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.
Jason Fried wrote this on Feb 16 2012 There are 182 comments.
Ryan Coughlin 16 Feb 12
Looking 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 16 Feb 12
Wow. This looks amazing! I’m throughly impressed.
The design is stunning.
Alexandre Testu 16 Feb 12
Amazing work guys. Wow.
Just one question: what typeface are you using? It’s gorgeous!
Donny V 16 Feb 12
So your using model boxes but calling them sheets? Whatever works.
Nate 16 Feb 12
Looks 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 16 Feb 12
Holy cow! I want to lick on it!
Ashish Tonse 16 Feb 12
Ok that font is beautiful. What fonts are being used?
Donny V 16 Feb 12
I 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 16 Feb 12
The speed is unbelievable.
Matthew Sanders 16 Feb 12
Nice. 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 16 Feb 12
Looks 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 16 Feb 12
Wouldn’t be that fast on the first launch: It’s all cached in offline storage, am I right?
MattCodr 16 Feb 12
Awesome!
And I’m curious, the tabsheet thing is Html5?
Emil Hajric 16 Feb 12
How 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 16 Feb 12
Really 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 16 Feb 12
Vojto, it’s that fast. Tiny bit slower on first load, but, yes, that fast.
Mattcodr 16 Feb 12
Awesome!
And I’m curious, the tabsheet thing is Html5?
SS 16 Feb 12
There’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 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 16 Feb 12
Put 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 16 Feb 12
Looking great, you made the natural clutter of a project look beautifully simple. And fast. Can’t wait to test it out.
Roger V 16 Feb 12
I’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 16 Feb 12
Will there be any love for keyboard shortcuts?
Yup. We’ll save that for another video.
Ed 16 Feb 12
Congrats guys, you’ve changed the game again.
Mattcodr 16 Feb 12
Well 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 16 Feb 12
Interesting 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 16 Feb 12
so 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 16 Feb 12
Sam, it scales. Nothing goes beyond 4 levels, and most things are 2 or 3 levels max. You’ll see when you use it.
Čelo 16 Feb 12
Very nice and very fast. Congratulations.
Derek 16 Feb 12
SHEEET 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 16 Feb 12
The 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 16 Feb 12
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)
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 16 Feb 12
Nice!
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 16 Feb 12
How do you handle the browser’s back button? Does the back button work?
jfoxny 16 Feb 12
How do you handle the browser’s back button? Does the back button still work?
Derek 16 Feb 12
@JF Ah, makes sense! Thanks for the reply.
JF 16 Feb 12
@jfoxny Yes, the back button works.
JF 16 Feb 12
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?
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 16 Feb 12
Looks 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 16 Feb 12
Why, 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 16 Feb 12
This 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 16 Feb 12
@Julian Relax. The old version will still be available.
Bailey 16 Feb 12
Now you might actually convert me into a customer.
Focus: on what people need, not what they think they need.
JF 16 Feb 12
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
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 16 Feb 12
It 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 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 16 Feb 12
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. 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 16 Feb 12
Two 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 16 Feb 12
I 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 16 Feb 12
Looks very cool. I think it is the right time for basecamp to do this and get back to the cutting edge. Simplicity FTW .
SS 16 Feb 12
@jfoxny, we use HTML 5 pushState to support the back button.
JF 16 Feb 12
will 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 16 Feb 12
Really 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 16 Feb 12
Really 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 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 16 Feb 12
I 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 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 16 Feb 12
Just wondering: Is this based on the analysis of real basecamp usage data (what would be great), or just on simple prototyping?
Mikita Mikado 16 Feb 12
Pinterest’s concept is getting to the world of business SaaS. Very interesting to see the results of this experiment.
EH 16 Feb 12
I like the new breadcrumbing style.
pwb 16 Feb 12
Do you guys use any specific frameworks for the front-end, JavaScript-based or otherwise?
