’t have the feel of a native app. So as someone in the UK with slow DSL a move for speed is an important one for me.
An observation – I often open the to-do or cal tabs in a new browser tab to quickly access info or make a change without leaving a message I am typing. The interface you now have won’t easily allow me to to this but I wonder if (now with auto saving) I won’t need to open the extra tab rather I can just click back to the project sheet check a to-do out then zip back to my message to continue.
Looking forward to getting stuck in and if possible a beta test account please.
Steven
on 17 Feb 12Will the admin be able to restrict the people a company (client) can assign a todo or message comment to?
The issue is that items can circumvent the project manager and they can be in the dark over certain discussions.
Jayasimhan
on 17 Feb 12A thought on Catch up.
Lets say someone is catching up on a project since he was out for two weeks on vacation. He would want to skim through the big list of discussions and events.
In the demo JF chose a discussion that had 10 comments. That caught his eye. However, there isn’t an emphasis on active discussions over the short inactive ones. All the discussions where listed as equals. looking at the number of comments would help, but that is difficult too since the brain is doing math there. [Think the big dot that grows with the list size in the tadalist]. Would it make sense to add such a graphical representation against those discussions?
Jayasimhan
on 17 Feb 12A thought on Catch up.
Lets say someone is catching up on a project since he was out for two weeks on vacation. He would want to skim through the big list of discussions and events.
In the demo JF chose a discussion that had 10 comments. That caught his eye. However, there isn’t an emphasis on active discussions over the short inactive ones. All the discussions where listed as equals. looking at the number of comments would help, but that is difficult too since the brain is doing math there. [Think the big dot that grows with the list size in the tadalist]. Would it make sense to add such a graphical representation against those discussions?
Vasile
on 17 Feb 12I’m wondering if this new interface will be usable only with your mouse; or did you guys add some keyboard shortcuts for all that navigation?
Maarten
on 17 Feb 12Man that looks slick, very inspiring stuff actually. Food for thought.
Michal
on 17 Feb 12Looks great! I hope the subsections of projects will have some shebangs or other URL based id staff, because my workstyle in basecamp uses maybe all the month only TODOs and i dont want to spend seconds of clicks to get into TODOs everytime iam opening it.
BTW – Nice to see people that dont worry to totally rework peoples habbits to make their work more effective.
Michal.
Łukasz
on 17 Feb 12What struck me the most is the navigation between sheets (like breadcrumbs) that resembles user path and not a systems nesting. If I go from Project → Todo I do not see Todos list, but if I go along Project → Todos List → Todo path I can see all three sheets in the stack. Really well thought.
Catch Up feature is mind-blowing as well.
Michael Dubakov
on 17 Feb 12I don’t think Basecamp Next is a game changer. It is a step forward, yes. It is fast, yes. Navigation is interesting and most likely will work out.
But. There is a little novelty in this app. Huge ToDo lists looks really bad. Everything on one page? Why do you ever need that for any serious project? Small projects, aye, will work though.
Information density is poor. Information visualization is out there. You see just lists… That is sad.
ZackP
on 17 Feb 12Reminds me of iPad’s Twitter app.
If only people had 1920px wide screens, you could then put the page stacking on the left, so that you don’t have to scroll all the way to the top each time you want to go back.
But anyway, I believe such a pattern is better suited for touch devices.
Fritz Rodriguez
on 17 Feb 12Awesome! This is going to bring me back to basecamp and I agree with an earlier comment as to using it for personal projects as well.
Great work! I love change :))!!!
GeeIWonder
on 17 Feb 12I think everyone is missing the real story here: Jason F. was not in the office on Tuesday!!!!
Also, this navigation/speed would seem to work really well with key shortcuts too. Might give the mouse a run for it’s money.
Red Feet
on 17 Feb 12I like the concept of the navigation. I saw one minor detail that could be improved: The menu-items of the main menu don’t have a fixed width, so when the active-state changes (and a different menu-text becomes Bold), all menu-items move a bit horizontally. With a fixed width or fixed positions, the menu and the whole appear to be more robust (only in perception off course). But I think you will fix this anyway just before the release.
