October 6, 2011
posted by Bruce
Stacks is undergoing some big changes in the next few days and we wanted to offer some detail on what is happening.
First, Stacks is redoing the pricing structure for all new accounts. The new scheme will provide discounts to almost all of our current paying customers and, on top of that, will include a free basic-account option. Instead of continuing to price based on the amount of users we'll be switching to a model based on clients and projects. The last thing we want is to keep more people from using Stacks.
The breakdown on new pricing we be released fully next week. You will be able to view it via the Stacks application and on our site at usestacks.com/pricing.
On top of this change we're also adding a number of new features that will make life easier. First, a complete redesign of the task view, providing a less obtrusive interface while offering more information. Plus, the following highly requested features:
- View a user's workload while assigning a task.
- Assign repeating tasks, monthly or weekly.
- Reciprocate and discuss tasks via a comment thread.
- Task burden added to compliment urgency: grasp how busy your team is with each task.
- Short URLs for tasks, quickly copy and paste where needed.
- File details, hover to see who uploaded the file and when.
Along with the above upgrades we're also including a few additional niceties. Such as international date formatting and printable billing invoices in PDF format.
Last, we'll finally have a solution for assigning tasks when you're on the go. Simply enter m.usestacks.com in the browser, once logged in you will be presented with an optimized assign-only version of Stacks. This interface is optimized for the iPhone but will also work on some Android devices.
The launch of these changes is scheduled for this coming Saturday, October 8th, 2011 between 8:30pm and 11:30pm Mountain Time.
Thanks for taking a moment to read about what we've been up to with Stacks. We think these new features will be a hit and we're excited to hear your feedback.
February 22, 2011
posted by Bruce
The Stacks dashboard is meant to offer a guiding overview of the current task assignments and team workload. Currently we do this by offering data such as: how many tasks a given group of people has, how many are due today, and how many are overdue. Alongside this we provide a quick way to see each user's Stack chart. Now, while this information is greatly helpful in analyzing the workload of specific groups it is less helpful if you want an overall view of workload in relation to a specific client or project. Sometimes it's not good enough to see how busy a group is, instead you'd like to see how busy everyone is with a certain client.
So, we find ourselves spending much more time in the task view than on the dashboard. This is probably because: one, we are trying to complete our tasks, and two, the task view provides filtering and sorting options unavailable on the dashboard.
To rectify this we've been working on a method that will allow the dashboard to be sorted and filtered just like the task list. Henceforth offering information in broad or refined instances. The kinks of this view are still in a design phase as we want to make sure the implementation is successful. That said, the end goal is a toggleable group or individual view that provides sorting just like the task list. Further, we plan to increase the graphic chart to show dates beyond the current 12 day cap.
We're hoping this new view will come as a relief to project managers. Especially ones who are sick of constnatly using the task view to get a basic overview where the dashboard falls short.
February 10, 2011
posted by Bruce
One of the things we pride Stacks on is that it can quickly visualize the workload of a business. This could be in regard to a specific client, project, team, or individual. It's only a click or two to sort and see this information. From the beginning Stacks was built to make resource allocation easier. However, we don't think we've got it 100% right, yet.
As of now each task has a particular visual association, currently it looks like this:
It shows you how many tasks are due that day and how important they are. In addition, if you hover over a Stack item you will get a line of information about the task. This is a good start. However, it lacks one important factor that applies to all tasks — the weight of that task. In essence, is that task a large task that will take a lot of time to complete, or, is it a small task that can be done in just a few minutes? In the above example you don't really know. To get the weight of that task you have to read what it is and then estimate how much time you think it will take to complete. You might not even be the best qualified to estimate this, which means you're stuck tracking down the person who is.
In theory this could be solved by associating an exact time with all tasks. For instance, when creating a task you simply enter the amount of hours you think it will take. Solved! Except there's a problem. Visually representing time in a scanable fashion is tricky. Imagine the above chart with hour associations overlayed on it. The last thing we want to do is make workload visualization harder to understand. Second, it requires that the time amount always be reasonably accurate. This means each user has to take time to estimate how many hours a task will take. Last, the association of time becomes outdated quickly, as soon as the user works on a task it is now outdated until the user returns to re-calculate it. This is not a viable solution.
What we need is a way for tasks to be given a weight without slowing down the process of assignment or visualization. It doesn't have to be 100% accurate, it just has to give us a better picture of the workload. Is someone slammed with three big tasks in one day, or do they only have a few quick ones to complete? Just this basic amount of information could greatly enhance resource allocation.
Here's the plan. Instead of requiring time values for each task, we offer a few default values and the creator chooses which one is most applicable: quick, average, or long. As users work on each task they can open and update it in a few clicks. If the creator isn't sure of the weight they can use the default of average and let the user update it if needed.
Now it's true that these classifications aren't the most descriptive. In fact, they're rather generic. That's okay. The goal here is to provide more information without increasing annoyance. Sure, some companies will define quick, average, and long differently than others, this is to be expected. The definition of task-weight should be based on what a company usually deals with.
The point is people in a company, particularly project managers, need a better way to grasp how busy their resources are. This is one solution to help fix that problem.
November 4, 2010
posted by Bruce
Stacks users, we aplogize for the second issue we've had this week. Our usestacks.com SSL certificate has run into an issue while trying to be renewed. The fix should be fairly quick, around a few hours.
Stacks is still usable but you will be prompted with a security risk screen in most browsers.
Update: This has been fixed, thanks for your patience.
November 1, 2010
posted by Bruce
Stacks users, some of you might have noticed the date picker has a duplicate of November 7th. We apologize for this inconvenience. We realize how important dates are for a task management application and we working to get this fixed ASAP.
We've had several problems with the current date picker that's implemented and will be upgrading to a new more standardized solution when we make several other updates to the task view.
Thanks for your patience, we'll have this bug fixed shortly.
Update: This has been resolved.
Blog RSS Feed
Follow @stacks on Twitter
The Imulus Handshake app is a privacy concious way to send contact information on the go.
Follow Stacks 