Tom Stoecklein 16 Feb 12
Oh, man. I think I know how crack addicts feel…. I need me some of that Basecamp Next. Maybe just a hit or two…
Karri 16 Feb 12
Although 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 16 Feb 12
Karri – 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 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 16 Feb 12
Looks pretty slick.
Jeff Putz 16 Feb 12
Looks good. Even feels a little “Metro”-ish, which is not a bad thing.
Max Giraldo 16 Feb 12
Awesome.
Anonymous Coward 16 Feb 12
Guys, 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. 16 Feb 12
Thanks 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 16 Feb 12
Being 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 16 Feb 12
Guys, 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 16 Feb 12
Still waiting on my beta invite, but it looks amazing! Speedy and clean, just the way I like it.
Andy 16 Feb 12
Okay, 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 16 Feb 12
Looks 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 16 Feb 12
Nice! Or should I better say: “Baby I like it”
Ryan Fischer 16 Feb 12
It 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 16 Feb 12
Is better integration with Highrise on the roadmap?
Brian Armstrong 16 Feb 12
Looks great – and a nice UI innovation.
I kept wanting to hit the escape key to take off the top sheet!
Daniel Øhrgaard 16 Feb 12
Great 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 16 Feb 12
Looks great. How is the Calendar going to work with Milestones/Events etc?
Victor 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 16 Feb 12
Love that page/sheet mnemonic. Really brilliant UI work!
Richard Bird 17 Feb 12
The 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 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 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 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 17 Feb 12
Great 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 17 Feb 12
As 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 17 Feb 12
Let’s see the calendar!
Scott 17 Feb 12
Unrelated: 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 17 Feb 12
Scott: We’ll highlight the calendar in a future video.
Darrin 17 Feb 12
Sure 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 17 Feb 12
@Jason
What’s the primary font used? No longer looks like Helvetica.
Is it Calibri?
Line Atallah 17 Feb 12
How about writeboards? Are they disappearing? And Calendar?
JF 17 Feb 12
How 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 17 Feb 12
I 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 17 Feb 12
This looks great. Way to think outside the boxer briefs.
Matt 17 Feb 12
One 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 17 Feb 12
Looks really great!!! Can’t wait!!!
Ben Kinnaird 17 Feb 12
Thanks 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 17 Feb 12
Will 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 17 Feb 12
A 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 17 Feb 12
A 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 17 Feb 12
I’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 17 Feb 12
Man that looks slick, very inspiring stuff actually. Food for thought.
Michal 17 Feb 12
Looks 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 17 Feb 12
What 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 17 Feb 12
I 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 17 Feb 12
Reminds 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 17 Feb 12
Awesome! 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 17 Feb 12
I 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 17 Feb 12
I 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 17 Feb 12
What 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 17 Feb 12
Can 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 17 Feb 12
This is a real thing, totally blow my mind away. How you guys did it, it’s like a Rich client application.
PM Dan 17 Feb 12
I’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 17 Feb 12
Scott, 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 17 Feb 12
Just 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 17 Feb 12
Using “Classic” today feels kinda old and busted.
Need new hotness.
Scott 17 Feb 12
David – nice. Looks great so far, good work.
Josh Steinberg 17 Feb 12
wow – that took eight years to create??? What do you guys do all day?
Yawn
Fred Jones 17 Feb 12
I 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 17 Feb 12
Looks 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 17 Feb 12
The next 25 people who post their current Basecamp subdomain will get an invite to the beta.
Anthony Barone 17 Feb 12
barone.basecamphq.com
Kenny 17 Feb 12
The 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 17 Feb 12
Kenny, once you try the sheets you’ll see and feel the difference.
Steve Dale 17 Feb 12
gyrohsrchicago.basecamphq.com
Looking forward to trying it out.
Joren Vis 17 Feb 12
foamontwerpers.basecamphq.com
Carl Mathisen 17 Feb 12
kamikazemedia.basecamphq.com
Thanks a bunch!