Scott
on 17 Feb 12What method/approach do you use to to calculate and place the “Rendered in .nnn seconds.” at the bottom of the page? Is that all javascript and not including server time (e.g. is “render” time, as labeled, not time from click to complete)?
Richallum
on 17 Feb 12Can you comment on private items. Looks like they are going. We collaborate within a client project on items which are not ready for the client to see for a while and being able to mark them private allows us to do this with classic. If there is not a private option in BCX we wil have to collaborate on a project in BCX and probably somewhere else (another project maybe).
H Liu
on 17 Feb 12This is a real thing, totally blow my mind away. How you guys did it, it’s like a Rich client application.
PM Dan
on 17 Feb 12I’m liking this! I’d like to see a little more separation between the sections (ie: Discussions, Todo Lists, Files and Text Document). I know you’re trying to keep it light on the graphics but maybe a full width highlight behind each section title. Excellent job though folks!
DHH
on 17 Feb 12Scott, it’s pulled from the X-Runtime header that Rails automatically calculates and sends down with all requests. So it’s a server side measure.
Richallum
on 17 Feb 12Just watched the video again and noticed that Basecamp as a brand is far more obvious with the larger logo in the top right corner. Is this going to show for all users or will we have the option add our company logo or name?
MJS
on 17 Feb 12Using “Classic” today feels kinda old and busted.
Need new hotness.
Scott
on 17 Feb 12David – nice. Looks great so far, good work.
Josh Steinberg
on 17 Feb 12wow – that took eight years to create??? What do you guys do all day?
Yawn
Fred Jones
on 17 Feb 12I know…I know…don’t feed the trolls, but…
Josh, please go back to playing WOW… it’s obvious you’ve never created anything of value in your life.
Michael Borromeo
on 17 Feb 12Looks very slick!
To be able to see everything (or at very least, the latest things) on one page is huge. As is the speed. These will be a big upgrade to the current UI. Jumping between tabs and the speed at which it takes to go tab to tab feels a little slow and cumbersome.
Looking forward to the official release!
JF
on 17 Feb 12The next 25 people who post their current Basecamp subdomain will get an invite to the beta.
Anthony Barone
on 17 Feb 12barone.basecamphq.com
Kenny
on 17 Feb 12The sheets look great. But what’s wrong with breadcrumbs? The sheets waste vertical real estate.
Do you find that users don’t understand how to use a breadcrumb.
F
on 17 Feb 12Kenny, once you try the sheets you’ll see and feel the difference.
Steve Dale
on 17 Feb 12gyrohsrchicago.basecamphq.com
Looking forward to trying it out.
Joren Vis
on 17 Feb 12foamontwerpers.basecamphq.com
Carl Mathisen
on 17 Feb 12kamikazemedia.basecamphq.com
Thanks a bunch!
Carl
Trey Hamer
on 17 Feb 12chiprewards1.basecamphq.com
Hunter Bridges
on 17 Feb 12meedeor.basecamphq.com
Jimmy Rittenborg
on 17 Feb 12I’m excited to see this beautiful app, you guys have created. rittencommedia.basecamphq.com
Joe Dreimann
on 17 Feb 12Looks great! solarhelperltd.basecamphq.com
Alex Patrascu
on 17 Feb 12Looks amazing Jason!
cyclop.basecamphq.com
Benyi Arregocés
on 17 Feb 12sodatv.basecamphq.com thanks!
Peter
on 18 Feb 12qgiv.basecamphq.com
Thanks!
Christopher O'Connor
on 18 Feb 125k50.basecamphq.com
Marco Witte
on 18 Feb 12I’m very impressed and it brings me back to basecamp i think. durstdesign.basecamphq.com thanks i’m really exited to test the new X!
Trevor Feeney
on 18 Feb 12candlelightdesign.basecamphq.com
Francois Deschenes
on 18 Feb 12fdeschenes.basecamphq.com
MarcoV
on 18 Feb 12https://zoosphere.basecamphq.com/
I had been a customer for a while, but then wandered elsewhere because I began feeling like bc was being neglected. It was beginning to feel clunky and old, and it seemed the innovation was happening elsewhere. This definitely looks like a quantum leap though! Very eager to try it out….
Mateo
on 18 Feb 12evisionworldwide.basecamphq.com Thanks!
Seth
on 18 Feb 12Stoked to see this firsthand.
sethellsworth.basecamphq.com
Gracias
chazz
on 18 Feb 12https://chromeindustries.basecamphq.com
chazz
on 18 Feb 12Was in such a rush I forgot to say “thanks”. So THANKS!
I've been a user since 2004 and a multiple Max user for years and am really excited by this.....it looks super beautiful.jt
on 18 Feb 12Wow this is brilliant! Can’t wait
cooldept.basecamphq.com
Simon
on 18 Feb 12Johnnyvodka.basecamphq.com
BC user since I don’t remember when ;)
Richallum
on 18 Feb 12Paraplanplus.basecamphq.com
Tom Stoecklein
on 18 Feb 12vexea.basecamphq.com
I admit, we wandered a little bit, but we’re back :).
Swami Atma
on 18 Feb 12ohlala.projectpath.com/
Ian
on 18 Feb 12Oops, I was expecting something better from 37s. Now BSX looks messy and a lot of scrolling there!
Josh Goebel
on 18 Feb 12Are comments moderated after the fact? I saw my comment appear, but now it’s gone. I think I’m number 25.
https://joshgoebel.basecamphq.com/
Thanks, Josh
Stefan
on 18 Feb 12simplease.basecamphq.com
Rohan dsouza
on 18 Feb 12Looks awesome! How do I get a beta?
FFFabs
on 18 Feb 12Can’t wait to try it out!
The font also looks awesome, what is it?
Alex
on 18 Feb 12beigeco.basecamphq.com
Roman
on 18 Feb 12Ahh, 27th. :( But maybe whitescape.basecamphq.com? :)
And no statuses for tasks? That is sad. :-(
Will it be real-time or not? Due for no statuses we use lists like “next step”, “ready for test”, “tested”, “ready for production”, and having a lot of troubles with moving tasks from one list to another (when few people do it at the ±same time without page update).
What about cross-projects task prioritization? Like you already have in your video. I have 15 people and same amount of projects with 2 to 6 people on each one, and I really have to prioritize tasks for people who work on few projects (like our tester works on all of them, and we have only two html-coders, and so on).
Brilliant navigation, but it will be interesting to see if I will use it or just open new tabs as usual. :-) Also I never tried to use few basecamp projects for one project, that might be helpful not only in product company, probably will try.
Hmm
on 18 Feb 12Wonder how long before Josh Goebel steals the page stack idea and claims it’s obvious and unoriginal.
Lukas
on 19 Feb 12A mobile version probably makes a lot of sense. What can I say? It´s just a really consequent and opinionated overall product. Actually the whole story is truly brilliant.
I thoroughly hope that more and more people put their data on your servers.
Lukas
on 19 Feb 12Another thing: I did´nt really like the rounded profile pictures at first. But it´s a smart decision too. Profile pic on white background – that´s almost impossible to beat. This combination dominates the visual impression of conversational streams and the majority of people associate squared pictures with their personal digital network. You used this to your advantage by claiming circles which most people are not used to in everyday digital life. So you just differentiated your product significantly, which makes a lot of sense since people feel the difference between their work and their personal environment kind of subconsciously.
Abdul
on 19 Feb 12Overall I Like it… It just 1 thing: why not you just stick the ‘top menu & back sheet header’ on the top of so don’t need to scroll to top…(sticky) by doing this user know where he is now which project and which sheet & it saves time by going all the way up.
Michael C.
on 19 Feb 12Everyone else said so much. All I have to say is, “Wow”
Christian Hjalmarsson
on 19 Feb 12http://hjalmarsson.basecamphq.com
Love the look in the video
Volkan Cagsal
on 19 Feb 12Looks great, can’t wait to test it.