Carl
Trey Hamer 17 Feb 12
chiprewards1.basecamphq.com
Hunter Bridges 17 Feb 12
meedeor.basecamphq.com
Jimmy Rittenborg 17 Feb 12
I’m excited to see this beautiful app, you guys have created. rittencommedia.basecamphq.com
Joe Dreimann 17 Feb 12
Looks great! solarhelperltd.basecamphq.com
Alex Patrascu 17 Feb 12
Looks amazing Jason!
cyclop.basecamphq.com
Benyi Arregocés 17 Feb 12
sodatv.basecamphq.com thanks!
Peter 18 Feb 12
qgiv.basecamphq.com
Thanks!
Christopher O'Connor 18 Feb 12
5k50.basecamphq.com
Marco Witte 18 Feb 12
I’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 18 Feb 12
candlelightdesign.basecamphq.com
Francois Deschenes 18 Feb 12
fdeschenes.basecamphq.com
MarcoV 18 Feb 12
https://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 18 Feb 12
evisionworldwide.basecamphq.com Thanks!
Seth 18 Feb 12
Stoked to see this firsthand.
sethellsworth.basecamphq.com
Gracias
chazz 18 Feb 12
https://chromeindustries.basecamphq.com
chazz 18 Feb 12
Was 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 18 Feb 12
Wow this is brilliant! Can’t wait
cooldept.basecamphq.com
Simon 18 Feb 12
Johnnyvodka.basecamphq.com
BC user since I don’t remember when ;)
Richallum 18 Feb 12
Paraplanplus.basecamphq.com
Tom Stoecklein 18 Feb 12
vexea.basecamphq.com
I admit, we wandered a little bit, but we’re back :).
Swami Atma 18 Feb 12
ohlala.projectpath.com/
Ian 18 Feb 12
Oops, I was expecting something better from 37s. Now BSX looks messy and a lot of scrolling there!
Josh Goebel 18 Feb 12
Are 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 18 Feb 12
simplease.basecamphq.com
Rohan dsouza 18 Feb 12
Looks awesome! How do I get a beta?
FFFabs 18 Feb 12
Can’t wait to try it out!
The font also looks awesome, what is it?
Alex 18 Feb 12
beigeco.basecamphq.com
Roman 18 Feb 12
Ahh, 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 18 Feb 12
Wonder how long before Josh Goebel steals the page stack idea and claims it’s obvious and unoriginal.
Lukas 19 Feb 12
A 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 19 Feb 12
Another 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 19 Feb 12
Overall 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. 19 Feb 12
Everyone else said so much. All I have to say is, “Wow”
Christian Hjalmarsson 19 Feb 12
http://hjalmarsson.basecamphq.com
Love the look in the video
Volkan Cagsal 19 Feb 12
Looks great, can’t wait to test it.
Volkan Cagsal 19 Feb 12
http://volkancagsal.basecamphq.com
Matt Parcher 20 Feb 12
For 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 20 Feb 12
It resembles more like Zoho. can call it as copy cat move.
Michael Borromeo 20 Feb 12
metropolitankitchenbath.basecamphq.com
Lars 20 Feb 12
Let me try as well… https://systemic-design.basecamphq.com/
David Fischer 21 Feb 12
37Signals 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 21 Feb 12
It 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 21 Feb 12
37Signals 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 21 Feb 12
Only one sentence describes the entire work.
“Absolutely Brilliant!”
hyrcan 21 Feb 12
Random, but out of curiosity, how long did it take you guys to come up with the new design?
Ced Funches 21 Feb 12
Amazing. 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 21 Feb 12
Random, 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 22 Feb 12
I’ve just come across these guys. They promised me that they are not going to remove milestones or timesheets! www.psoda.com
Brian Anders 22 Feb 12
It 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 22 Feb 12
1. 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 23 Feb 12
Awesome, planmysite.basecamphq.com
This discussion is closed.