Volkan Cagsal
on 19 Feb 12http://volkancagsal.basecamphq.com
Matt Parcher
on 20 Feb 12For AC, FFFabs, Ashish Tonse, Alexandre Testu, and anyone else interested in the new headline and body typeface:
After double-checking several fonts, to my eyes the new typeface looks quite like Avenir.
Fonts.com (no affiliation): Avenir Medium & Avenir Black
Kappi
on 20 Feb 12It resembles more like Zoho. can call it as copy cat move.
Michael Borromeo
on 20 Feb 12metropolitankitchenbath.basecamphq.com
Lars
on 20 Feb 12Let me try as well… https://systemic-design.basecamphq.com/
David Fischer
on 21 Feb 1237Signals team – you said above that Basecamp is not specifically intended for software developers. Does your team use it for your own software development projects (like Basecamp Next) or do you supplement with other tools? Would you envision teams using Basecamp Next as the only tool on a project or in conjunction with a bug tracking tool?
Roger Belveal
on 21 Feb 12It is Minimalist in that it emphasizes just mainly scrolling + the z axis as methods for organizing information and objects. The Z axis illusion is not used in a drill-down or drill into metaphor which would be a forward motion as in the Google Earth model, but in a coming toward you manner as if the opened documents are piling up on your desk This is not really very new. Reminds me of the “Pile Metaphor” from CHI 92. http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=143055 Actually, it wasn’t new then either. The 3D pile is a metaphor, with more recent/in-focus items on top, built-in to the desktop schema going back to Xerox PARC and remains a mainstay of desktops today. Using it inside of a web page or web app is notable. It is also notable how 37 Signals has been selective in keeping the schema managed using just a few elements. That tight minimalism will likely make it popular.
About scrolling – I like to say, “Hey man, Don’t fear the scroll bar” because of the value in keeping related content together often outweighs the benefits of more complex means of “progressive disclosure” and face it, scrolling is easy, especially in a touch screen world. Still, having said that, I have to admit that watching this video was starting to make me feel dizzy. :-/
JF
on 21 Feb 1237Signals team – you said above that Basecamp is not specifically intended for software developers. Does your team use it for your own software development projects (like Basecamp Next) or do you supplement with other tools?
We’ve been using the new Basecamp to build the new Basecamp nearly since the beginning. We have roughly 30 projects dedicated to the building of the new Basecamp. We use the to-do lists to track bugs.
We also use Campfire.
Venkata Reddy Bhavanam
on 21 Feb 12Only one sentence describes the entire work.
“Absolutely Brilliant!”
hyrcan
on 21 Feb 12Random, but out of curiosity, how long did it take you guys to come up with the new design?
Ced Funches
on 21 Feb 12Amazing. I really like the catch-up feature. When working with multiple team members, some tend to pop in and out of production. Great way to get on board with the most current items.
Great work as always!
JF
on 21 Feb 12Random, but out of curiosity, how long did it take you guys to come up with the new design?
We’ve been working on the new Basecamp since March of 2011. The page stacking concept started from the beginning but it took hundreds of variations to get where we are today.
Peter
on 22 Feb 12I’ve just come across these guys. They promised me that they are not going to remove milestones or timesheets! www.psoda.com
Brian Anders
on 22 Feb 12It looks like there is alot of overlap in how 37Signals uses discussions and to-do’s…almost to the point that to-dos could be the only thing needed to assign, discuss and complete work. What is the main difference?
I am impressed that you have stayed true to a minimalist, streamlined approach. It would be tempting to add more stuff like many software developers and claim that it is new and improved.
Nice work.
Philip
on 22 Feb 121. what happens when I use the “swipe back” gesture in safari? 2. the change of sheet levels is begging for a little animation. it might cost 50ms but i don’t know if new users will immediately get the stacking concept.
Tomasz banas
on 23 Feb 12Awesome, planmysite.basecamphq.com
This discussion is closed.